1. What these guidelines apply to
These guidelines cover every piece of content submitted by a customer, tradesperson, or visitor to swansontoolco.com, including product reviews, review headlines, review photos, Q&A submissions, testimonials, contest and giveaway entries, and any other public-facing text or media you send us through a form on this site.
They do not cover private communications, such as email you send our customer service team or messages you send through the contact form. Those follow the terms in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
2. Who can contribute
Anyone can submit a review or photo of a Swanson tool. You do not need to have purchased the tool from us to review it. If you bought it from Amazon, Home Depot, a local lumberyard, or picked one up at a jobsite, you can still tell other pros what you thought.
If we can match the email on your submission to a purchase in our records or a verified Pro account, we stamp your review with a Verified Buyer or Verified Pro badge. The badge is informational; unbadged reviews carry the same moderation standards.
We do not currently require a minimum spend to contribute. If that changes, we will update this section.
3. What we welcome
Reviews and photos that tell another pro what to expect:
- How the tool held up on the job. Rain, drops, dust, cold, wear on the edges after a season of framing.
- How it compares to the tool it replaced or to a competing brand you owned before.
- What you use it for. Rafter layout, stair stringers, tile scoring, punch-list finish work.
- Photos of the tool in your hand, on stock, next to what you cut with it. In focus, well-lit, clearly the product.
- Negative feedback that names a specific problem. “The scribe bar bent after two weeks” is the kind of review that helps the next buyer and helps us fix the tool.
- Questions that another owner or our team can answer.
4. What we do not publish
We reject any submission that contains any of the following. Our moderation queue holds every review for review before it goes public, and our automated filter catches most of these before a moderator ever sees them.
Profanity, slurs, and hostile language
No profanity, no slurs, no harassment, no threats. This includes leet-speak substitutions and punctuation-masked variants. If you would not say it in front of an apprentice, we will not publish it.
Hate speech
Attacks on a person or group based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or veteran status are not welcome and will be removed. Serious violations may be reported to law enforcement.
Sexual content
Sexually explicit language or imagery. Nudity. Any content that sexualizes minors, which we will report to the appropriate authorities without hesitation.
Off-topic content
Reviews should be about the tool. Not politics, not religion, not personal disputes with a retailer or carrier. Complaints about shipping, packaging damage in transit, or a specific store belong in a message to that retailer or to us at our contact page, not in a product review.
Spam
Repeated submissions, keyword stuffing, character floods, gibberish, machine-translated word salad, or any content posted to game search or defame a competitor.
Private information
Do not post other people’s phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, or any information that could identify or locate them without their consent. Do not post license plates, home exteriors with visible house numbers, or other jobsite-address details in your photos.
Impersonation
Do not claim to be someone you are not. Do not use another person’s name, photo, or trade credential. Do not post reviews on behalf of a company, retailer, or competitor without disclosing the relationship.
5. Photos and video
Photos must show the tool. A clear shot of the product, the product in use, or a specific detail you are calling out in your review. Every photo goes through the same moderation queue as the written review.
We reject photos that:
- Are not of a Swanson product or a tool used alongside one.
- Contain the face of a person who has not consented to being posted publicly. If a co-worker is in the shot, get their permission first.
- Include children who are identifiable.
- Show private information (address plaques, license plates, permits, drawings marked confidential).
- Contain nudity, sexual content, weapons pointed at people, or images that glorify violence.
- Are watermarked with a competitor’s branding or an advertising URL.
- Are blurry, black frames, or clearly submitted to pad the review.
6. External links and contact information
Reviews may not contain external links, phone numbers, or email addresses. This includes shortened URLs, QR codes in photos, and social-handle mentions written to steer traffic. Our automated filter blocks these on submission.
Referring to another product by name is fine. “This replaced my Milwaukee square” is a review. A link to buy the Milwaukee square is an advertisement.
7. Free samples, discounts, and compensated reviews
If you were given a Swanson tool for free, at a discount, or in exchange for a review, disclose it in the review itself. A single line at the end is enough: “Swanson sent me this square to test.” Undisclosed compensated reviews violate FTC endorsement guidelines and will be removed.
We do not currently run an affiliate program, a Vine-style tester network, or any paid-review arrangement. If you were paid or promised anything of value in exchange for a favorable review by a third party claiming to represent us, that party is misrepresenting itself. Please tell us at our contact page.
8. Plagiarism and intellectual property
Your review has to be your words and your photos. Do not copy another reviewer, do not paste product-description copy from a retailer, and do not upload photos you found on a search engine.
By submitting content to swansontoolco.com you grant Swanson Tool Co. a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, display, reproduce, and distribute your submission on the site, in email, in social channels, and in marketing materials, and you confirm you own the content or have permission to grant that license.
9. Illegal activity and safety claims
Do not post content that promotes or depicts illegal activity, or that instructs another reader to use a tool in a way that violates OSHA, local code, or manufacturer safety guidance. If you saw a genuine safety defect in a Swanson tool, report it directly through our warranty claim form or call us so we can investigate. Product reviews are not the right channel for injury or defect reporting.
Do not make medical, health, or safety claims a tool cannot support (“this square prevents falls” is not a claim we can carry).
10. Consequences for violations
Depending on severity we may:
- Reject the submission and notify you by email with the reason.
- Remove content that was published in error.
- Block your email address or IP from submitting future reviews.
- Suspend or revoke a verified Pro account.
- Report content to law enforcement where it depicts a crime or a threat to a person.
We do not owe you a public review and we do not owe you a second chance if a submission is a clear violation. Repeat submitters of prohibited content are blocked without further notice.
11. How to report a violation
If you see a review, photo, or other piece of contributed content on swansontoolco.com that you believe violates these guidelines, send us the product page URL, the headline of the review, and a short note about what is wrong. Send it through our contact page or call (815) 469-9453. A moderator reviews every report and responds within one business day.
For copyright takedown requests, name-and-likeness concerns, or other legal notices, follow the process in our Terms of Use.