How ratings work
Ratings help neighbors trust each other. This page describes exactly how they work on BuyFlipSold.
Who can rate whom
- Rating unlocks once you've both replied: the buyer and the seller must each have sent at least one message in the same ad's chat on BuyFlipSold.
- You must be signed in. A buyer rates the seller and a seller rates the buyer. You can't rate yourself, and nobody else can rate.
- Sometimes the site waits for a finished deal first (an accepted offer, or the seller tapping "deal done" in the chat). The chat page tells you when that applies.
The 1 to 5 scale
- Whole stars from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), plus an optional short comment (up to 280 characters).
Seller and buyer ratings are separate
- Everyone has two separate averages: one as a seller (what buyers gave them) and one as a buyer (what sellers gave them). They are never mixed.
- Ad cards, search results and ad pages show the seller average. Seller profiles and the ad page's ratings box show both.
How the average and the stars are worked out
- The average is the plain mean of all of a person's active ratings in that role: add up the stars and divide by the number of ratings. There is no weighting and ratings do not fade with age.
- It is shown to one decimal with the number of ratings in brackets: 4.0 (3) means three ratings.
- The row of five stars fills to the average. For example 4.3 shows four full stars and about a third of the fifth.
- With no ratings the site shows "no ratings yet", never zero stars. Ratings that a moderator removed are not counted.
- "Deals" next to the stars is the number of deals recorded for that seller (an accepted offer, or a deal the seller marked done). Reviews left after a recorded deal are marked as a verified deal.
One rating per person, and changing it
- There is one rating per buyer and seller pair, not per ad. Rating the same person again on another ad updates your rating instead of adding a second one.
- You can change your stars and comment for 30 days after you first leave the rating. After that it is locked.
- You can't delete a rating yourself. It goes away only if a moderator removes it or one of the two accounts is deleted.
Unfair or wrong ratings
- Every review shown on an ad page or a seller profile has a "report review" button. A report counts the review as reported and moves it to the top of the moderators' list. It is not hidden automatically.
- A moderator can remove the review (it then no longer counts toward the average) or leave it as it is.
- There is no separate appeal form for ratings. If something still looks wrong, use the contact form.