Trust & Safety

Badges

A badge is never sold and never automatic marketing — each one is either granted after an admin reviews real documents, or computed nightly from real order and response history. A supplier with no badges may still be a perfectly good one; badges are extra evidence, not a requirement to sell.

Verified purchases only

A review can only be written by the buyer on a deal that actually happened: an RFQ where they selected that supplier’s quote, or a wanted request where they accepted that supplier’s proposal. There is no way to review a supplier you never bought from, and a supplier cannot buy or ask for a review — we email a review invite automatically, 10 days after the deal closes, and never before.

Every review is checked

Every review starts hidden from the public and is checked for links and abusive language. A review that raises no flags is published automatically after 48 hours if no admin has acted on it sooner; a flagged review waits for a human decision. A supplier may reply once to a published review; the reply goes through the same check. The rating shown on a storefront is the average of published reviews only — a pending, rejected or hidden review is never counted.

Editing and removal

A buyer can edit their own review for 14 days after posting; after that it is final. Anyone — not just the supplier being reviewed — can report a review that looks fake, abusive, or off-topic; a review reported by three different people is automatically hidden pending an admin decision, even before that decision is made.

No incentives, ever

Sparehawk never pays for reviews, never offers a discount or fee waiver for a positive one, and never lets a supplier see who left a review before it is published. A supplier caught soliciting reviews in exchange for anything of value loses its verification badges and is referred for a full account review.

What we check before a part is listed

Sparehawk is a sourcing marketplace, not a parts lab: we do not physically inspect stock before it is listed, because we never hold it — every part ships from the supplier who owns it. What we DO check is the supplier: company registration, VAT status, and (for the badges you see on a storefront) documents an admin reviews by hand, such as an ISO 9001 certificate or a manufacturer's authorized-distributor letter. A supplier with strong badges is more accountable, not guaranteed-genuine stock — treat badges as a trust signal, not a certificate for the part itself.

What to do if you suspect a counterfeit

Report the specific listing with reason "Counterfeit" — the report link sits on every offer, supplier storefront and review. If you already paid for a part you believe is counterfeit, open a dispute from that order instead (Account → Disputes): a dispute gets a threaded conversation with the supplier and a 7-day clock — if the supplier does not reply, it escalates to an admin automatically.

What happens after a counterfeit report

Three independent counterfeit (or other) reports against the same review auto-hide it pending review; for an offer, a supplier or a wanted listing, every report lands directly in an admin's queue, oldest first, with no minimum count. An admin who confirms a counterfeit claim can hide the listing or review, block the supplier's account outright, and — where the claim was made in bad faith — suspend the reporting account instead. None of this requires you to already have a case open elsewhere; one report is enough to get a human looking at it.