# The journey of a review

> The steps and statuses a review goes through, from the order transfer to publication and afterwards.

Source: /en/start/how-it-works/

## Order transfer

Your store system sends the order to Sayproof: the order number, the customer's email address, the products and the payment state. It then sends the shipping and delivery information for each order line. For details, see [Sending orders and deliveries](/en/integrate/orders.md). If your store runs on Akinon, Shopify or WooCommerce, Sayproof reads this information from the platform itself: [Akinon orders](/en/integrate/akinon.md), [Shopify orders](/en/integrate/shopify.md), [WooCommerce orders](/en/integrate/woocommerce.md).

With this information, Sayproof knows which customer bought which product and whether the product has been delivered. The right to write a review is based on this information.

## Sending the invitation

If an order line has been delivered and the payment is complete, an invitation email is sent to the customer once the waiting time (2 days by default) has passed.

- Products from the same order that can be invited at that moment are combined into a single invitation; products delivered on another day may get a separate invitation.
- Invitations are only sent during the sending hours (10:00–19:00 by default).
- The number of invitations a customer can receive per day is limited (3 by default).
- If not every item in the invitation has been reviewed, one reminder is sent (by default after 5 days).
- No invitation is sent to a customer who does not want to receive emails. The reason for every stopped invitation is recorded.
- If the line was cancelled or returned, a **shopping experience invitation** is sent instead of a product invitation: the customer can review their experience up to that point (the Turkish Advertising Board's *Guideline on Consumer Reviews*, Art. 5/4).

For the settings, see [Invitations and emails](/en/features/invitations.md).

## Writing the review

The customer can reach the review form in three ways:

| Route | Verification |
|---|---|
| The link in the invitation email | The link is specific to the order; no further verification is required |
| The "Verify my order to write a review" link on the product page | The order number and the email address used for the order |
| A customer signed in to your site | Your server queries the signed-in customer's status; no order number is required. On the order detail page, the items of the order can be reviewed inside the page. |

The overall rating is required in the form; the review text is optional. The customer can also write a name; if the **Hide my name on the site** box is ticked, the name shows on the site, in structured data and in the Google file as the first letter of every word followed by `***` (`A*** K***`). The full name is visible in the panel. Rating topics (such as size or fit) are asked depending on the product type, and the customer can add photos or videos. Photos and videos are prepared in the customer's browser before they are uploaded: a photo is reduced and its location data is removed before the file leaves the device, and a video is reduced and made silent ([Limits](/en/reference/limits.md#content-limits)). One review can be written for each order line; buying the same product again creates a new right to review. A customer who comes through a shopping experience invitation is not asked rating topics; these reviews also go through the same checks and the same approval, are included in the average and are shown on the site with a label of their own.

The time allowed to write a review is set by the market rules. Under Sayproof's Türkiye and EU rules, it is 90 days from delivery; your brand can choose another period of 7–365 days in its own rule version.

## Automatic checks

A submitted review goes through automatic checks: personal information (phone, email, ID number, IBAN, card number, address), profanity, health claims, repeated text, many reviews in a short time and signs of fake reviews.

The automatic checks **do not reject** a review. The check result is "Clean", "Flagged", "Left for approval" or "Rejection suggested". For a review with a suggested rejection, the suggested reason is shown; the decision rests with the moderator.

## Approval

Depending on the **publishing method** the brand has chosen, the review is either published automatically or added to the **Awaiting approval** list. A moderator's **Approve** button publishes a review from the list in a single step:

| Method | Result |
|---|---|
| Manual | Every review waits for a moderator's approval. |
| Automatic | A review that passes the checks cleanly is published; the others are left for approval. |
| Hybrid | The same as Automatic, except that reviews with photos or videos are also left for approval. |

The publishing method cannot be tied to the rating. For details, see [Reviews and approval](/en/features/reviews.md).

## Publication or rejection

An **approved** review is shown on your site with the "Verified buyer" mark and is included in the average rating and the structured data (JSON-LD). The photos and videos of a review are at the public address only while the review is published.

Reviews imported from a marketplace do not come from the customer's review form: they are taken from a file you upload or from a link address the marketplace permits, go through the same checks and are published with a source label instead of the "Verified buyer" mark ([Marketplace reviews](/en/features/marketplace-reviews.md)).

The author of a **rejected** review is informed of the rejection reason by email. The email contains a correction link, valid for 30 days by default. The customer can correct the review and submit it again, and can keep or remove their earlier photos and videos (kept and new files together can be at most 6). The corrected review goes through the checks again; if it is left for approval, its waiting time starts again.

## After publication

| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Seller reply | The brand's reply to a published review. It is checked for personal information, abusive language and steering before it is saved, then goes through approval. |
| Resolution note | A record, shown together with the review, stating that the customer's problem has been resolved. It goes through the same check as a seller reply. |
| Report | A visitor can report a review, stating a reason. Reported reviews can be filtered in the panel. Reports are closed from the review details, and are closed automatically when the review is removed or hidden with any reason other than "Reported, decision pending". |
| Return after the review | If the order line, or the order's payment, is refunded after the review, the "Returned after the review" mark is added to the proof of purchase and the automatic checks run again; the review's status does not change. Process experience reviews do not receive this mark. |
| Hide for now | Temporarily removes the review from publication while it is under review; can be undone. |
| Remove | Applied to a review found to be misleading, or one that must be removed by an official order; cannot be undone. |
| Personal data deletion request | The customer's name, email address, photos and videos are deleted; their name and contact details in review, question and answer texts are replaced with marks and the contact details on their orders become pseudonyms; the rating, the rest of the text and the history are retained. |

Every action is recorded in the review's history. This history cannot be changed or deleted.

## Review statuses

The review statuses that can be seen in the panel:

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Waiting for proof | The proof of purchase is being checked. |
| Proof verified, being checked | Proof was found; the review is going through the automatic checks. This is a short in-between status. |
| Awaiting approval | Waiting for a moderator's decision. |
| Approved, going live | Approved; being published. This is a short in-between status. |
| Published | Shown on the site. |
| Rejected | Rejected with a reason; the customer can correct it. If the rejection was a mistake, a moderator takes the review back for approval with **Review again**. |
| Correction asked | A moderator used the **Ask for a correction** button on the rejected review; a new correction link was emailed to the customer. |
| Rejected, no proof | The market rules require proof and none was found. |
| Hidden for now | Temporarily removed from publication. |
| Removed | Permanently removed. |