Three levels of verification
Verified purchase
A retailer order token or validated receipt confirms the exact product. We retain only the minimum verification record and delete raw receipt images promptly.
Verified owner
A serial check or one-time photo challenge confirms access to the robot when a purchase record is unavailable.
Community review
Email is verified, but ownership is not proven. The review remains useful and is labelled accordingly.
Useful detail
Reviews should explain the home or environment, the work the robot saves, the maintenance it creates and any recurring problems.
What every owner review records
Product and regional variant, ownership length, firmware, rating, substantive experience, pros, cons, maintenance burden, failures and support outcome. Reviewers must declare free products, discounts, employment, brand relationships and any other incentive.
Owner averages and editorial scores are displayed separately. External retailer ratings remain source-labelled and never become a Robots Rated aggregate.
Moderation without sentiment bias
Positive and negative submissions face the same checks: duplicate-text and velocity detection, product consistency, suspicious account or network patterns and a manual queue for higher-risk cases. Brands may challenge a factual claim and reply, but cannot veto criticism.
Published, challenged and removed states keep a reason code and version history. Reviewers can appeal and readers can report a review. Incentives, if ever used, will never depend on the rating and will be disclosed beside the review.
The launch sequence
Help another buyer understand the robot.
The first owner reviews will focus on popular vacuums, mowers, pool cleaners and window robots.