Data Protection & GDPR Statement

Who are we?

HBH Woolacotts is a family run electrical retailer based in Cornwall and Devon. We supply, install and maintain a whole host of electrical items, ranging from personal audio to enterprise home theatre systems – along with everything in between. We also stock a range of electrical accessories, as well as a large range of kitchen and white goods appliances. Our service department includes a team of fully trained in house engineers who are able to carry out repairs of appliances; both under and outside of their warranty period.

We know there is a lot of information here, but we want you to be fully informed about your rights and how we use your data. HBH Woolacotts is committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our visitors to our website. Any details you provide to us; either in store or via our website, will only ever be used by us. We will never give, or sell, your information to anybody else for marketing purposes – that’s simply not what we do.

There are some exceptions though, which will be for your own benefit (and are completely optional). For example, our manufacturers often offer extended warranties, completely free of charge. These are generally registered by you, the customer. But at HBH Woolacotts, we like to go the extra mile and help you out with these things where we can. Therefore, we may offer to register your products on your behalf; which would obviously mean we’d need to share your details with the manufacturer. As we say though, this is completely optional, and you can decide if you want to do it yourself or you’d like us to help.

If you have any questions regarding this policy, or complaints about our practices, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. You can either send us an email to DataProtection@hbh-woolacotts.co.uk, or write to us at our Head Office – Data Protection Team, HBH Woolacotts Ltd, 30 Queen Street, BUDE, Cornwall, EX23 8BB.

How the Law protects you

The General Data Protection Regulation of 2018 states that we are only able to process your personal data if we have valid reasons to do so. The basis for processing your personal data includes (but is not limited to) keeping in our system records your contact details and information regarding your purchases, passing your details onto our manufacturers (with your permission) to allow your products to be registered for warranty purposes, enable billing and finance options and, with your consent, send you promotional emails with our free (optional) email newsletter.

How do we collect your Personal Data?

We need to collect your information when you make a purchase from us. This may be in store, online via our website, via the telephone, or via any other method of making a purchase from us. We also offer a free email newsletter – of which subscribers will need to provide their information. From time to time we may run also run promotions or competitions either in store or online and your details will be collected when you enter.

Some other examples of how we may collect your personal data includes, but is not limited to:

When you visit our website and make a purchase online to buy a product or service, or when you make a purchase of a product or service in any of our stores or by telephone;
When you create an account with us (either in store or via our website);
When you purchase a product (or service) in store, but don’t have an account – we will require your details to carry out the purchase;
When you engage with us on social media, for tracking purposes;
When you register to receive our free email newsletter;
When you enter a competition either in store or online;
When you contact us by any means (in store, via telephone, via social media or via email), with a query, customer complaint or regarding an existing order;
If you make an appointment for a service call or visit, or arrange a meeting with a member of staff in store;
When you choose to complete a customer satisfaction survey which we may send to you to improve our service levels and ensure we’re offering our highest standard of service;
If you make a comment on our website, such as a product review, or our social media feeds;
If you have given a third party partner permission to share with us the details they hold about you;
When you use one of our car parks or stores which operates CCTV, for the security of both our customers and staff. We may record your image during your visit to our store.

There may be occasions when you contact us regarding a third party individual, for example on behalf of an individual who perhaps does not have the capacity to contact us themselves, or an organisation (such as a letting agent on behalf of a landlord). In these situations, you must confirm that you have obtained the express consent of the third party for the disclosure and use of their personal data.

When browsing our website, some personal data may be automatically collected. This includes your IP address, device specific information, server logs, device event information, information regarding your general location and any unique application numbers. This data is mainly collected using Google Analytics for helping us track our visitor statistics and improving our service levels. We also have a ShareThis integration in our website which allows website visitors to share our products via social media or other methods.

What type of Data do we collect from you?

Data that we will collect from you will include a name, address, gender, date of birth, email address, telephone numbers, payment information and IP addresses (for website orders). For your security, we will also hold an encrypted (unreadable) record of your website login password, if you have created an online account with us. We may also keep details of your visits to our website, such as traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data. We also keep records of any queries and contact with us, and may store internal notes regarding your queries against your customer account to ensure that our staff can offer the best possible service, should you speak to different staff.

On occasion, items may be purchased using finance or HP options. We offer different methods of finance and HP. For example, our internal HP Finance would require us to do a credit score check; and we would therefore ask for, and keep throughout the duration of your agreement, your personal and financial details, such as your employment status and details, your income and any other relatives’ details who may have had credit with us before. All this information is stored electronically and securely and will never be accessible by anybody other than those who require it to carry out the application check. We will never pass this on to anybody or share this data with any other companies.

We partner with some third party companies, such as Finance Houses (such as Hitachi Finance), or subscription based companies (such as Sky TV), which will require your registration and personal data to complete the registration process. Our sales advisers will be happy to carry out our guide you through this process whilst you are in store. The registration systems are hosted securely with the third party company, and we maintain secure networks within our premises. However, this information will be collected and stored by the third party, and none of this information will be retained by HBH Woolacotts.

We may require copies of documents you provide to prove your age or identity, where the law requires this. This could include a passport or driving licence, and will include full details of your name, address, date of birth and your photographic image.

How and why do we use your Data?

Ultimately, we want to give you the best possible customer experience when you deal with us at HBH Woolacotts. For example, if you choose to receive our free email newsletter, we would only like to send you email content which is relevant and exciting to you. Therefore, by us knowing your local area, we can target events and promotions relevant to you.

We will use the data you provide to use in the following ways:

To process orders you have submitted to us (either in store, by phone or online);
To provide you with the products and services you express interest in;
To comply with our contractual obligations we have with you (for example, when you order an item from us for home delivery, we’ll collect your address details and pass them to our engineers so they can deliver them to your address);
To help us identify you, and any accounts or services you hold with us;
To allow us to review, develop and improve our website and services;
To provide customer care, including responding to your requests when you contact us with a query;
To administer accounts, payments, and keep track of billing and payments;
To detect fraud, and make sure what you have told us is correct;
To carry out marketing and statistical data;
To review job applications and allow us to contact you regarding an application;
To notify you about any changes to our services or urgent product updates (such as recalls);
To provide you with our occasional email newsletter, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.

If you ever want to change how we use your data, you can refer to the “Your Rights” section below. Please do remember though, if you choose not to share your personal information with us, or refuse certain contact permissions, we might not be able to provide you with some of the services you should be entitled to. For example, if a product comes with a promotional 5 year warranty and you choose not to register this with the manufacturer, the warranty period will be limited to the standard manufacturer period of 12 months.

Where we store your Personal Data

All our data is stored responsibly and securely. We follow accepted ISO standards to store and protect the data we collect, which includes the use of encryption where applicable.

All information we hold in our database is stored on our secure servers within the United Kingdom. Access to these servers is restricted by secure firewall and is only available to HBH Woolacotts and authorised third partnering companies, such as our EPOS system software company.

Any data we collect via email is stored securely in our on-site mail server, with security procedures in place to ensure data security. Any backups which are performed are also protected with the use of a security encryption certificate.

All transactions carried out on our website are done securely using “https” secure socket layer technology.

Any payment card information held (for outstanding HP Finance agreements) is secured and tokenised using a third party Payment Gateway (Secure Trading) to ensure it is protected. Employees of HBH Woolacotts have no ability to view full credit card numbers or card data which is stored electronically for HP Finance agreements.

We regularly monitor our systems and networks for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and carry out regular penetration testing of our networks and websites to identify ways to further strengthen our security.

Retention Periods

We will retain your personal data for the duration of the period you are a customer of HBH Woolacotts. We are required to keep your account and purchase information in the event of appliance breakdown.

When making purchases using our in house Finance HP Credit, your payment details (including your provided credit or debit cards) will be retained throughout the duration of your agreement. This will be made clear to you upon application of finance. Upon the final payment, your details will be securely erased. Throughout the duration of the agreement, only your contact details will be viewable by employees of HBH Woolacotts and not your cardholder data. In accordance with Payment Card Industry standards, the cardholder data is stored securely using the third party payment gateway SecureTrading, and cardholder data is not made visible to HBH Woolacotts. SecureTrading will allow us to debit your nominated card should your account fall into arrears, and you will be notified prior to this happening. The cardholder data will be securely erased upon final payment of your agreement.

If you request your Right to Erasure (also known as Right to be Forgotten), we will require you to complete a disclaimer indicating you are aware of the implications of us securely removing your personal details from our systems. This disclaimer must be signed and identification must be provided. The form will be returned to our Head Office, where it will be kept securely in a locked environment for a period of 7 years as evidence you have requested to exercise your Right to Erasure. After the 7 year period, the form will be destroyed. For more information on Right to Erasure, please speak to our staff in store.

Who has access to your Personal Data?

We do not, and never will, sell your personal details to third parties for marketing or advertising purposes.

We do work closely with some other third party companies; and generally, we will not share your data unless you have given us explicit permission to do so. There may be some occasions where your data will be shared with these trusted third party companies when it relates to your purchase; for example, delivery couriers (where applicable), external contractors or delivery engineers visiting your home, for fraud management, to handle a complaint, or to help us personalise our email newsletter.

HBH Woolacotts is a member of Combined Independent (Holdings) Ltd, and many of the products available through our business are supplied to us via CIH Ltd. We also advertise and sell products under the “euronics” brand identity. When you shop with us, and purchase any product or service offered by us via CIH Ltd, we will share limited data with CIH Ltd and this may include any or all of the following; name, address and order details, email address and telephone number. This data is used for experience, analytics and marketing purposes only, including services provided by 3rd parties used by either ourselves and/or CIH Ltd and via our website and/or euronics.co.uk. Such services could include, but are not limited to; user journey and site analytics, reviews platforms, marketing mailings and newsletters, service emails and safety and product recall information.

If we do pass your information on to those, such as in the examples above, we will only provide them with the information they require to provide specific services. They may only use your data for the exact purpose we specify in our contract with them.

We will always work closely with third parties to ensure that your privacy is respected at all times. If we stop using any of their services, any of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous.

Your Rights

You have the right to request the following:

Access to the personal data we hold about you. In most cases, this can be provided free of charge. You will need to request this in any of our stores where an application can be made.
To correct your personal data if it is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete. You can do this via telephone, in store or via the Contact Us form on our website.
To have the personal data we hold about you removed securely from our systems. This is known as your Right to be Forgotten. There are legal, service and accountancy reasons why we will need to keep your data, but if you wish to have your details removed then please visit us in store where an application can be made, subject to meeting the minimum requirements (for example, any outstanding finance is paid up and you acknowledge that once your details have been removed, we will be unable to carry out any under-warranty repair work free of charge unless you can provide us with adequate proof of purchase when booking an engineer).
We will not automatically opt you in to receiving our email newsletter. This will be offered to you, and you can opt in via our website. Likewise, you have the right to unsubscribe with immediate effect. This can also be done from our website or by using the Unsubscribe option at the bottom of the email.

Use of Cookies on our Website

For information on the use of Cookies on our website, please view our HBH Woolacotts Cookie Policy which can be found here: https://www.hbh-woolacotts.co.uk/information/cookie-policy.html

Liability and Data Breaches

We agree to take reasonable measures to protect your data to the highest possible standard with applicable laws and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Full terms and conditions of trading can be found on our website here: https://www.hbh-woolacotts.co.uk/information/terms-and-conditions.html

In the event of a data breach, we will ensure that our obligations under applicable data protection laws are complied with where necessary.

Any Questions?

We hope that this Data Protection Statement has been helpful in explaining how we use your personal data and your rights to control it. If you do have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the use of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Team who will be pleased to help you:

Email: DataProtection@hbh-woolacotts.co.uk
Or write to use: Data Protection Team, HBH Woolacotts Ltd, 30 Queen Street, Bude, Cornwall, EX23 8BB.

You also have the right to make a complaint about how we process your personal data to the Information Commissioner. Please be advised this is a third party service and therefore we cannot be responsible for the content of the website or service:

Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns
By Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113