1. Introduction / Purpose

At Good Send Off, we believe that genuine feedback from real families is essential in helping others make informed decisions when choosing a funeral home. Our Review Moderation Policy ensures that reviews are honest, respectful, and trustworthy providing a safe and transparent space for users to share their experiences.

This policy explains:

  • How we evaluate and approve reviews
  • What content is not allowed
  • How we handle disputes or flagged reviews
  • Your rights as a reviewer

2. Who Can Submit a Review

  • Service Experience Required: Only people who have engaged directly with a funeral home (for example, by arranging a service, contacting a funeral director, or using planning services) may submit a review. This ensures authenticity.
  • Personal Experience Only: Reviews must reflect your own experience; reviewing on behalf of someone else (e.g., a family member) is not permitted unless you were directly involved.
  • No Insider Reviews: Funeral home staff, owners, or family members may not submit reviews for their own business or close associates. This protects impartiality and trust.
  • Time Frame: We may ask you to confirm that your service experience happened within a reasonable time period (for example, within the last 12 months), to keep reviews relevant and current.

3. What We Do Not Accept

To maintain the integrity of our review platform and the sensitivity of our funeral-services context we moderate all reviews carefully. The following types of content are not allowed:

  • False, defamatory, or misleading information
  • Hate speech, harassment, or abusive language
  • Personal data (e.g., phone numbers, private addresses) or overly identifying details
  • Promotional content, spam, or links to external commercial sites
  • Reviews that appear to be paid for, incentivized, or solicit a benefit
  • Duplicate reviews (posting the same review multiple times)
  • Inflammatory or fraudulent claims

These rules are aligned with best practices for content moderation.

4. Moderation Process

  1. Automated Screening
    • We first use automation to flag potential policy violations. This helps us catch spam, profanity, inappropriate personal data, and duplicate content quickly.
    • Our system also checks for signs of fake reviews or malicious patterns using semantic analysis.
  2. Human Review
    • All flagged reviews are then reviewed by trained moderators.
    • We use a decision-tree interface so moderators can systematically assess whether a review should be published, edited, or rejected.
    • Moderators are guided by a clear set of rules and our content-moderation team documents decisions for consistency and fairness.
  3. Verification
    • If there’s doubt about authenticity, we may ask reviewers to provide evidence such as confirmation of service experience (invoices, emails, or correspondence).
    • Verification requests are handled sensitively and respectfully, with minimum personal data required.

5. Transparency & Appeals

  • Reasons for Rejection: If a review is rejected, we may not always be able to share full internal notes, but we will provide a brief explanation based on our policy.
  • Flagging Mechanism: Any user can flag a review they believe violates our policy. Moderators will reassess flagged reviews promptly.
  • Appeal Process: If your review was rejected or removed and you believe this to be a mistake, you can appeal by contacting us via our support channel. We will re-examine the content, and if valid, republish it (possibly after edits).
  • Policy Updates: We may update this policy periodically. When we do, we’ll inform users via our website, and the most recent version will always be available for review.

6. Ethical Standards & Legal Compliance

  • Consumer Protection: We follow legal best practices around online reviews, avoiding manipulative behavior, and ensuring reviewer voice is protected.
  • Reputation Integrity: We align with OECD good-practice guidelines on transparency, nondiscrimination, and avoiding review manipulation.
  • Funeral-Service Sensitivity: Given the nature of our service, we treat all reviews with compassion. We do not suppress negative reviews simply because they are critical especially if they are genuine accounts but we will remove any content that violates our standards or is defamatory.

7. Your Rights & Responsibilities

As a reviewer on Good Send Off:

  • You retain ownership of your words but by submitting, you grant us a license to publish and archive your review.
  • You are responsible for ensuring your content is accurate, lawful, and your own.
  • You may request edits or deletion (subject to verification).
  • You are entitled to know why your review was removed or edited.

8. Why This Matters

We moderate reviews not just to protect our platform, but to protect grieving families who rely on real experiences to make very difficult decisions. Your honest, respectful review helps others in moments that matter and ensures that Good Send Off remains a trusted, reliable resource in the funeral community.