Our Verification Standards

Checks 4 and 5 were added after verification kept finding the same two problems: companies listed under too few equipment categories to be found by the operators who need them, and independent companies listed as though they were manufacturer branches. Both are invisible to anyone scraping a business listing, and both change who you end up calling.

We publish what this process turns up, including our own mistakes: what we found verifying these listings. The checks themselves are written up as operator guides you can run on any company or directory: is that company actually near you and credentials decoded.

Pending listings were compiled from the company's own published information but have not yet completed the checks above. They are labeled clearly, and details on pending listings should be confirmed directly with the company. A listing that fails verification is removed, not left pending.

What the badge is not

The badge is not a review score, not a ranking, and not for sale. Payment for featured placement never changes verification status, and featured listings pass exactly the same checks. We do not scrape or republish review ratings: those belong to the platforms that collected them, and recycled stars are not verification.

The embeddable badge

Verified companies may display the badge on their own websites free of charge. Every embedded badge links back to the company's listing here, so a customer can always click through and see the verification date for themselves. Instructions appear on each verified listing page.

What the standard has produced so far

A standard is only worth reading if you can see it being applied. These numbers come from the same data file the listings are built from, so this page cannot claim more rigour than the directory actually has.

• 117 listings verified by a person
• 42 numbers rung, with a person answering
• 35 metro areas covered
• 228 distinct brands recorded from company sites
• 6 licence numbers published and shown
• 38 companies whose warranty or pricing terms we recorded

The checks also produce findings. 82 companies publish a round-the-clock or emergency claim, and we have not yet tested those by calling at night, so the directory says so rather than implying we have. Everything the checks turned up that was wrong, in other people's data and in our own, is written up on the verification findings page, including the parked domains, the wrong phone numbers, the businesses that no longer trade and the listings that pointed at a partner's website instead of the company's own.

Who gets listed

One test decides it: does the company repair commercial kitchen equipment? If they do, they belong here, whatever else they also do. Plenty of the companies listed sell equipment, design kitchens, fit out new sites or run HVAC alongside the repair work, and that is fine.

Companies that only sell, design or install are not listed, even when they are excellent at it. Two were removed for this reason after being added in error. The reason is not snobbery about dealers; it is that every count on this site answers the question "who can fix my equipment", and a company that cannot fix a fryer should not be inside a number that claims to say how many can. The same test excludes residential appliance repairers, for the same reason: they may be very good, and they are not who you need when a combi oven fails during service.

Corrections

Currently 117 of 117 listings have completed verification, and the number grows as checks are completed. Spot an error on any listing, verified or pending? Email [email protected] and it will be corrected or removed promptly. Accuracy outranks completeness here, every time.