Security & Privacy Policy
Southwest Strings - A Brand You Can Trust
At Southwest Strings, we value our customers and understand your concerns about online privacy and security. Because we know that your privacy is very important, we have established policies to ensure that your personal information is always respected and handled in a safe and responsible manner.
Our privacy policy is designed to help you understand how we collect personal information, what information we collect, how we use it, the steps we take to safeguard it, and the choices you have regarding how it may be used and disclosed.
This privacy policy applies to personal information collected by us at our store, through our call center, via mail, via our website at www.swstrings.com (the 'Site'), or by any of the other means described in this policy.
SEE OUR PRIVACY POLICY BELOW
Privacy Policy Quick Reference
Click on any link below to find more information about that privacy policy topic.
- Who we are
- What information do we collect?
- How do we use your information?
- How can you control the use of your information?
- How do we safeguard your information?
- What technologies do you use to enhance my shopping experience?
- Children's Privacy
- Changes to this Privacy Statement
- How to Contact Us
- Conflict in Terms
Who We Are
Southwest Strings, located in Tucson, AZ, began as a small music studio. We have grown into an international business dedicated to serving professional musicians, teachers and students. The success of Southwest Strings can be attributed to the vision and dedication of offering a large variety of quality products at affordable prices. You may view our products online or call to request our complete catalog.
What Information We Collect
To give you an exceptional experience each time you shop with us, we may collect information that you provide when you:
- Request one of our catalogs or information about our products and services;
- Visit our Site or our retail store;
- Create an online shopping account on our Site, if applicable;
- Purchase, return, or exchange a product by phone, mail or online;
- Contact our call center or customer service desk;
- Participate in a promotion, contest or survey; or
- Provide us with comments or suggestions.
The types of information we may collect, in order to serve you better, include:
- Contact information such as name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address;
- Personal information such as billing address and credit card information, when provided;
- Demographic and preference information such as product purchase history; or
- Information you provide about other people, such as a gift recipient.
When you set up an online shopping account at our web site, if applicable, we may also request a password to allow you secure access.
We may also supplement the information listed above with anonymous Site traffic information that's collected automatically when you visit our Site, plus with information acquired from our joint marketing partners, from third parties, and from our affiliated companies.
How do we use your information?
Southwest Strings wants to provide you with the most efficient and trustworthy shopping experience. We may use personal information that you provide to us in the following manner:
- To assist you in customer service communications;
- To administer 'My Account' information, online forms, and other Site features;
- To enable you to check out and complete your purchases, and to fill and ship your orders;
- To send you special announcements or promotional information about new products or services and upcoming events, when you have opted in to our mailing list;
- To send you printed catalogs in the mail;
- As necessary, to share your information with trusted third-party companies that provide support services to us;
- To help improve our Site; or
- Where we consider it necessary to protect your legal rights, our legal rights, or the legal rights of third parties, or where required by law.
More details of the ways in which we may use your information are set out below.
In-store Shopping. When you visit our store, you can shop anonymously when you pay with cash. However, we may keep a history of your purchases if you use a credit card or debit card. We collect this information in order to process your orders and to better assist you, and all such information will be treated in compliance with this privacy policy.
If you want to return or exchange purchased merchandise, we may ask you for personal identification information such as the credit card used for the purchase or a picture ID to help prevent fraud.
E-mails. We may use your e-mail address to notify you about the status of your order (if you have placed one), provide customer service information, or answer your questions and requests. We also send you our e-mail updates, sales notifications, or other promotional information about our products and services, if you have opted in to be contacted in this way.
Telephone Contact. If you provide us with your phone number, you may receive telephone contact from us for customer service communications, such as to ask you about your order, if you have placed one. If you call our customer service toll-free number, we may ask you for personal identification information, depending on the nature of your request, to better assist you with your requests and questions. We may retain this information to help meet your future needs.
Contests, Promotions or Surveys. If you participate in a contest, promotion, sweepstakes offering, or survey (whether online, over the phone, by mail, or at our retail store), we may use your personal information to manage your entry in such promotion, to notify you if you are a winner, or to fulfill promotional obligations. At the time of your entry or registration for a specific promotion, survey, contest, or sweepstakes, we will provide you with the rules governing such promotion, survey, contest, or sweepstakes.
Catalogs and Mailings. We may use your name and postal address to occasionally send you our printed catalogs, flyers or other syndicated mailings.
By Law. In certain instances, we may disclose your personal information when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify or contact you in relation to, or bring legal action to protect, your legal rights, the legal rights of us, or the legal rights of others. We may also disclose your personal information when we believe it is required by law.
How can you control the use of your information?
We want you to be in control of your information, and we want to communicate with you only if you want to hear from us.
Account Management. You can contact us at any time to review, change or delete certain personal information. Simply call our customer service specialists at (800) 528-3430.
E-mails. If you do not want to receive our electronic newsletter or promotional e-mails, you may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on 'unsubscribe' at the bottom or top of any of our promotional e-mails.
Catalogs. If you do not wish to receive our printed catalog, please contact our customer service specialists at (800) 528-3430. When you give us your name and address as it appears on the mailing label, we will remove your contact information from our mailing list. Please allow several weeks for the catalogs to stop, as catalog delivery is scheduled well in advance.
Telephone Contact. If you do not wish to receive telephone calls from us regarding our sales notifications or promotions, please contact our customer service specialists at (800) 528-3430. Please note that we may continue to contact you by telephone for customer service communications (such as in relation to orders that you have previously placed with us).
How do we safeguard your information?
Protecting the safety of your personal information is important to us. Where we maintain an online store, we use a variety of technical, administrative and physical safeguards so that you can enjoy your shopping experience without having to worry about the loss of, misuse of, or unauthorized access to your information.
Secure Shopping. Where our Site permits you to enter credit card or other billing information, we use industry-standard encryption technologies to encrypt that information while it is being transmitted to our Site. In addition, we make commercially acceptable efforts to stay up to date with best practices regarding the protection of information in connection with transactions occurring over the internet. We also use Komodo Secure as our SSL provider as an added measure for your protection. You may want to check your internet settings to make sure your browser is in compliance with industry-standard encryption technology.
Firewalls. We protect all personal information stored in our computer systems, including information about your orders, behind a network security system called a 'firewall'. We only permit our authorized staff to access our computer systems, and then only for the purposes described in this privacy policy.
Phone Orders. Some versions of popular web browsers and some firewalls do not permit communication through secure servers like the ones we use to process orders. If your web browser cannot support this level of security, you will not be able to order products through our Site. If so, you may place orders by calling us toll-free at (800) 528-3430.
We follow industry practices to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, but no data transmission over Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us over the Internet. Also, please note that e-mail is not encrypted and is not considered a secure means of transmitting credit card numbers.
What technologies do you use to enhance my shopping experience?
To improve our Site and to make your online experience more enjoyable, we may collect anonymous information about all visitors to our Site, through the use of cookies and other technologies.
Cookies. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. We use cookies to tell us who you are, tailor our products and services to suit your personal interests, estimate the number of visitors to our Site, track visits to and sales at the stores referenced on our Site, process your order, track your status in our promotions, contests and sweepstakes, and/or analyze our customers' visiting patterns. Cookies do not contain any personal identification information (such as name or credit card information). Most browsers are preset to accept cookies and are used to make online visits easier and faster for you. Cookies are not required for you to browse our Site, however they are required for you to shop on our Site or to place an order. If you set your browser to refuse cookies, purchasing is not possible at our Site. In such cases, to place orders, please call us at (800) 528-3430.
We have also contracted with third parties to monitor certain pages of our Site for the purpose of reporting Site traffic, and/or other advertising statistics. Where authorized by us, these third parties may use cookies and/or other monitoring technologies to compile anonymous statistics about our Site visitors. No personal identification information is transferred to these third parties.
Children's Privacy
This Site is not directed towards children; we do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under 13 years of age.
Changes to this Privacy Statement
By using this Site, you consent to the collection and use of your personal information as described herein. We reserve the right to change, modify or amend this policy from time to time. If our privacy policy changes, we will notify you by publishing the new policy on our Site together with its effective date. Once effective, the new policy will apply to all personal information we currently hold, whether collected before or after the new policy's effective date. We encourage you to periodically review our current privacy policy.
How to Contact Us
Our customers come first. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us.
- Write to us at Southwest Strings, 1721 S. Cherrybell, Strav, Tucson, AZ 85713
- Call us at (800) 528-3430.
- Email us at CustomerService@swstrings.com
Conflict in Terms
It is our goal to make our privacy practices easy to understand. We have created this easy-to-read privacy policy with that goal in mind. Some browsers utilize privacy enhancing technology to translate our privacy policy into a computer readable format. The technology then requires that the computer format be translated back into human readable format for you to read. This translation back into human readable format is often referred to as a 'Policy Summary'; it is possible that through these translations, the Policy Summary may unintentionally end up being inconsistent with the privacy policy upon which it is based. It might fail to address an issue or it might address an issue not raised in our privacy policy. For this reason, you should rely on our privacy policy as the most accurate and definitive description of our practices.