FAQs

Please see below for all FAQs about HelloFriend UK...

Order Amendments

Orders are packed & posted within 24 hours of being received, so there is only a small window to request any amends. If you need to change something regarding your order, please send an email immediately to - info@hellofrienduk.com - and we will do our best to make any changes. You can also message us through Instagram @hellofrienduk 

Any amends requested after 24 hours of your order confirmation will not be possible, as your parcel will already have been packed and posted.  

Shipping & Delivery

We rely on Royal Mail for our postage service and whilst they're great, we know that sometimes they're not perfect. ALL our packages are sent using Royal Mail First Class / Standard Express (not Economy) services for fast delivery to all destinations - UK & International.

Our letterbox gifts are packaged up every day, from Monday - Friday (occasionally Saturday) and sent within 24 hours of receiving your order. We cannot guarantee delivery dates, and recommend you allow the following timescales for delivery: 

UK First Class - 1 to 2 Business Days 

Europe - 3 to 5 Business Days

International - 6 to 7 Business Days 

---

Postage Charges

  - Postage to UK - FREE First Class postage to all UK Mainland Addresses

  - Postage to Europe  - Additional charges apply to upgrade delivery to European Countries at £2.99 per parcel

  - Postage to International Destinations  - Additional charges apply to upgrade delivery to International Countries at £3.99 per parcel

Additional postage costs (non-UK) will be calculated automatically at the checkout according to the shipping address provided.

If your delivery is being sent as a gift, please ensure you provide the RECIPIENT name & address in the checkout. If you are ordering the item for yourself, or to hand to the recipient in person, please add your own address.

HelloFriend UK is not responsible if the incorrect address is supplied - we will always send the parcel to the address provided.

Any deliveries sent outside of UK Mainland will also be sent with a Customs Declaration Form on the outside of the packaging. Due to the UK's exit from the European Union on 1st January 2021, some European countries may now apply local charge to receive goods - please check with the local customs authorities. Fees would need to be paid by the recipient to receive their goods - HelloFriend UK is not responsible for any Customs / Import duty charged by the destination country.

---

Refunds & Returns 

We are unable to offer an exchange / return on your HelloFriend UK plush gift unless it has been reported as faulty.

Please send us an email - info@hellofrienduk.com - with photographic evidence of any damage and we will respond ASAP to discuss your options. 

---

Privacy Policy

Contact 

After reviewing this policy, if you have additional questions, want more information about our privacy practices, or would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail at info@hellofrienduk.com or by mail using the details provided below:

HelloFriend Group Ltd, PO Box 1683, High Wycombe HP12 9GU, UK

Collecting Personal Information

When you visit the Site, we collect certain information about your device, your interaction with the Site, and information necessary to process your purchases. We may also collect additional information if you contact us for customer support. In this Privacy Policy, we refer to any information about an identifiable individual (including the information below) as “Personal Information”. See the list below for more information about what Personal Information we collect and why.

• Device information
• Purpose of collection: to load the Site accurately for you, and to perform analytics on Site usage to optimize our Site.
• Source of collection: Collected automatically when you access our Site using cookies, log files, web beacons, tags, or pixels 
• Disclosure for a business purpose: shared with our processor Shopify 
• Personal Information collected: version of web browser, IP address, time zone, cookie information, what sites or products you view, search terms, and how you interact with the Site 
• Order information
• Purpose of collection: to provide products or services to you to fulfill our contract, to process your payment information, arrange for shipping, and provide you with invoices and/or order confirmations, communicate with you, screen our orders for potential risk or fraud, and when in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.
• Source of collection: collected from you.
• Disclosure for a business purpose: shared with our payment processor Shopify
• Personal Information collected: name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers), email address, and phone number.

Minors   

The Site is not intended for individuals under the age of 18. We do not intentionally collect Personal Information from children. If you are the parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us at the address above to request deletion.

Sharing Personal Information  

We share your Personal Information with service providers to help us provide our services and fulfill our contracts with you, as described above. For example:

• We use Shopify to power our online store. You can read more about how Shopify uses your Personal Information here: https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy.
• We may share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

Behavioural Advertising  

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For example:

• We use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site. You can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• We use Shopify Audiences to help us show ads on other websites with our advertising partners to buyers who made purchases with other Shopify merchants and who may also be interested in what we have to offer. We also share information about your use of the Site, your purchases, and the email address associated with your purchases with Shopify Audiences, through which other Shopify merchants may make offers you may be interested in.
• For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at https://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by:

FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads

GOOGLE - https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous

Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at: https://optout.aboutads.info/

We use your personal Information to provide our services to you, which includes: offering products for sale, processing payments, shipping and fulfillment of your order, and keeping you up to date on new products, services, and offers.

Lawful Basis   

Pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), if you are a resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), we process your personal information under the following lawful bases:

• Your consent;
• The performance of the contract between you and the Site;
• Compliance with our legal obligations;
• To protect your vital interests;
• To perform a task carried out in the public interest;
• For our legitimate interests, which do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms.

Retention 

When you place an order through the Site, we will retain your Personal Information for our records unless and until you ask us to erase this information. For more information on your right of erasure, please see the ‘Your rights’ section below.

Automatic Decision-Making 

If you are a resident of the EEA, you have the right to object to processing based solely on automated decision-making (which includes profiling), when that decision-making has a legal effect on you or otherwise significantly affects you.

Our processor Shopify uses limited automated decision-making to prevent fraud that does not have a legal or otherwise significant effect on you.

Services that include elements of automated decision-making include:

• Temporary blacklist of IP addresses associated with repeated failed transactions. This blacklist persists for a small number of hours.
• Temporary blacklist of credit cards associated with blacklisted IP addresses. This blacklist persists for a small number of days.

Your Rights 

GDPR 

If you are a resident of the EEA, you have the right to access the Personal Information we hold about you, to port it to a new service, and to ask that your Personal Information be corrected, updated, or erased. If you would like to exercise these rights, please contact us through the contact information above.

Your Personal Information will be initially processed in Ireland and then will be transferred outside of Europe for storage and further processing, including to Canada and the United States. For more information on how data transfers comply with the GDPR, see Shopify’s GDPR Whitepaper: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/privacy/GDPR.

Cookies 

A cookie is a small amount of information that’s downloaded to your computer or device when you visit our Site. We use a number of different cookies, including functional, performance, advertising, and social media or content cookies. Cookies make your browsing experience better by allowing the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login and region selection). This means you don’t have to re-enter this information each time you return to the site or browse from one page to another. Cookies also provide information on how people use the website, for instance whether it’s their first time visiting or if they are a frequent visitor.

The length of time that a cookie remains on your computer or mobile device depends on whether it is a “persistent” or “session” cookie. Session cookies last until you stop browsing and persistent cookies last until they expire or are deleted. Most of the cookies we use are persistent and will expire between 30 minutes and two years from the date they are downloaded to your device.

You can control and manage cookies in various ways. Please keep in mind that removing or blocking cookies can negatively impact your user experience and parts of our website may no longer be fully accessible.

Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can choose whether or not to accept cookies through your browser controls, often found in your browser’s “Tools” or “Preferences” menu. For more information on how to modify your browser settings or how to block, manage or filter cookies can be found in your browser’s help file or through such sites as: www.allaboutcookies.org.

Additionally, please note that blocking cookies may not completely prevent how we share information with third parties such as our advertising partners. To exercise your rights or opt-out of certain uses of your information by these parties, please follow the instructions in the “Behavioural Advertising” section above.

Do Not Track 

Please note that because there is no consistent industry understanding of how to respond to “Do Not Track” signals, we do not alter our data collection and usage practices when we detect such a signal from your browser.

Changes 

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons.

Complaints 

As noted above, if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail or by mail using the details provided under “Contact” above.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you have the right to lodge your complaint with the relevant data protection authority. You can contact your local data protection authority, or our supervisory authority. 

Last updated: March 2023