Moderation and verification standards

The Verified badge means one thing: a person here reviewed and approved documents the business sent us. It is derived from those approved documents and nothing else. Nobody can grant it by clicking a button, and it comes off by itself when the documents behind it are withdrawn or rejected.

The ladder

The tier is computed from the document types currently approved.

• Nothing approved: no badge.
• Any one approved document: Basic.
• Business license and proof of insurance: Certified.
• Business license, insurance, background check and bond: Guaranteed.

1. Claim the listing, or create one. Most listings on United Vows started as public business information and have never been claimed; those carry no badge and say so on the profile.
2. Send the documents. They go into a review queue, not onto the profile.
3. A person reviews each document and approves or rejects it. The tier is recomputed from what is approved at that moment.
4. Rejecting a vendor only approved credential drops them to no badge and clears the verified date, which takes the badge off every card and profile.

An operator can refuse verification or take it away by hand. Nobody can grant it by hand. That is what makes the verified-only filter on the vendor directory worth switching on.

Anything a person writes that strangers can read is run through the house ruleset when it is saved: language that needs a second look, contact details that belong off the post, and links to another marketplace. A hit files the item into one moderation queue. Being flagged is not a decision; a person makes the decision.

A decision changes what the public sees. Approving puts the item back in front of readers. Rejecting hides it from every surface it appeared on, and a hidden discussion is locked so no new replies land on it. A queue item whose type has no hide switch is refused rather than recorded as decided, so nobody is told something was removed when it was not.

Portfolio images are the one exception with no hide switch yet. A report about one is escalated to an admin, who removes the image from the vendor profile directly.

Public content carries a report control on the surface where it is read: discussions and replies in the community, reviews, real wedding stories, vendor posts, vendor profiles and comments on a vendor profile. Reporting is for signed-in accounts, because an anonymous report button is a spam cannon.

The reasons you can give

• Spam or advertising
• Trying to take the deal off United Vows
• Harassment or hate
• Explicit or graphic content
• Misleading or not true
• Something else, with a free-text box

Harassment and explicit content are worked first, because those do real harm every hour they stay up. An attempt to move a transaction off the platform is next. One person may file twenty reports a day.

If you are not signed in, or the thing you need removed is not one of the types above, write to support@unitedvows.com or use the contact form. That is the same route for a business that wants its imported listing taken down.

Removing the Verified badge is a different action from suspending. The listing stays up, leads keep flowing, and the badge is off until documents are approved again.

A business is delisted only for not engaging, never for being wrong about anything. A claim counts toward it while it was filed in the last twelve months, the seven-day response window has passed, and the vendor has never answered it. Three such claims from three different couples is the threshold. Three claims from one couple can never delist anyone.

Two different couples brings an early warning that names the claims and the consequence. Three brings a final notice with a dated fourteen-day deadline. The deadline only lands if the count is still at three when it arrives. Answering every named claim relists the business automatically at the next sweep, and the count dropping at any point cancels the schedule.

Nothing about this is published. There is no public list, no mark on a profile and no reason string anywhere a couple can read. A delisted business is simply absent.

A review carries the Verified label only when all of it is true: the review is tied to a contract, both parties signed it, money moved through United Vows on that booking, the wedding day has passed, and the review was posted within 37 days of it. That is checked against payment records, not against anyone word.

Anyone else can still write about a vendor. Those notes appear separately, labelled Unverified, and never move the vendor rating.

A listing that has never been claimed can show a rating compiled from public Google reviews. It is labelled as coming from Google wherever it appears, and verified United Vows reviews take over as couples book through the platform.