Review Policy

Verified customers only

There is no open review form. The only way to review a contractor is the personal link we email a homeowner 3 days after their request through HVAC Close By was accepted by that contractor. The link is signed, works once, and expires after 30 days. Every review therefore carries the tag Verified HVAC Close By customer and means what it says. We never import, scrape or re-publish reviews from anywhere else, and we never invent one.

What we show

A star rating from 1 to 5, the homeowner’s words, the date, and the contractor’s one public reply if they gave one. Never the homeowner’s name or contact details. A contractor’s average and review count appear only once at least one review is published; a listing with no reviews says so rather than showing a made-up score.

Never removed for being negative

A 1-star review gets exactly the same treatment as a 5-star one. We do not filter, sort or hide reviews by rating anywhere on the site or in our admin tools, and a business cannot pay to add, edit or remove a review. New reviews are checked against the list below within 48 hours and publish automatically if nobody has acted on them.

The only reasons a review is removed

A review comes down only when it meets one of these, and the reason is recorded with it:

• Spam or advertising
• Profanity or abuse
• Personal information (names, numbers, addresses)
• Off topic — not about the work done
• Not written by the customer
• Fake or fraudulent

“The contractor disagrees with it” is not on the list and never will be.

Contractor replies

A contractor who has claimed their listing may post one public reply under each published review. Replies follow the same removal rules as reviews.

Questions or concerns

If you believe a review breaks these rules — or was removed when it shouldn’t have been — contact us with the contractor’s name and the date of the review.