Privacy Policy

Website Privacy and Legal Information

Visitors to our website

Here at Abbey Garages Ltd (T/A ‘Fordthorne’ and ‘Fordthorne Transit Centre’) we take the privacy of our customers, visitors and employees very seriously and to help you understand what we do with the information you provide to us we have compiled this Privacy Policy statement.

When someone visits www.fordthorne.co.uk and/or www.fordthornetransit.co.uk we use a third party service, Blanco Digital, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Blanco Digital to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Cookie and Privacy Policy

A Google analytics Cookie is used on this website, this is a tracking cookie & will help us identify the effectiveness of our digital assets. The data will be used only in aggregate and reporting and not identifying individual data.

Please also note that we are running Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

Ford Fair Collection Policy

Online reporting tool

We collect information volunteered by members of the public about the vehicle they currently have, are looking to purchase, or require a service provided by Fordthorne. This company is called Tableau and is a data processor for Fordthorne and only processes personal information in line with our instructions. You can see here the Privacy statement for Tableau.

Security and performance

Fordthorne uses a third party service to help maintain the security and performance of the Fordthorne website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to the Fordthorne website.

People who contact us via social media

If you send us a private or direct message or engage with paid or organic content on our social media channels, the message and all other information you submit will be stored securely by Fordthorne.

Facebook Leads

If you fill out a lead form on Facebook, we will contact you regarding that specific offer you have enquired about. We may also contact you regarding similar offers and you can opt out of any further communications at any time. Your data is kept securely and not stored or used by 3rd parties.

Website Enquiries

If you fill out an enquiry form or contact us request, we will contact you regarding that specific offer you have enquired about. We may also contact you regarding similar offers and you can opt out of any further communications at any time. Your data is kept securely and not stored or used by 3rd parties.

People who call our telephone number

When you call the Fordthorne tracked telephone lines we collect Calling Line Identification (CLI) information. We use this information to help improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

People who email us

Any email sent to us, including any attachments, may be monitored and used by us for reasons of security and for monitoring compliance with office policy. Email monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send to us is within the bounds of the law.

People who use our Live Chat service

We use a third party provider, Contact at once, to supply and support our Live Chat service, which we use to handle customer enquiries in real time.

If you use the Live Chat service we will collect your name, email address (optional) and the contents of your Live Chat session. This information will be retained for two years and will not be shared with any other organisations.

You can request a transcript of your Live Chat session if you provide your email address at the start of your session or when prompted at the end. You can find the Contact at Once

People who make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We do not compile and publish statistics.

We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

When we take enforcement action against someone, we may publish the identity of the defendant in our Annual Report or elsewhere. Usually we do not identify any complainants unless the details have already been made public.

People who use Fordthorne

We have to hold the details of the people who have requested a service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about people who have requested a test drive to carry out a survey to find out if they are happy with the level of service they received. This will be completed by a third party company called Judge Service. You can view the Judge Service Privacy Statement here.

Job applicants, current and former Fordthorne employees

When individuals apply to work at Fordthorne , we will only use the information they supply to us to process their application and to monitor recruitment statistics. Where we want to disclose information to a third party, for example where we want to take up a reference or obtain a ‘disclosure’ from the Criminal Records Bureau we will not do so without informing them beforehand unless the disclosure is required by law.

Personal information about unsuccessful candidates will be held for 12 months after the recruitment exercise has been completed, it will then be destroyed or deleted. We retain de-personalised statistical information about applicants to help inform our recruitment activities, but no individuals are identifiable from that data.

Once a person has taken up employment with Fordthorne we will compile a file relating to their employment. The information contained in this will be kept secure and will only be used for purposes directly relevant to that person’s employment. Once their employment with Fordthorne has ended, we will retain the file in accordance with the requirements of our retention schedule and then delete it.

Complaints or queries

Fordthorne strives to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive details of all aspects of Fordthorn collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address provided at the end of this policy.

Access to personal information

Fordthorne tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the Data Protection Act 1998. If we do hold information about you we will:

  • Give you a description of it
  • Tell you why we are holding it
  • Tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
  • Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

To make a request to Fordthorne for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing addressing it to our Human Resources Department using the address provided at the end of this policy.

If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone.

If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again, contacting Fordthorne.

Disclosure of personal information

In the majority of circumstances we will not disclose personal data without consent. However when we investigate a complaint, for example, we will need to share personal information with the organisation concerned and with other relevant bodies. You can also get further information on:

  • Agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information;
  • Circumstances where we can pass on personal data without consent for example, to prevent and detect crime and to produce anonymised statistics;
  • Our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete personal data; and
  • How we check that the information we hold is accurate and up to date.

Contact at once

Please find Contact At Once’s privacy information here

Links to other websites

This privacy policy does not cover the links provided for other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on those websites.

Changes to this privacy policy

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 11/05/2023.

How to contact us

If you wish to request information about our privacy policy please contract us using the information below:

Email: mail@fordthorne.co.uk
Telephone: 02920 223 100
Address: FAO Marketing, Fordthorne, 281Penarth Road, Cardiff, CF11 8TD