Mechanic Finder is a directory of mechanics in New Zealand. We think a directory is only useful if its readers can trust the listings and rankings on it. This page describes the rules we follow so that you can hold us to them.
1. Editorial independence
Mechanic Finder is operated by Jwsoat Limited. Editorial decisions — what we publish in the blog, how shops are ranked, whether a listing is suspended, whether a review stays up — are made by Jwsoat staff and are not negotiable for money. Shops cannot pay to be ranked higher in unpaid surfaces. Shops cannot pay to remove negative reviews. Shops cannot pay to be quoted in editorial articles.
Sales of paid features (see Section 4) are handled separately from editorial. Paid features unlock functionality and visual labels; they do not change the underlying ranking signals.
2. How we rank shops
When you search on Mechanic Finder, results are scored on signals we believe correlate with a customer's actual experience:
- Verified review score and volume. Shops with consistently high ratings from a healthy volume of reviews rank above shops with one or two outlier reviews.
- Listing completeness. Shops that have claimed their listing and supplied accurate services, hours, prices, and photos rank above listings that are stub data only.
- Service and certification match. Shops that explicitly offer the service you searched for, or hold a relevant certification, are surfaced ahead of generic matches.
- Geographic relevance. Shops nearer to the searched location rank ahead of distant ones.
- Recency. Listings that have been recently updated, or which have recent reviews, are preferred over stale ones.
Featured-tier shops may appear above unpaid results in some surfaces; those placements are visibly labelled (see Section 4).
3. Reviews
Two kinds of reviews appear on Mechanic Finder:
- Verified reviews come from customers who submitted an enquiry through Mechanic Finder. We know the enquiry happened because we sent it. After the work is done we ask the customer to rate their experience.
- Google reviewsare pulled from the shop's public Google Business Profile. The original author name and date are preserved. Google reviews are clearly labelled as such.
We do not write fake reviews. We do not buy reviews from third parties. We do not remove negative reviews on a shop's request. We will remove a review if it contains personal information, threats, illegal content, or appears to be from someone who is not a real customer of the shop. Shops can reply publicly to any review.
To stop very thin profiles from polluting search results, we hide individual shop pages from search engines until the shop has at least 10 reviews on record and at least one photo. New listings stay browsable on the site immediately, but we do not push them into Google's index until they cross that bar. Similarly, suburb and service landing pages are only indexed once they list 6 or more shops, so we never serve a search engine a near-empty page.
4. Paid features and disclosure
Basic listings on Mechanic Finder are free and always will be. We offer two paid tiers for shops that want more from the platform:
- Featured. Higher visual prominence in some surfaces, a Featured badge, lead notifications, and basic analytics.
- Pro. Everything in Featured, plus richer profile controls, multiple users, and priority lead routing.
Where a paid placement affects what you see, it is visibly labelled (for example with a “Featured” badge). Paid tiers do not change a shop's star rating, do not change which reviews appear, and do not remove negative reviews.
If Mechanic Finder eventually carries third-party display ads (such as Google AdSense), those ads will be clearly distinguished from editorial content and will not influence ranking.
5. Editorial content (blog and guides)
Articles on the Mechanic Finderblog are written by named human authors and reviewed before publication. We use generative AI as a writing assistant for drafting and editing, but every published article is reviewed and signed off by a human editor and carries that editor's name. We do not publish auto-generated content under fake bylines.
We may quote or feature shops in editorial articles. We do not accept payment to feature a shop in editorial, and editorial mentions do not affect a shop's ranking in directory results.
Each article carries a publication date. If we make material changes after publication — updated prices, new regulations, corrections — we update the article and note the change.
6. Corrections and complaints
We make mistakes. When we do, we want to know. Email hello@mechanicfinder.co.nz with a description of the problem and a link to the page, and we will respond within two business days. If the correction is straightforward — a wrong phone number, an outdated opening time, a shop that has closed — we will usually fix it the same day.
For complaints about how we have applied this policy (for example, a shop you think should have been removed but wasn't), email the same address and ask for an editorial review. Final editorial decisions are made by Jwsoat Limited staff.
7. Data sources
Public business information about a shop (name, address, phone, hours, photos, Google reviews) is sourced from Google's Places API under their licence terms. Shop owners who claim their listing can edit and extend that information; the version on Mechanic Finder may therefore differ from what Google currently shows.
We do not scrape competitor directories. We do not buy consumer email lists. car ownership records are not part of our data.
8. Updates to these standards
We update this page when our policies change. The “Last updated” date above shows when the current version took effect. Older versions are available on request.
Related: About Mechanic Finder · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions