GI Media is run by Gi Media Ltd. Businesses that use GI Media can collect customer reviews through us, and show them on GI Media, on their own website and on Southampton Network. This page explains how those reviews are collected, checked, published and, in rare cases, removed. It applies to every business and every review.

1. Only verified customers can review

We invite a customer to leave a review only after they have done something real with the business through GI Media:

made a booking
bought a ticket
accepted a quote
used an offer code
had an enquiry answered, if they ticked the box to say the business may ask them for a review

Each invite works for one review, for 30 days. Every published review says what the customer did, for example "Verified booking". Nobody can review a business they have not used through GI Media.

2. Businesses do not choose who is invited

A business can switch customer reviews on or off. While they are on, we invite every customer who qualifies. A business cannot pick or leave out customers and cannot ask only happy customers. There is no "are you happy?" step before the review form.

3. No rewards for reviews

Businesses must not offer anything in return for a review: no discounts, prizes, gifts, payments or entries into a draw. This applies whatever the rating. A review given in return for a reward is not a free and honest account, so we treat it as written to mislead and may remove it as "Spam or fake" (section 7). A business that offers rewards is breaking its terms with us, and we deal with that under those terms.

4. Every genuine review is published

We publish every genuine review, good or bad. The rating never decides whether a review is published. A business's average rating counts every published review, and reviews are listed newest first unless the reader chooses another order.

5. Automatic checks

When a review is sent, we check it automatically for personal information (such as phone numbers or email addresses), links and spam, and offensive words. The checks never look at the star rating. A review that passes is published straight away. A review that does not pass is held until a member of GI Media staff reads it, and is then published unless one of the reasons in section 7 applies.

6. Replies and reports from businesses

A business can post one public reply to each review. A business can also report a review it believes breaks this policy. A report does not hide the review: it stays published while we look at it.

7. When a review is removed

Only GI Media staff can remove a review. Businesses cannot remove or edit reviews. We remove a review only for one of these reasons:

Personal information. It names or identifies a private person, or shares contact details.
Offensive or abusive. It contains hate speech, threats, harassment or obscene language.
Spam or fake. It is advertising, a copy of another review, or written to mislead.
Not a genuine customer. The person did not use the business, or wrote on behalf of the business or a competitor.
Not about the business. It is not about the customer’s own experience of this business.
Legal reasons. We have been told it is unlawful, for example defamatory, or a court has ordered its removal.

We never remove a review because it is negative, because of its rating, or because the business asked us to without one of these reasons. We record the reason for every removal, and we check our decisions regularly to make sure low ratings are not removed more often than high ones. If we remove a review by mistake, we restore it.

8. How to report a review

If you run the business, use Report on the review in your GI Media account and choose the reason that applies.

Anyone else, including the person who wrote the review, can email [email protected] with a link to the review and the reason from section 7. We look at every report and reply by email.

9. Erasing a reviewer's details

A reviewer can ask us to erase their personal data at any time by emailing [email protected]. We then remove their name, their words, their photos and the link to their contact details. We keep only the star rating, shown as "Verified customer", so that the business's average stays a true record of what customers said. Nothing left can identify the reviewer. Our Privacy Policy explains your other rights.

10. Contact

Gi Media Ltd
Southampton, UK
Email: [email protected]

Customer reviews policy