InkMap Warnings, explained

• What happens when your booking is escalated to InkMap

  Most bookings never reach this point. The escalation only fires after the two parties have already gone back and forth three times on a money dispute (a deposit that wasn't returned, or a refund the client says was never received) without settling it. At that point, the dispute leaves the parties' hands and goes to InkMap's admin team.

  Here's what changes once a booking is escalated:

  • The booking detail page shows an "Under InkMap Review" banner on both sides. The booking is paused — neither side can take further cancellation, refund, or deposit-flow actions until InkMap rules.
  • A "Submit your side of the story" panel appears on both sides of the booking. The client and the practitioner each get a text box to explain what happened, with about a 1000-character soft cap. There's no rush — there's no deadline counter ticking down. You can take your time, gather your dates and amounts, and submit when you're ready.
  • Once you submit, you can edit your claim freely as long as the admin hasn't yet taken the case. If you change your mind or remember a detail, just tap "Edit your claim" and update it.
  • When an InkMap admin takes the case, any claims that were already submitted are frozen — no more edits on either side. If you hadn't submitted yet at that point, you still get one shot. You'll see a small banner above the submit box reminding you: "An InkMap admin is reviewing this case. You can still submit your side, but you'll only get one shot — it can't be edited after." After you send that one final submission, your claim is also frozen.
  • The admin reviews both sides (plus the full booking history that InkMap has on file). Resolution usually lands within a few days — there's no fixed SLA, but the admin team isn't sitting on cases.
  • When the admin rules, both sides are notified in-app and via push. If the ruling is in the client's favor, an InkMap Warning is then issued on the practitioner's profile (see the next section).

  The whole point of the escalation flow is that it's slow on purpose. By the time it fires, the two parties have had three rounds to settle it themselves. The InkMap ruling is the last step, not the first.

• What an InkMap Warning actually is

  A normal review on InkMap is written by the client after their appointment — they pick their ratings, type their comment, and choose whether to publish it. An InkMap Warning is different in three ways:

  • It's issued by the platform, not the client. The wording is one of three fixed templates — InkMap doesn't paste in anything a client said. This keeps the language neutral and prevents anyone from posting an angry rant on a practitioner's profile.
  • It carries a clear "InkMap Warning" label. No individual client is identified as the source — it's an InkMap-issued, fact-of-record marker.
  • It's locked. The practitioner can see it on their profile but can't archive it, hide it, or remove it from their dashboard. Only an InkMap admin can remove it.

  Crucially, an InkMap Warning does NOT affect the practitioner's star rating average. It's a separate signal, surfaced as its own warnings counter and list page. The thinking: a money dispute isn't really a "1-star Quality" or "1-star Communication" event — those categories don't map cleanly. The warning stands on its own merit instead of dragging down a rating it doesn't conceptually belong to.

• When InkMap issues a warning

  There are exactly two paths today:

  • A dispute resolved in the client's favor. When a deposit dispute or a refund dispute escalates to InkMap (see the escalation section above) and the admin team rules that the client was right, an InkMap Warning is issued on the practitioner's profile alongside the dispute outcome. Both sides see the resolution in the booking detail; the warning is the part that lives on the practitioner's profile beyond that one booking.
  • A 21-day refund-ghosting timeout. When a client cancels and the practitioner is supposed to send a refund but doesn't acknowledge or respond for 21 days, InkMap auto-issues a warning flagging the silence. (This path is the consequence side of the refund flow — covered in Deposit rules and refund eligibility.)

  A practitioner doesn't get an InkMap Warning just for losing a single argument with a client — the dispute has to have actually escalated to the InkMap admin team and been ruled on, or the 21-day silence has to have elapsed without any response.

• What it looks like on the profile

  Open the practitioner's profile, tap the Info tab, and scroll to the Reviews Info Card. That's the one panel of the profile where ratings and warnings live, and the InkMap Warning surface sits inside it like this:

  • A small "N Warnings" pill sits on its own line just below the rating summary block, in muted orange with a warning triangle icon. It's hidden when the practitioner has zero warnings (a clean profile shows nothing).
  • Tapping the pill opens a dedicated full-screen list page showing each active warning as a card. Each card shows the warning type (e.g. "Deposit dispute — resolved in client's favor"), the date it was issued, and the templated explanation paragraph.
  • A small "Why is this here?" affordance opens this article so anyone reading the warning can understand what it means.
  • The practitioner's star rating average and the per-category averages (Quality, Communication, Professionalism / Experience) are unaffected by warnings.

  On the practitioner's own dashboard, warnings appear in the same orange pill + list page on the same Reviews Info Card. They don't show up in the dashboard's "Reviews" tab — that tab stays strictly real customer reviews. The warnings have their own surface so the two signal types stay clearly separated.

• Worth a quick look before you book

  If you're about to send a booking request, scroll to the Reviews Info Card on the practitioner's profile and check whether the orange "N Warnings" pill is there. A clean profile shows nothing in that spot — that's the most common case. If you do see warnings, tap through to the list and read what they're about. They're the platform's record of past money disputes resolved against the practitioner or refunds they ghosted, and they're the kind of context that's useful to weigh before locking in a deposit.

  Warnings aren't a verdict on the practitioner — plenty of practitioners with zero warnings will still be wrong for what you want, and one warning years ago doesn't mean today's booking will go badly. They're just one signal alongside the regular star ratings, the published policies, and the Info tab. Skim the warnings, decide for yourself.

• Why a practitioner can't archive or remove it

  This is deliberate. A normal client-written review is something the practitioner can choose to publish, archive, or hide as part of their reputation management. An InkMap Warning is the opposite — it's a consequence the platform imposes after an actual escalation or a measurable timeout, and the whole point is that the practitioner doesn't get to make it disappear on their own.

  If a practitioner could simply archive an InkMap Warning the moment it landed, the warning wouldn't be a consequence — it would be a formality. The lock is what gives the warning any weight at all.

• How to appeal — practitioner side

  If a practitioner believes the warning was issued in error (new evidence cleared them, the dispute was decided on incomplete information, the 21-day silence was caused by an InkMap-side bug, etc.), the appeal path is:

  1. Email InkMap support with the booking number and a short explanation. 2. Support routes the appeal back to the admin team. 3. If the admin agrees, they can remove the warning from inside the dispute ticket — or directly from the warnings list on the practitioner's profile. The warning row is marked overridden (the audit trail is preserved), the warning disappears from the public list, and both the practitioner and the client are notified.

  There is no in-app "Appeal" button on the warning itself — the appeal goes through support so admins can review it with full context. Removals are deliberately a manual judgement call and not a self-service action.

• What about clients who lose disputes?

  The same escalation flow that produces an InkMap Warning for a practitioner can also produce a past-dispute mark on a client's account — but the two are intentionally not mirror images. A client mark is private, lighter in tone, and never appears on the client's public profile. It exists so practitioners receiving a booking request can see a small heads-up if the client has lost past disputes on InkMap, and decide how they want to handle the deposit step accordingly.

  Here's how the client side works:

  • When a mark is issued. Only when an InkMap admin reviews an escalated deposit or refund dispute and concludes the practitioner was right. The same 3-cycle escalation has to have fired first — a single back-and-forth doesn't get there. A practitioner can never mark a client on their own; admin review is the only path.
  • Who sees it. Only a practitioner the client tries to send a new booking request to, and only when the client has at least one active mark. The mark itself is not public — it doesn't appear on the client's profile, doesn't show in search, doesn't affect anything other clients can see. There is no public "client warnings" page anywhere on InkMap.
  • What the practitioner sees. A small orange row near the top of the incoming booking request explaining that the client has lost past disputes on InkMap. The exact copy varies based on the practitioner's Payment Settings — practitioners who accept Stripe deposits with auto-restrict enabled will see the client automatically pushed to a Stripe-only deposit on that booking; practitioners without Stripe see an educational nudge about setting it up. The point of the row is informational — the booking itself isn't blocked.
  • How long a mark lasts. Lifetime, same model as practitioner warnings — there's no decay timer. Only an InkMap admin can remove one, and they can do it either from inside the original dispute ticket or in response to a support request from the client.

  Why the asymmetry. Practitioner warnings are public because practitioners run a public business on InkMap and clients deserve to see a practitioner's track record before booking. Client marks are kept private because clients are individuals, not businesses, and a public "lost a dispute" history on someone's personal account would be disproportionate. The asymmetry is intentional, not an oversight — and the rest of the InkMap model leans the same way (practitioner profiles are public; client profiles are not).

• How to appeal — client side

  If a client believes a past-dispute mark was issued in error, the appeal path mirrors the practitioner-side one:

  1. Email InkMap support with the booking number and a short explanation. 2. Support routes the appeal back to the admin team. 3. If the admin agrees the mark shouldn't be there, they can remove it — either from inside the original dispute ticket or directly from the client's record. The mark is flagged overridden (the audit trail is preserved), the practitioner-side badge no longer fires on future booking requests, and the client gets an in-app notification confirming the removal.

  There is no in-app "Appeal" button on the mark itself, and clients don't see a dedicated "marks" page — same reasoning as on the practitioner side. The appeal is a human-review step on purpose; the support team handles it with full context.

Frequently asked questions

I'm a client and InkMap just ruled on my dispute in my favor. Why isn't the warning signed by me?

By design. The warning is issued by the platform using neutral, templated language — no individual client is named as the source. This protects you from any retaliation from the practitioner and protects the practitioner from any escalating language a frustrated client might be tempted to publish. The warning represents InkMap's ruling on the dispute, not your personal review of the practitioner.

I'm a practitioner and I think the InkMap Warning on my profile is wrong. What do I do?

Email InkMap support with your booking number and a short explanation of what happened. Support will route it to an admin for review. If the admin agrees the warning shouldn't be there (new evidence, a mistake, etc.), they can remove it — the warning disappears from your profile and both parties are notified. There's no in-app appeal button; this is a deliberate human-review step.

I missed the chance to submit my side before the admin took the case. Can I still speak?

Yes — but you only get one shot. The Take rule splits like this: as long as the admin hasn't taken the case, you can submit and edit freely. Once the admin takes the case, any side that has already submitted is frozen (no more edits). Any side that hadn't submitted yet still gets ONE clean submission during the review, but it can't be edited after. There's a small banner above the submit box that reminds you of the one-shot expectation in that state. Outside the submit box, the admin can still reach out directly through the messaging system if they need clarification on something specific — that's a normal part of the review. Once the admin has issued their final verdict, though, the case is closed: the only way to dispute the ruling itself is to email InkMap support.

Can a client write their own review on top of an InkMap Warning?

Not on the same booking. Customer reviews are only available once the appointment has actually happened and the practitioner has marked the booking complete. InkMap Warnings, on the other hand, only fire on bookings where money was in motion and something went wrong before the appointment ever took place — either a deposit / refund dispute that had to be escalated to admin, or a refund the practitioner ghosted for 21 days. By the time a warning lands, the booking has been cancelled, dropped, or auto-rejected — so there's no completed appointment to review. The two surfaces are mutually exclusive on any single booking by design. Of course, a client who has had other completed bookings with the same practitioner can leave normal reviews on those, and warnings tied to other bookings live on the same profile alongside those reviews — they just don't share a booking.

Does the InkMap Warning count toward the practitioner's rating average?

No. A warning is a fact-of-record marker on its own surface; the practitioner's star rating, the per-category averages, and the total review count are all calculated only from real customer reviews. The warning is meant to be its own signal, not a hidden weight on the rating math.

I just got a notification saying "InkMap Reviewed a Past Dispute". What does that actually mean for me?

It means an InkMap admin reviewed an escalated dispute on one of your past bookings and concluded the practitioner was right on that specific dispute. A small private note (a "past-dispute mark") is now on your account. It is not public — it doesn't appear on your profile, doesn't show in search, and other clients can't see anything about it. The only place it surfaces is on a booking request you later send: the practitioner sees a small heads-up at the top of that request, and if they have Stripe deposits set up with auto-restrict enabled, the deposit on that specific booking will be Stripe-only. The mark stays on your account until an InkMap admin removes it — if you believe it was issued in error, email InkMap support with the booking number and a short explanation, and the admin team will review it.

If a client has a past-dispute mark, can I (the practitioner) refuse to book them?

Yes — accepting or declining any booking request is entirely your call. The platform never forces you to confirm a booking just because the heads-up row says the client has lost past disputes. What the system does do, if you have Stripe deposits set up and auto-restrict enabled, is narrow the deposit method to Stripe for that specific booking — protecting you from the "I paid outside the app" loophole. Everything else about how you respond to the request stays yours to decide.