Reviews are the main reason people trust a small shop they have not bought from before. That only works if they are real, so here is exactly how ours work — where they come from, what we pay for, and what we will not do.
Where our reviews come from
Invited reviews. When an order is marked as fulfilled, we email the customer a private link and ask what they thought. The link is unique to that order and cryptographically signed, so nobody can review a puzzle they did not buy. These carry a ✓ Verified badge.
We do not read these before they go live. Once a customer taps a star and writes their piece, it publishes automatically — one star or five, kind or brutal. That is deliberate. The moment a shop starts reading reviews before deciding whether to publish them, the ratings stop meaning anything.
Unsolicited reviews. Anyone can leave a review from a product page without being invited. Because we cannot confirm that person bought the puzzle, these do not get a Verified badge, and unlike invited reviews they are read by us before they appear. We are checking that a real person wrote something about the actual puzzle — not whether we like what it says.
Imported reviews. Reviews written before we built our own system were imported from Judge.me, our previous review provider. They are shown as they were written. They were not incentivised.
Incentivised reviews
Members of Puzzle Club earn PuzzlePoints for writing a review, and more for adding a photo. PuzzlePoints convert to store credit, so this is real money and we treat it as such.
Two things about it matter:
- The points are for the review, not for a good one. The rating makes no difference to what you earn. A one-star review pays exactly the same as a five-star review, and is published just as readily. We have never offered more for a positive review and we never will — that is how you end up with ratings nobody should believe.
- Every review that earned points is labelled. Look for the Incentivised tag next to the reviewer's name, and a note above the reviews saying how many on that puzzle earned points. If it earned points, it says so.
Most of our reviews are not incentivised, which is why we label the individual ones rather than putting a vague notice at the bottom of the page.
What we do not do
- We do not write reviews. Not us, not our staff, not anyone we have paid to.
- We do not delete reviews for being negative. A bad review comes down only if it breaks a rule below — never because of its rating.
- We do not hide the bad ones. The star breakdown on every puzzle shows the full spread, one to five, and you can tap any bar to read just those. The average is calculated from every review, not a selection.
- We do not filter our review carousels by rating. If a strip on our site says it is showing what customers say, it is drawing from all of them.
- We do not pay for reviews on other sites. PuzzlePoints are only ever earned for a review left here. If we ask you to review us on Trustpilot, there is nothing in it for you but our gratitude, and we say so.
When we will remove a review
We take a review down if it contains someone's personal details, abuse or discriminatory language, or content that has nothing to do with the puzzle. We also remove anything we have good reason to believe is fake. If a review is removed, the star average is recalculated without it.
If a review raises a problem with an order, we would rather fix the order. We may reply publicly, but we will not ask anyone to change or remove a review in exchange for a refund or replacement — you keep both.
Spotted something wrong?
If you think a review here is fake, incentivised without saying so, or should not be published, tell us at contact@puzzlesgalore.co.uk with a link to the puzzle. We will look at it properly and reply.
Puzzles Galore is a trading name of Duncans Retail Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 07573136.