Review & Rating Policy

1. Purpose

Buyer reviews and supplier ratings help other international buyers evaluate Sri Lankan vendors before commissioning a sample or placing a bulk order. They only work if the buyer-side signal is honest. This policy explains what reviews are allowed, what is removed, and when SriLankaExport.com asks for proof of transaction.

2. What a review must reflect

Reviews and ratings on SriLankaExport.com must reflect genuine buyer-vendor interaction or otherwise verified marketplace activity. Acceptable interactions include:

• A completed RFQ exchange where the vendor responded with a quote
• A delivered sample order or paid trial shipment
• A completed bulk order, with delivery confirmed by the buyer
• A formal dispute or non-delivery, when reviewed by our team and decided through the Dispute Resolution process

3. What is not allowed

SriLankaExport.com may remove or refuse to publish any review or rating that falls into the following categories, and may suspend the account that posted it:

• Fake or fabricated reviews: including reviews where the reviewer did not actually interact with the vendor
• Paid or incentivized reviews: including reviews offered in exchange for discounts, samples, or other consideration without disclosure
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest: including reviews posted by the vendor, the vendor’s owner, employees, family, or related entities
• Review manipulation: coordinated negative or positive review campaigns, sock-puppet accounts, or vote-trading schemes
• Competitor attacks: reviews posted by a competing vendor (or someone acting on their behalf) primarily intended to damage the target’s standing rather than reflect a genuine buyer experience
• Abusive or unlawful content: including harassment, threats, hate speech, sexual content, defamation, disclosure of personal data, or content that is illegal under the law of Sri Lanka or the user’s home jurisdiction
• Misleading ratings: star ratings that materially contradict the substance of the written review, or ratings that conflate distinct issues (e.g. a 1-star rating for “wrong color” without acknowledgment that the buyer ordered the wrong SKU)
• Off-topic content: reviews that do not concern the vendor or the goods supplied (e.g. political commentary, marketing of other products)

4. Proof of transaction

SriLankaExport.com may request reasonable proof of transaction before publishing or retaining a review. Acceptable proof typically includes:

• The marketplace RFQ or order reference
• The vendor’s quote or commercial invoice
• A bill of lading, air waybill, or carrier tracking reference
• Photographs of the delivered goods or packaging
• A signed Goods Receipt Note, where applicable

Where the reviewer cannot or will not supply reasonable proof, the review may be removed.

5. Vendor right of reply

Vendors may post a single public reply to each buyer review. Replies are subject to the same rules above: in particular, replies must not disclose buyer personal data, contain abusive content, or include misleading counter-claims. A vendor may also escalate a disputed review via info@harker.international for our team’s review.

6. Removal and appeals

When we remove a review, we will notify the reviewer (where contactable) of the reason for removal. The reviewer may appeal a removal within 14 days. Removal of clearly unlawful content (defamation, threats, disclosure of personal data, etc.) does not require notice and is not subject to the appeal window. We may notify the vendor when a clearly unlawful review concerning them is removed.

7. Aggregation and display

Where a star rating is shown on a vendor profile or product page, it is the arithmetic mean of published reviews matching the displayed scope (e.g. last 12 months, all-time, by product category) calculated to one decimal place. We may show a minimum-sample-size threshold (for example, “not enough reviews to display a rating”) where the sample is too small to be statistically meaningful.

8. Reporting a review

If you believe a review on this site breaches this policy, please report it via info@harker.international with a link to the review and a brief description of the issue. We will acknowledge receipt and confirm action or non-action.