Review policy
This is a translation provided for your convenience. The French version is the reference text and prevails in the event of any discrepancy. This does not affect the mandatory consumer protections available to you under the law of your country of residence.
Reviews published on Kotsu serve one purpose: to let someone thinking of entrusting several hundred or several thousand euros to an artisan find out how it went for other people.
This page explains who can post a review, what we verify, what we refuse, and what you can do if a review concerns you.
1. Who can post a review
Only a client who placed a commission on Kotsu and took it through to completion can post a review.
Three conditions, all of which must be met:
- The commission request was sent to the maker via Kotsu, and accepted by them
- The commission was marked as delivered, or stopped after the build had started
- The review is posted within 90 days of that delivery or that stoppage
There is no other way to post a review. You cannot write one without a commission, import one from another site, or post more than one for the same commission.
One review per commission. A commission cancelled before the build starts does not give rise to a review. A commission abandoned part way through does: that is precisely the case where future clients need to know.
2. What "verified review" means
Every review displayed on Kotsu carries the verified label, and that label means something precise.
It means that we have established on our own systems that the commission existed, that the maker accepted it, that it was tracked, and that it was delivered. The review is technically linked to that commission. This is not a claim by the client that we take at face value; it is a record that we hold.
It does not mean that we have verified the content of the review itself. We do not know whether the costume turned out well. We know that there was a commission, and that the person writing is the person who placed it.
We never display an unverified review.
3. The content of a review
A review comprises a rating and a written comment. The client can also indicate whether the stated lead time was met, and attach photographs of the costume they received.
The client chooses the name under which they appear: their username, or the label verified client if they prefer to remain anonymous. In both cases the review counts in the same way, and we still know which commission it relates to.
4. Publication, display, retention
4.1 No check before publication
Reviews are published immediately, without us reading them first.
When a review is posted we apply automated checks only: spam and malicious link detection, and rejection of files in formats we do not allow. These checks never touch the opinion expressed.
A review is examined by a human being only if someone reports it to us. The procedure is set out in section 6.
4.2 How they are displayed
On a maker page, reviews appear newest first by default. You can change this sort order.
Each review displays its publication date and the end date of the commission it relates to (delivery or stoppage). A review edited by its author shows the date it was edited.
The average rating displayed is the average of all published reviews. We exclude no review from the calculation, neither the bad ones nor the old ones.
4.3 How long they stay
A review remains published for as long as the maker's account exists.
A client can edit their review for 30 days after posting it, and can ask us in writing to delete it at any time. A deleted review stops being displayed and stops counting towards the average.
We keep withdrawn reviews for five years, without displaying them, so that we can justify our decisions.
5. No consideration, of any kind
Nobody receives anything for posting a review.
Kotsu offers no discount, no benefit and no feature in exchange for a review. And a maker is prohibited from offering anything whatsoever in exchange for a review, for editing one or for withdrawing one: a discount, a goodwill gesture, priority in a queue, in any form at all.
A maker can invite their client to leave a review. They cannot buy it from them.
Breaking this rule means the reviews concerned are withdrawn and the account is suspended. Remember that writing fake reviews, or having someone write them, is also a misleading commercial practice, punishable under criminal law.
Kotsu sells no service connected with reviews. No subscription, including the Pro plan, allows anyone to withdraw a review, edit a review, or improve a rating. Reviews are the one place in the service where money buys nothing.
6. Reporting a review
6.1 Who can report, and why
The maker concerned, the client who wrote the review, or anyone else can report a review to us through the reporting form or at contact@kotsu.shop.
We withdraw a review in the following cases:
- Insults, hateful or discriminatory remarks, threats, harassment
- Disclosure of personal data: name, address, contact details, photographs of third parties
- Content manifestly unrelated to the commission
- Advertising or promotional content, or a link to a competing service
- A review posted in exchange for a benefit, or one we have established to be fake
- Content that is unlawful under the applicable law
6.2 What we never withdraw
A review is not withdrawn because it is negative. An unhappy client has the right to be unhappy, and to say so.
The following are not grounds for withdrawal: a low rating, harsh but reasoned criticism, a maker's disagreement with the facts reported, the claim that the review harms the maker's business.
If a maker disputes the facts, their public reply is the right tool, not deletion.
6.3 Timeframes and decision
We acknowledge receipt within 48 hours and issue a reasoned decision within 7 days, faster if the review contains personal data or threatening remarks.
We inform both the author of the review and the maker concerned of the decision and the reasons for it. Either of them has six months to challenge it, on the terms set out in our moderation and reporting policy.
7. The maker's right of reply
The maker can reply publicly, once, to each review concerning them. Their reply is displayed beneath the review, with its date.
This is a right, not an obligation. A calm reply to a difficult review is often what future clients read most attentively.
The maker can also write to the client in the existing conversation on Kotsu. They cannot contact the client outside the service to get a review edited or taken down, or put pressure on them.
8. What we do against manipulation
We monitor abnormal patterns: bursts of reviews in a short space of time, accounts created just for the purpose, fictitious commissions placed between linked accounts, extreme ratings posted on commissions whose whole course was abnormally short.
When we detect a pattern, a human examines the case. No review is withdrawn by an automated process.
A sham commission created to manufacture a review means the review is withdrawn and both accounts involved are suspended.
9. Your data
A review is personal data concerning you. You keep the rights over it that are described in our privacy policy, in particular the right to have it rectified and the right to have it erased.
10. Contacting us
contact@kotsu.shop
This page is published pursuant to article L111-7-2 of the French Consumer Code (Code de la consommation).