Our commitment to your Privacy

The privacy of individuals, including our customers and clients, is of the utmost importance to Hot Water Experts. This includes information or opinions about you that we collect and record which reasonably could be used to identify you. Hot Water Experts adheres to the National Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth).

This statement sets out our policies for managing personal information across the Hot Water Experts businesses operating in Western Australia.

Types of Information we collect

If you are a Hot Water Experts customer we may have personal information about you for the purpose of supplying you with gas appliances and related services. We generally collect your name, address, telephone numbers and other contact details. We may also collect marketing data such as your age group, reason for purchasing our product, advertising and method of referral. We may obtain banking, credit card, email or other details as part of making business with us easier for you. We may also collect information about your credit worthiness and credit history.

Why we collect personal information

Without contact details we cannot provide services to you. Generally, we collect, update and use personal information about you to enable us to carry on our business, including;

• to register information that identifies you as a consumer of one of our products or services; this includes occupants of rental properties and real estate with one of our products installed or services provided.
• to provide requested services to you and bill you for our services and collect overdue payments;
• for training, quality control and verification purposes, including monitoring and recording your telephone conversations with us from time to time;
• to provide you with the latest product information, promotional information and other information we feel you may find useful;
• to communicate our, a related company's or a third party's marketing offers to you - when making the offer we will let you know how you may stop receiving any further marketing offers. Where another organization outside Hot Water Experts is involved in the offer, we do not give information about you to that organisation;
• to improve our products and services offered;
• to better target our marketing and advertising message;
• for the purpose of a possible product recall; and
• to meet our legal obligations.

How we collect information

Generally, we collect personal information directly from you or a family household member will provide us with this information over the phone, through email, through the return of warranty cards or through our website. Sometimes a builder, architect, plumber, retail store, real estate agent or other person might refer this information to us. Sometimes you might be contacted by one of our Customer Service Representatives or Service Technicians requesting this information when booking service or maintenance calls.

We may also collect this information through marketing campaigns, such as offers for extended warranty or product upgrades. We may collect that information over the phone or Internet, in person (when you visit one of our show rooms) and when you write to us.

How we store information

Hot Water Experts stores information in a combination of secure computer storage systems and paper-based files and other records. We have taken a number of steps to protect personal information we hold from misuse, loss and unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. We use generally accepted technology and security so that we are satisfied that your information is transmitted safely to us through the Internet or other electronic means.

We will take reasonable steps to securely destroy personal information when we no longer need it.

When we may disclose your personal information

Generally, we may disclose personal information about you in the following circumstances;

• where we have contacted an external organization to provide us with support services such as outside contractors, installers or service agents;
• to comply with our legal obligations. We notify you any time we are required to produce information in this way unless we are prohibited by court order or law or there is suspicion of fraud and/or criminal activity;
• we may exchange personal information with credit reference agencies when establishing your account and if your account is in default;
• where you have consented to the use or disclosure; and
• where we reasonably believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious, immediate threat to someone's health or safety or the public's health or safety.

Access to and correction of personal information

Hot Water Experts is committed to maintain accurate, timely and appropriate information about our customers, consumers, clients and web-site users. We will take reasonable steps to make sure the personal information we collect is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

So long as your request for your personal information is in accordance with the National Privacy Principals, then we will give you access to that information. We may charge a fee for retrieving this information (we will inform you of the fee before providing the information). Your initial queries should be directed to our stores which can be contacted via email, addresses shown in the contacts page or phone 1300 558 036.

Inaccurate information will be corrected upon receiving advice to this effect from you. To ensure confidentiality, details of your personal information will be passed on to you only if we are satisfied that the information relates to you.

Please note that there are some circumstances set out in the Privacy Act where we may refuse your request. If we refuse to provide you with access or correct the personal information held about you by us then we will give you our reasons for such refusal.

Complaint

We will promptly acknowledge and investigate any complaints about our Privacy Policy or the collection, use or safe disposal destruction of your personal information. Your complaint should be directed to our Privacy Officer whose contact details are listed below.

About this Privacy Statement

We may update our policies and this Privacy Statement from time to time.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about our policies, or if you wish to update or access the information we hold about you or wish to make a complaint, please contact our stores on 1300 558 036, or write to us at:

Hot Water Experts,
P.O. Box 647, MORLEY
WA 6943