Why was My Review Removed?

There are a number of reasons why a review gets removed:

1. The review was never posted. Reviews are posted immediately once you write them.  If your review did not appear it could be that you had internet connection trouble on hitting the submit button. You should always see the message "Thanks, your review has been added to:" immediately after you hit "Submit Review". If you took more than 45 minutes to write it, it's also possible that your session "timed out" and you were logged out (we do this for security reasons).
2. The business owner read it, has begun to make corrections/changes, and requested for it to be removed.
   HappyCow investigates all requests by business owners asking for excessively negative or damaging reviews to be removed -- these may include reviews that are intentionally damaging to a business or reflecting personal difference between the reviewer and owner. Such kinds of reviews will be removed. Please note that HappyCow is not a website for venting your personal conflicts, differences, attacks, and issues with a business or management. Please consider settling your fights, arguments, and disagreements with the business elsewhere. We are not here to take sides.
3. Review was written a long time ago, anonymously. If you had left a review(s) as a "GUEST," we have no way to contact you to investigate the story behind your review. In such case, a request for removal by the owner will be based solely on HappyCow staff discretion. To deal directly with the owner (or people in disagreement), please create a member profile for yourself so that members (including owners who join) can leave messages for you. Your identity and email are kept private unless you choose otherwise. If you are making strong statements we highly advise you to use your real identity and link your HappyCow account to your Facebook account.
4. The review is putting-down a business solely to promote another business.
5. The review contains descriptions or claims that should be reported to the business owner and/or local health department and are potentially "legal slander" to the business in question. For instance, "I got food poisoning here". Contact your state or local Health Department. Phone numbers may be found in your local phone directory. Or, "This place is run by a cult!"- not appropriate to be posted on HappyCow.
6. It did not include a review of the food, atmosphere, dining experience, just ranting/complaining about something else.
7. The review expressed negativity without any story to back it. When a review is overly simplistic, bad-mouths a business without explaining clearly in detail what happened and why one disliked that particular restaurant or store, we reserve the right to remove it.
8. Use of negative language. At HappyCow, our mission is to promote plant based dining and help to support vegan/vegetarian restaurants stay in business so veggie food lovers everywhere can have choices when dining out. Negative comments can be made in different ways. A remark like, "I hated the pumpkin soup as it was totally tasteless," is acceptable, while, "The guy making the soup is a stupid idiot who has no taste and he should get out of the restaurant business!" is unacceptable and will be removed, as would: "THESE PEOPLE ARE EVIL, PLEASE HELP ME SHUT DOWN THIS RESTAURANT!!!" or "please i'm begging you, do not go to this place". Negative remarks can be used as constructive criticism when viewed by owners, but excessively negative remarks can also dissuade potential customers from visiting due to one person's isolated experience. We all have different standards. We feel that if an owner has read and taken note of a user review and personally asked us for it to be removed, then it has served a purpose and made a difference. If nothing has changed over time, we want to hear about it and wish for you to contact us.
9. Multiple reviews posted by same user/IP saying basically the same thing (positive or negative) we will delete all but the last.
10. You posted on one negative review, which was unsubstantiated or abusive, and never logged in again.
11. The review was posted long ago (more than 1 year) and since then things have changed, been corrected, or may be there is new ownership, etc... We feel it is important to keep all existing reviews current.
12. The business has closed/shut down.
13. Profanity of any kind used.
14. The review looked like spam or was incomprehensible gibberish.
15. Review was written in a language entirely other than English.
16. The review got lost. Although we keep back-ups of our website frequently, occasionally data gets lost. If you feel that this might be the case with your post, we apologize. Please consider re-posting.
17. Unacceptable content, or any other possibility, please refer to terms of use and please feel free to contact us.