Privacy Statement

Rinnai Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 74.005.138.769)

Our Commitment to your Privacy

This policy applies to all individuals, including customers, consumers, visitors, suppliers and contractors, who have disclosed personal information to Rinnai Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 74 005 138 769) (Rinnai) and any of its subsidiaries (together the RA Group). Rinnai is committed to protecting the privacy of all personal information which is collected and held. To this end, Rinnai complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act. This statement sets out how Rinnai handles your personal information across its businesses operating in Australia.

Types of personal information we collect

If you are a customer, consumer, visitor, supplier, contractor or job applicant of Rinnai we may collect your personal information. Personal Information is information or an opinion about an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual.

Generally, the types of information Rinnai collect are:

Contact and identification information, such as your name and previous name, address and previous addresses, telephone numbers, email address, date of birth, gender, driver’s licence number and passport number;
Credit information, being credit related personal information lawfully created and accessible within the Australian credit reporting system;
Credit eligibility information from credit reporting bodies and credit providers, including any internally generated scores, rating and other assessment used to evaluate your credit worthiness;
Sensitive information including criminal record information;
Marketing data collected through surveys that include your age group, reason for purchasing our product, advertising and method of referral.

Why we collect personal information

Generally, we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information about you, for the purpose of carry on our business, including:

to register information that identifies you as a customer, consumer, visitor, supplier, or contractor of Rinnai’s products and or services. This includes occupants of rental properties and real estate with one of Rinnai’s products installed;
to register warranty information that identifies the customer or consumer as the owner of a Rinnai’s products;
to enable a credit application from the customer, consumer, supplier, or contractor to be processed;
to provide the requested products and or services to the customer, consumer or contractor;
to enable the issuance of tax invoices for products and or services provided to customers and contractors, and collection of overdue payments;
for training, quality control and verification purposes, including monitoring and recording the customer’s telephone conversations with us where required;
to test and certify company products;
to conduct product field investigations i.e. product incidents;
to provide the customer, consumer, visitor, supplier, or contractor with the latest product information, promotional information and other information we feel the customer may find useful;
to communicate marketing offers by Rinnai, or any other entity within the RA Group. When making the offer we will let the customer, consumer, visitor, supplier, contractor know how they may stop receiving any further marketing offers. Where another organisation outside Rinnai is involved in the offer, we do not disclose personal information about the customer, consumer, visitor, supplier, contractor to that organisation;
to facilitate the processing of commercial claims e.g. cashbacks;
to improve Rinnai products and services;
to better target Rinnai’s marketing and advertising messages;
for the purpose of informing its customers or the public of a possible product recall; and
to meet Rinnai’s legal and regulatory obligations and assist its suppliers, contractors and any third-parties to meet their own legal and regulatory obligations (including compliance) in terms of their dealings with Rinnai and or their customers.

Rinnai may also use your personal information for purposes related to the above, for which you would reasonably expect Rinnai to do so, where you have otherwise consented or it is otherwise in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Where personal information is used or disclosed, Rinnai will take all reasonable steps to ensure that it is relevant to the purpose for which it is used and disclosed.

How we collect personal information

Generally, we collect personal information directly from you or a family household member through:

requests and purchases of products and or services;
exchanges you have with Rinnai over the phone or email;
the returned of warranty cards;
communications with our Customer Service call centre (known as the NCA); or
our website, such as when you apply for or request a product or service.

There may be instances when Rinnai collects your personal information from:

Builders, architects, plumbers, retail stores, real estate agents or other persons;
Service Technicians or Zone Contractors who may have requested personal information when booking service or maintenance calls;
Credit reporting bodies or credit providers;
Marketing campaigns, such as offers for extended warranty or product upgrades. We may collect your personal information over the phone or Internet, or in person when you visit a Rinnai showroom, or when you write to us; and
Publicly maintained records.

How we store personal information

Rinnai stores information in a combination of secure computer storage systems and paper-based files and other records. We have taken a number of steps to protect personal information we hold from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We use generally accepted technology and security so that we are satisfied that your personal information is transmitted safely to us through the Internet or other electronic means.

We will take reasonable steps to securely destroy personal information when we no longer need it.

When we may disclose your personal information

Generally, we may disclose personal information about you in the following circumstances:

where we have engaged an external organisation to provide us with support or processing services such as independent contractors, installers or service agents;
Where we have engaged third party service providers to perform services on our behalf, including but not limited to processing payments of creditors;
to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including the provision of information to a Court of law, regulatory body or authority. We shall notify you when we are required to produce information in this way unless we are prohibited to do so for the avoidance of fraud and or criminal activity;
when establishing your credit account, or if your account is in default, with credit providers, credit reporting bodies, debt collection and recovery service providers;
where you have consented to the use or disclosure; and
where we reasonably believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious or immediate threat to someone’s health or safety, or the health and safety of the pubic.

Whilst unlikely, Rinnai may disclose personal information to its parent company (Rinnai Japan), in situations deemed necessary. This includes but is not solely limited to matters of a legal nature, a dispute or claim, safety and health. Rinnai Japan will not disclose any personal information without the written consent of the individual the information relates to.

These disclosures are always on a confidential basis or otherwise in accordance with the law. Any third-party providers engaged by Rinnai are required to follow equally compliant standards of security and confidentiality.

Access to and correction of personal information

Rinnai will take reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect and hold is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading

Under the Privacy Act, you have a right to access and seek correction of your personal information that is collected and held by Rinnai. If you wish to access or correct your personal information, or would like more information on our privacy policy, please contact our Privacy Officer via email on [email protected]. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Service call centre (NCA) on 1300 555 545 and ask to speak with the Privacy Officer.

Rinnai will grant access to your personal information to the extent required or authorised by the Privacy Act or other law, and will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where necessary and appropriate. We may also consult other relevant entities, such as credit reporting bodies and credit providers, in order to verify the accuracy of the information.

Should you wish to access your personal information:

Please provide proof of identity to ensure that personal information is provided only to the correct individual and that the privacy of others is protected; and
Be reasonably specific in relation to the information you require.

We may charge you a reasonable administration fee for the access and provision of the information.

Please note that there are some circumstances set out in the Privacy Act where we may refuse your request. If we refuse to provide you with access or to correct the personal information as requested, we will provide you our reasons for such refusal in writing, and outline mechanisms available to you should you wish to challenge the refusal.

Complaints

Please direct any complaints to the Privacy Officer in the first instance. We assure you that all complaints will be treated seriously, and will be dealt with promptly and in a confidential manner.

The Privacy Officer will investigate your complaint and inform you of the outcome of the investigation.

About this Privacy Statement

We may update our Privacy Policy and this Privacy Statement from time to time. The latest version will be published on our website and is also available in print via download as an Adobe Acrobat PDF, or from the Rinnai offices on request.

Contacting us

If you have any queries about our Privacy Policy, if you wish to update or access the information we hold about you, or wish to make a complaint or to receive a copy of our current Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer on the details given below:

By email:

[email protected]

By phone (ask to speak to the Privacy Officer):

1300 555 545

By mail:

The Privacy Officer

Rinnai Australia Pty Ltd
P.O. Box 460 Braeside
VIC 3195