I recently joined TER and think it's a great resource for finding what I'm looking for in a provider. However, I made an initial contact via email with a provider with great reviews and mentioned that I was impressed with them and a couple of days later all her reviews were gone...

. . . that would be a drastic step just because of one potential client. In any case, I don't think it was your mistake. Just a couple days ago a provider in my area requested she be delisted where all reviews would be gone; they do they sometimes.

fake, leading to her demise. De-listing can happen for a plethora of reasons.