The standards every business listing must meet

1. Who Can List a Business

Tellacity is for real, operating businesses that serve customers. Listings must be:

• Genuine: The business actually exists and trades with consumers under the name shown on the listing.
• Accurate: Name, website, contact details, country, category, and description must match the real business and current operations.
• Lawful: The business and the products or services it offers must comply with the laws of the country it operates in.
• Single profile per business: Do not create duplicate listings for the same business to influence ratings or visibility.

2. Verification & Domain Ownership

Verified businesses earn a public badge and gain access to dashboard tools, analytics, and review-response features. To stay verified:

• Use a business email on your domain: Owners and team members should sign in with an email tied to the business's registered domain whenever possible.
• Keep ownership current: When ownership or operations change, transfer the listing through the dashboard rather than creating a new one.
• No domain spoofing: Do not claim a listing using an email or domain that doesn't belong to the business.

3. Engaging With Reviews

How you respond to reviews says as much about your business as the reviews themselves. We expect:

• Professional replies: Be polite, factual, and solution-oriented. Avoid arguments, insults, or threats.
• No retaliation: Never threaten, harass, or penalise a customer for posting a review you don't like.
• No bribery: Do not offer discounts, refunds, free products, or other incentives in exchange for changing or removing a review.
• Respect privacy: Don't publish a customer's private contact details, order numbers, or sensitive information in a public reply.

4. Inviting Reviews the Right Way

Asking real customers for honest feedback is encouraged and supported by our review-invitation tools. What is not allowed:

• No fake reviews: Buying reviews, posting under fake identities, or asking staff, friends, or family to leave reviews is a banning offence.
• No catalog sweeps: Bulk-posting reviews across many products of the same business in a short time window is treated as suspicious activity and will be auto-flagged for review.
• No competitor attacks: Do not post negative reviews on competitors. Reviews from a business's own domain on its own listing are automatically blocked.
• No selective inviting: Don't cherry-pick only happy customers. Invite all eligible customers fairly.

To maintain a fair and trustworthy platform, Tellacity applies additional safeguards to detect unusual or unnatural review behaviour.

Reviews submitted in rapid succession, across multiple products within a short timeframe, or in patterns that do not reflect normal customer behaviour may be automatically flagged for review.

While customers are free to review multiple products they have genuinely experienced, activity that resembles bulk posting or review flooding may result in temporary restrictions or moderation review.

These measures are designed to protect both consumers and businesses by ensuring that all feedback reflects real, independent customer experiences.

Tellacity distinguishes between business-level reviews and product-level reviews. Customers may review individual products they have used, as well as their overall experience with a business. However, each review must be based on a genuine interaction and submitted independently. Repeated or coordinated submissions that attempt to influence ratings or visibility are treated as suspicious activity.

5. Photos, Logos, and Listing Content

• Original or licensed: Only upload images you own or are licensed to use. Don't use stock photos to misrepresent products or premises.
• Accurate products: Product photos must depict products you actually sell. Each product photo represents a unique reviewable item.
• Appropriate content: No nudity, violence, hate symbols, or content that endangers minors. No misleading badges, fake awards, or fake review counts.
• Keep it current: Photos older than our retention window may be archived. Refresh your gallery so the listing reflects what customers experience today.

6. Disputing a Review

If you believe a review breaks our rules or is factually incorrect, you can flag it from your dashboard. Our team reviews every flag against these guidelines:

• For factual disputes (e.g. "this person was never a customer"), we may ask the reviewer for proof such as a receipt, invoice, or booking confirmation.
• We do not remove reviews simply because they are negative. Disagreement with an opinion is not grounds for removal.
• Reviews that violate hate-speech, harassment, illegal-content, or privacy rules are removed immediately.
• Decisions can be appealed once with new evidence not previously considered.

In some cases, reviews may be temporarily restricted or placed under review while additional checks are completed. This may occur when unusual patterns, rapid submission behaviour, or potential conflicts of interest are detected.

These reviews are not removed automatically, but may be hidden from public view until they are verified as compliant with our guidelines.

7. Reasons a Listing Can Be Suspended

When our trust & safety team suspends a listing, the registered owner receives an email naming one of the following reasons. Suspended listings are hidden from public results and new reviews on them are restricted while the issue is reviewed.

8. Enforcement Actions

We escalate based on severity and history. Typical actions:

• Content removal: Reviews, replies, or photos that break the rules are taken down.
• Warnings: Owners may receive a written notice with the specific rule and a chance to fix the issue.
• Consumer alert badge: Listings with strong evidence of manipulated reviews can be marked with a public alert.
• Suspension: The listing is hidden from public results pending review (see Section 7 for reasons).
• Removal: Repeat or severe offenders are permanently removed from the platform.
• Automated moderation: Reviews that trigger trust or safety signals (such as rapid submission patterns or potential conflicts of interest) may be temporarily restricted, flagged for review, or limited in visibility while assessed.

9. Appealing a Suspension

If your listing was suspended and you disagree with the decision:

• Reply to the suspension email or contact Tellacity Support with new evidence not previously considered.
• Include the specific reason cited in the email and how the concern has been resolved.
• You can still access your business dashboard while suspended to make changes that address the issue.
• Decisions made after appeal review are final.

10. Why These Standards Matter

A review platform is only valuable when consumers can trust it and businesses can build a reputation that's genuinely earned. By holding every listing to the same standard, Tellacity stays useful to both sides of the marketplace.

Thank you for representing your business with integrity on Tellacity.

As Tellacity expands to include product-level reviews, these standards ensure that feedback remains meaningful and representative of real customer experiences. By balancing openness with safeguards against manipulation, we aim to create a platform where both consumers and businesses can rely on the accuracy and integrity of every review.