Privacy Policy
Gardeners Richmond Upon Thames Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Richmond Upon Thames collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers in the Richmond upon Thames area. It also explains the rights you have under applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Richmond Upon Thames customers in the Richmond upon Thames area, including prospective, current and former customers who contact us, request a quote or use our gardening services.
Who we are and scope of this policy
Gardeners Richmond Upon Thames is a gardening services provider operating in the Richmond upon Thames area. For the purposes of data protection legislation, we are the data controller of the personal data we collect from or about you when you deal with us as a customer or potential customer.
This policy applies when you contact us, request information or a quotation, enter into a contract with us for gardening services, or otherwise interact with us in the course of our business activities in the Richmond upon Thames area.
Personal data we collect
We collect and process different types of personal data about you, depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. The personal data we may collect includes:
Identity and contact details such as your name, postal address, billing address, and any other contact details you choose to provide when you contact us or make a booking.
Service and property information such as details of your property or garden relevant to the services requested, access instructions, photographs you provide for quotation purposes, notes about service preferences and any related correspondence.
Contract and billing information such as the services you have requested, dates and times of visits, invoices, payments made, payment method type, and related accounting records. We do not store full payment card details, but we may receive limited information from payment service providers such as confirmation of payment and part of your card or account details sufficient for identification and reconciliation.
Communication data such as records of enquiries, complaints, feedback, and any other communications between you and us, whether by telephone, in writing or through any other communication channel you choose to use.
Technical and usage information to a limited extent, for example basic information generated when you interact with our online content, such as the date and time of your visit and general device information, where this is necessary to provide and secure our online services.
How we collect your personal data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by telephone or in writing, request a quotation, book a service, provide access information, give feedback, or otherwise communicate with us.
We may also receive limited personal data about you from third parties where this is necessary and lawful, for example from payment service providers confirming that a payment has been processed, or from platforms or partners used to facilitate bookings and enquiries.
Lawful basis for processing your data
We process your personal data only when we have a lawful basis under data protection laws. Depending on the circumstances, we will rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:
Performance of a contract. We process your personal data to provide our gardening services, respond to your requests, prepare and send quotations, manage bookings and appointments, process payments, and communicate with you about the services you receive.
Compliance with legal obligations. We process personal data where necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, such as record keeping for tax and accounting purposes.
Legitimate interests. We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. These interests may include managing and improving our services, protecting our business, handling queries and complaints, and maintaining appropriate business records.
Consent. In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example if we ever choose to send you certain types of marketing communications that require your prior permission. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
How we use your personal data
We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:
To respond to your enquiries, provide quotations and assess which services are suitable for your property and requirements.
To enter into and perform contracts for gardening and related services, including scheduling and carrying out work, managing access to your property, and keeping you informed about appointments.
To issue invoices, process and record payments, and maintain accurate financial and accounting records.
To manage our relationship with you, including dealing with feedback, queries, complaints and service updates.
To plan and manage our operations, allocate staff and resources, and improve our services and customer experience.
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, respond to lawful requests from authorities, and protect our rights, property and safety, as well as those of our customers and others.
Data sharing and use of processors
We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where this is necessary, proportionate and subject to appropriate safeguards. These third parties may act as data processors acting on our documented instructions or as separate controllers, depending on the circumstances.
We may use data processors to provide certain services on our behalf, such as payment processing services, accounting and bookkeeping support, information technology and system hosting, communication tools and platforms, and other professional or administrative support services.
When we use data processors, we ensure that they are subject to contractual obligations requiring them to keep your personal data secure, use it only for the purposes we specify, and handle it in accordance with applicable data protection law.
We may also share personal data where we are legally required to do so, or where sharing is necessary to protect our rights, property or safety, or that of our staff, customers or others.
Data retention
We keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet our legal, accounting and reporting obligations.
In general, contact details, service records and billing information relating to our customers in the Richmond upon Thames area will be retained for as long as you remain a customer and for a period after your last interaction with us, typically for up to six years, in line with legal limitation and tax record requirements. Certain records may be kept for longer where required by law or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
When personal data is no longer needed, we will take reasonable steps to delete it, anonymise it or store it in a form that no longer identifies you.
International transfers
In some cases, your personal data may be processed outside the United Kingdom, for example where our service providers or their systems are located in other countries. Where this occurs, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data, such as using standard contractual clauses or relying on other legally recognised transfer mechanisms.
How we protect your personal data
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those who need it for their role, using reasonable security safeguards for physical and electronic records, and regularly reviewing our procedures.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, these include the right to:
Access your personal data and obtain a copy of the information we hold about you, together with an explanation of how it is used.
Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
Request erasure of your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it, for example where it is no longer needed for the original purpose and we have no legal obligation to retain it.
Request restriction of the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example while we check its accuracy or consider an objection you have raised.
Object to our processing of your personal data where we are relying on legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests, and you consider that your rights and interests override our own.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to another service provider in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, where the processing is based on your consent or on a contract and is carried out by automated means.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on your consent to process personal data. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you are concerned about how we handle your personal data. In the United Kingdom, the supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner's Office.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or other factors. Any updates will apply from the date they are published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle your personal data.
