Privacy Policy
Red Star Guitars Ltd
Last updated: 12 November 2026 · Version 1.1
This policy explains what personal information Red Star collects, why, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it.
1. Who we are
Red Star Guitars Ltd ("Red Star", "we", "us") sells guitars, including instruments consigned to us by their owners, runs guitar build and setup courses, and carries out repairs and setups.
- Company number: 17337058, registered in England and Wales
- Registered office: Unit 115, Axy Group, 40 Gracechurch Street, London EC3V 0BT
- Trading address: Unit 2, Firgrove Business Park, Fir Grove Road, Cross in Hand, Heathfield TN21 0QL
- Information Commissioner's Office registration number: [TO BE ADDED]
- Contact for anything in this policy: info@redstarguitars.co.uk, or by post to our trading address
Red Star Guitars Ltd is the "controller" of your personal information. That means we decide how it is used and we are responsible for looking after it.
2. Who this policy covers
This policy applies to you if you:
- buy an instrument or anything else from us
- consign an instrument to us for sale
- book a course
- bring an instrument to us for repair or setup
- contact us by email, phone, text, social media or in person
- sign up to hear from us
- visit our website
- visit our premises, where CCTV operates
3. The information we collect
Contact details. Your name, email address, mobile or other phone number, postal address, and any social media details you share with us.
Purchases and bookings. What you buy or book, when, and how much you paid. Card payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe. We do not see or store your full card number.
Consignment details. Details of the instrument you consign, the agreed sale price and commission terms, the record of the sale, and the bank details we need to pay you.
Repair details. Details of your instrument, the work you ask for and the work we carry out, and any manufacturer warranty information.
Course details. Your booking, your experience level, and anything you tell us so we can prepare for your course.
Dietary and allergy information. If you tell us about a dietary need or an allergy when booking a course, we use it only to cater for you on the day. Allergy information is health information, so we only use it with your explicit consent, which you give by choosing to tell us. We delete it after the course.
Marketing preferences. Whether you are on our marketing list, and any request you make to stop hearing from us.
Our communications with you. Emails, messages and notes of conversations about your purchase, consignment, course or repair.
Website information. Technical information collected when you use our website, such as your device, browser and the pages you visit. See section 11 on cookies.
CCTV images. Video recordings from the camera covering the outside of our premises. The camera records video only, not sound.
4. How we use your information, and our legal basis
Data protection law requires us to have a legal basis for each use of your information. These are ours:
| What we use it for | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Selling you an instrument, taking payment and arranging collection or delivery | Performing our contract with you |
| Selling your consigned instrument and paying you the proceeds | Performing our contract with you |
| Booking and running your course | Performing our contract with you |
| Carrying out your repair or setup | Performing our contract with you |
| Processing a manufacturer warranty claim on your instrument | Performing our contract with you |
| Catering for a dietary need or allergy on a course | Your explicit consent |
| Answering your enquiries | Taking steps at your request before entering a contract, or our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us |
| Keeping accounting, tax and Value Added Tax records | Legal obligation |
| Sending you marketing (see section 5) | Your consent, or, for existing customers, our legitimate interest in telling you about similar products and services |
| Operating CCTV to protect our premises, stock, staff and visitors and to prevent and detect crime | Our legitimate interest in security |
| Running and securing our website | Our legitimate interest in operating a secure website |
| Non-essential website cookies | Your consent |
| Establishing, defending or bringing legal claims | Our legitimate interest in protecting the business |
We do not make decisions about you by purely automated means.
5. Marketing
When you share your email address, mobile number, social media details or other contact details with us, we will add you to our marketing database in one of two ways.
If you are a customer. If you buy from us, book a course or pay for a repair or setup, we will add your contact details to our marketing database. We may then send you updates and notifications of new services, new products and offers, similar to those you have bought from us. When you give us your details, you will be given a clear chance to say no. Every message we send will also include a simple way to stop.
Everyone else. If you contact us with an enquiry, consign an instrument with us, follow or message us on social media, or meet us in person, we will only add you to our marketing database if you tell us you want to join, for example by ticking a box or signing up on our website.
What we send. Updates and notifications of new services, new products, offers, course dates and events, by email, text message or social media direct message.
Stopping at any time. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email, by replying STOP to a text, or by emailing info@redstarguitars.co.uk. We will stop promptly. We keep a short record that you have unsubscribed so that we do not contact you again by mistake.
We never sell your details and we never pass them to other businesses for their own marketing.
6. Who we share your information with
We share your information only where we need to, with:
- Squarespace, which hosts our website, and Acuity Scheduling (owned by Squarespace), which handles course bookings
- Stripe, which processes card payments
- Xero, our accounting software
- Google Workspace, which runs our email and documents
- Google Analytics, which counts visits to our website and completed course bookings, only if you accept analytics cookies
- [HubSpot / Squarespace Email Campaigns], our email marketing platform
- Ring, which provides and stores our CCTV recordings
- couriers, when we deliver an instrument to you
- instrument manufacturers, such as Gibson, when we carry out a warranty repair on your instrument
- our professional advisers, such as our accountant, solicitor and insurers
- HM Revenue & Customs, the police or other authorities, where the law requires it or to prevent or detect crime
- a buyer of our business, if the business is ever sold, on the basis that they continue to protect your information in line with this policy
Our service providers act on our instructions and may only use your information to provide their service to us.
7. Transfers outside the United Kingdom
Some of our service providers, including Squarespace, Acuity Scheduling, Stripe, Google and our email marketing platform, are based in the United States or store information there. When your information is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we make sure it is protected by one of the safeguards UK law requires:
- the UK-US data bridge, for United States providers certified under it, or
- contract terms approved for UK transfers, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the International Data Transfer Addendum.
You can ask us for more details of these safeguards using the contact details in section 1.
8. How long we keep your information
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Records of sales, consignments, courses and repairs, including financial and tax records | Six years from the end of the financial year they relate to, as required for tax purposes |
| Consignor bank details | For as long as we are selling instruments for you, then as part of the financial records above |
| Enquiries that do not lead to a purchase, booking or consignment | Two years from our last contact |
| Marketing database | Until you unsubscribe, after which we keep only a short record that you have unsubscribed |
| Dietary and allergy information | Deleted within 30 days of the end of your course |
| CCTV recordings | 30 days, unless needed to investigate an incident, in which case for as long as that investigation requires |
9. Keeping your information secure
We use reputable service providers with strong security standards, restrict access to people who need it, protect accounts with secure passwords and two-step verification, and keep paper records locked away. If a breach of your information is likely to put you at high risk, we will tell you.
10. Your rights
You have the right to:
- access the information we hold about you and receive a copy
- correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- have your information deleted, where we no longer have a reason to keep it
- restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances
- object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests, and to stop marketing at any time
- take your information with you in a commonly used electronic format, where we hold it on the basis of consent or a contract
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it
To use any of these rights, email info@redstarguitars.co.uk. There is normally no charge. We will reply within one month, or tell you within that month if we need longer because your request is complex. We may ask you to confirm your identity first.
11. Cookies
Our website uses cookies, which are small files stored on your device. Some are essential to make the website work, such as those that run the booking and checkout pages. Others help us understand how the website is used or support marketing. We only use non-essential cookies if you agree to them through the cookie banner on our website, and you can change your choice at any time.
Google Analytics. If you select “Accept all”, or allow analytics under “Manage cookies”, we use Google Analytics to count visits, see which pages are used and how visitors found our website, and record when a course booking is completed. Google processes this information for us under its data processing terms, and we have turned off the settings that let Google use it for its own products and services. We keep Analytics data for 14 months. If you select “Decline all”, these cookies are not set. You can change your choice at any time with the “Cookie Preferences” button on our website, or block cookies in your browser settings.
12. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first at info@redstarguitars.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and look into it without undue delay.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator for data protection:
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
13. Age
Our services, including our courses, are for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
14. Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when the way we use information changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If we make a significant change, we will tell customers directly.