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Privacy policy for Voltforge explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information when you use our websites, contact us, request a quote, place an order or deal with us in relation to products, services, repairs, warranty or support.

Voltforge is the trading name used by Zeromachine Ltd for customer-facing electrical, wiring and shop activity. This privacy policy applies to information handled through voltforge.co.uk, shop.voltforge.co.uk, and related customer communications connected with Voltforge and Zeromachine.

1. Who we are

Zeromachine Ltd is the data controller for the purposes of this privacy policy when handling personal information connected with Voltforge.

Zeromachine Ltd
Company No. 16082140
Registered office: 34 Twentyfifth Avenue, Blyth, Northumberland, NE24 2QW
VAT No. GB486043577

If you have questions about this privacy policy or how we handle personal information, please contact us using the contact details published on our websites.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers personal information we collect when you:

• visit or use our websites
• contact us by phone, email, form or message
• ask us for advice, support or a quotation
• place an order through our shop
• ask us about compatibility, product selection, design work, repairs or system support
• return goods, raise a fault, or deal with a warranty issue

3. What personal information we may collect

Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect and use information such as:

• your name
• your billing address and delivery address
• your email address
• your telephone number
• order details and transaction history
• vehicle, system or installation details where relevant to technical support, diagnostics, design or warranty
• communications you send to us and records of our replies
• information needed to deal with faults, returns, warranty queries or shipping issues
• basic website usage information collected through cookies, analytics or security tools where these are enabled

We do not intentionally collect more personal information than we need for the job in hand.

4. How we use your information

We may use personal information for the following purposes:

• to reply to enquiries and provide technical or commercial information
• to prepare quotations or take pre-contract steps at your request
• to process, fulfil and support shop orders
• to arrange dispatch, delivery, returns, refunds and warranty handling
• to assess compatibility, installation issues, faults or support cases
• to maintain records of customer orders, communications and support history
• to meet legal, tax, accounting and regulatory obligations
• to prevent fraud, misuse and abuse of our systems or services
• to keep our websites, systems and communications functioning securely and reliably

5. Our lawful bases for using personal information

We use personal information on the basis of one or more lawful grounds under UK data protection law, depending on the context.

Contract and pre-contract steps: where you ask us for a quote, place an order, ask us to fulfil a purchase, arrange delivery, process a return or deal with a warranty issue connected to something you bought from us, we will normally rely on contract or pre-contract processing because we need the information to do what you have asked us to do.

Legitimate interests: we may also use personal information where this is necessary for the legitimate interests of running Voltforge and Zeromachine properly, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. This may include handling routine customer service, maintaining records, preventing fraud, keeping our systems secure, and following up on more involved orders or support issues to make sure things have been handled properly.

Legal obligation: in some cases we must keep or use information to comply with tax, accounting, consumer-law or other legal obligations.

Consent: where we rely on consent for any optional activity, such as certain forms of marketing where required, you can withdraw that consent at any time.

6. Who we share information with

We do not treat customer information as something to be traded. We do not believe in information brokerage, and we do not sell personal information on.

However, in order to run the business properly, we may need to share relevant personal information with trusted third parties where necessary, including:

• couriers and delivery providers so that orders can be delivered, tracked, redirected or resolved if there is a shipping issue
• suppliers, manufacturers and fulfilment partners where products are dispatched directly, where stock is held externally, where a product needs to be sourced or supported through the supplier network, or where a warranty or technical issue requires supplier involvement
• payment service providers to process payments and refunds, including Stripe for online card payments
• banking providers where necessary to receive or reconcile payments and refunds, including Lloyds Bank for bank-transfer related processing and account records
• website, hosting, email and IT service providers who help us run the websites and communications securely
• professional advisers such as accountants, insurers or legal advisers where necessary
• regulators, authorities or law-enforcement bodies where we are required to do so by law or where disclosure is otherwise lawful and necessary

Where we share information, we aim to limit it to what is actually needed for the purpose in question. For example, a courier needs delivery details, not your entire life story.

7. Supplier and drop-shipping arrangements

Voltforge no longer operates only on the basis of in-house stock. Some items are fulfilled from supplier or partner stock, and some warranty or technical cases may require us to liaise directly with the relevant supplier or manufacturer.

That means customer information connected with an order may need to be shared with the relevant supplier, manufacturer or fulfilment partner where necessary to:

• dispatch the goods
• confirm stock or product availability
• resolve a shipping issue
• assess a fault, compatibility issue or warranty matter
• support after-sales service properly

If we need to involve a supplier or manufacturer, it will be because the order or issue genuinely requires it, not because we enjoy passing customers around the houses.

8. Payments

If you place an order through the shop, payment information is normally handled by the payment provider or gateway used at checkout. Online card payments are processed through Stripe. If you pay us by bank transfer, payment-related information such as payer name, account details shown to us by the banking system, payment references and transaction records may appear within our Lloyds Bank records.

We do not expect to store full payment card details ourselves where a standard hosted or gateway-based payment process is being used.

You should also review the privacy information provided by the relevant payment provider used during checkout.

9. Website analytics, cookies and technical data

Our websites may use cookies, analytics tools, security tools and standard server logs to help the sites function properly, understand general usage patterns, improve performance and protect against misuse.

If cookies or analytics are used, we recommend that the privacy policy and cookie settings are kept aligned so that the explanation on the site matches what is actually happening in practice.

10. International data transfers

Some website, email, analytics, payment or software providers may process information outside the UK. Where that happens, we expect appropriate safeguards to be in place in accordance with applicable data protection law.

If your current website or shop stack uses providers outside the UK, this section should be reviewed against the actual services in use so that it remains accurate rather than decorative.

11. How long we keep information

We keep personal information for no longer than is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to any legal, tax, accounting, warranty, fraud-prevention or record-keeping requirements that mean it needs to be retained for longer.

In practice, different categories of information may be kept for different periods depending on whether they relate to enquiries, quotations, completed orders, warranty matters, accounting records or website security logs.

12. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights to:

• be informed about how your information is being used
• request access to the personal information we hold about you
• ask for inaccurate information to be corrected
• ask for information to be erased in certain circumstances
• ask for processing to be restricted in certain circumstances
• object to certain types of processing
• request data portability where applicable
• withdraw consent where consent is the basis relied on
• complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

If you want to exercise any of these rights, contact us first and we will deal with it properly.

13. Contacting you

If we contact you, it will be because we need to deal with your enquiry, order, delivery issue, return, warranty matter or another genuine customer-service issue properly. We may occasionally follow up on a more involved order or support case to make sure everything arrived safely and is as expected. That is customer service, not a sales tactic.

We are not going to cold call you later, and we are not going to sell your information on.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled personal information, please contact us first so we have the chance to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

ICO details are available at: https://ico.org.uk/

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in how Voltforge and Zeromachine operate, changes to suppliers or systems, legal developments, or changes to the websites and shop. The latest version published on the site will be the one that applies.