Privacy Policy

The Pool Store, Inc.

Effective date: October 30, 2026.

1. About this policy

The Pool Store, Inc. ("The Pool Store," "we," "us," or "our") provides this policy to explain how information is handled when you visit thepoolstoreinc.com, send a website inquiry, or communicate with us about that inquiry. It also describes choices you can make and how to contact us with a privacy request.

Separate service, transaction, or third-party notices may provide additional details when you use those services. This policy does not authorize marketing simply because you browse our website or submit a service request.

Optional guide sharing: If you choose “Start sharing my guide,” our signed-in staff can use your temporary code to follow the guide step, pool and service choices, payment preference and calculated price estimates. This feature does not share contact details, your service address, preferred dates, notes or other browser contents, and staff cannot control your page. Sharing ends when you stop it, after 30 minutes, or after two minutes without a customer-page connection. Temporary selection records are held outside the public website, become inaccessible at expiration and are removed on a subsequent sharing request. A separate secure session cookie protects these sharing controls. Hashed network identifiers and recent request times limit abuse.

2. Information we collect

Information you provide. Depending on how you contact us, this may include your name, email address, telephone number, city, state, ZIP code, service address, preferred contact method, and details about your pool, hot tub, equipment, or requested work. It may also include messages, optional project photographs attached to an inquiry, or photographs and documents you choose to send during follow-up and a record of our communications and your contact preferences.

Website and device information. Our hosting provider processes technical information, such as your IP address, browser and device information, requested pages, and request times, to deliver and protect the website. First-party cookies and browser storage support form security and the features described below. Google address suggestions send Google the information described in Section 5.

Related service records. If an inquiry leads to a quote or service, we may keep related scheduling, proposal, agreement, and customer-service information to manage that request. Payments are handled separately from this website. Please do not send full payment-card numbers, bank details, passwords, government identification numbers, or other sensitive information through a general inquiry form.

Optional inquiry photographs. Relevant inquiry forms allow up to three JPG, PNG or WebP photographs. The browser resizes selected images, and the server validates and re-encodes them before attaching them to the office email. The re-encoding removes embedded image metadata. Uploaded originals exist temporarily for processing and are not published or retained in a website gallery. The emailed copies are handled with the inquiry in our business email account. Photographs are excluded from staff-assisted guide sharing and its sales register. Avoid including people, addresses or sensitive documents in these optional images.

3. How we use information

We use information as relevant to:

Respond to questions, discuss product and service options, and prepare estimates.
Arrange and manage requested services, communicate about appointments, and maintain related customer records.
Operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the website and prevent spam, fraud, or misuse.
Send optional promotional communications when you have subscribed or provided the permission required for that communication.
Comply with legal obligations, maintain necessary business records, and address disputes.

4. How information is shared

Providers supporting our business. We may disclose relevant contact, inquiry, communication, project, and technical information to providers that help with website hosting, form delivery, email or messaging, customer records, scheduling, technology support, or security. Information is shared for the functions those providers perform for us.

Request-source labels. The website reads recognized search or social referrals and limited campaign labels (utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign). It keeps only a source category, a short source label, limited campaign/medium labels and a public landing-page path without its query string. Google or Microsoft advertising click identifiers are used only to recognize a paid-search visit; their identifier values are not retained. The most recent recognized campaign or external referral can be remembered in this tab’s session storage for up to 12 hours, or until the tab is closed or its saved labels are cleared through Website privacy. If browser storage is unavailable, labels can remain in page memory only. Internal page links do not replace an already recognized source. Detailed campaign labels are sent to our server with an inquiry. A broad source category may also accompany optional signup-step counts. Detailed campaign labels stay in our request tracker. If you allow Google Analytics, only fixed source categories and recognized provider names are used in its events; campaign text, click identifiers and full referring URLs are excluded.

Source labels can be absent or inaccurate and do not identify every visit, completed call, new customer or advertising expense. Staff compare request references with office-confirmed bookings; booking value is not a record of payments collected. Please do not put customer contact details or other personal information into advertising campaign labels.

Analytics and advertising. This website uses Google Analytics 4 only after you allow it. It does not use advertising pixels or remarketing audiences. Optional visitor analytics and separate first-party signup-step counts are described below. Google address suggestions and hosting request information are handled separately.

Other necessary disclosures. We may disclose relevant information when required by law, to respond to a valid legal process, to protect people or legal rights, to investigate misuse, or in connection with a business transfer subject to applicable law. We may also disclose information when you specifically request or authorize it.

5. Cookies, analytics, advertising, and security tools

No advertising pixels or reCAPTCHA are connected. Google Analytics 4 is optional and loads only after you allow it. Google address suggestions, first-party signup-step counts and their separate privacy choices are described below. Our inquiry forms collect the fields shown on the form, including your name, preferred contact method, email address, phone number, service address or five-digit ZIP code, service selections, payment preference, preferred service weeks, and any optional project details. Submissions are emailed to the office’s business mailbox so The Pool Store team can respond. Customer contact details remain in the business email account. The private website-request register keeps the WEB reference, service category and choices, estimated amount, limited source labels, staff attribution when applicable, assigned follow-up staff, follow-up stage and date, and office-entered booking status and confirmed sale value. It does not copy names, phone numbers, email addresses, service addresses, preferred service weeks, messages or photos into that register. Existing records and audit history are retained; adding a source or follow-up feature does not establish that an earlier customer was contacted. The form uses a short-lived first-party session cookie to protect submissions; the cookie expires when the browser session ends. To limit automated abuse, the website keeps submission counts and times linked to a protected code derived from the visitor’s network address. These security counters are stored outside the website’s public files and do not contain inquiry messages, names, email addresses or phone numbers. GoDaddy hosting processes technical request information, such as IP addresses and requested pages, to deliver and protect the site. Submitted messages are retained in the business email account and handled under applicable retention practices. Phone and email links connect through their normal channels.

If you choose to share a seasonal or closing guide with our office, a temporary first-party cookie links a request submitted during that active sharing session to the staff member helping you. Attribution stops when the sharing session ends or expires. We retain the internal service-selection and sales records described above to manage quote follow-up and review staff sales. Customer names, phone numbers, email addresses, service addresses, preferred service dates and private notes are not copied into that register. Confirmed sales are entered by staff; selecting a service or payment preference is not a completed sale or payment.

You can use your browser settings to block or delete cookies. Doing so may affect website features. Where the website offers cookie or privacy settings, use those settings to review and change the choices offered. Browser controls may not cover every type of tracking, and deleting cookies can remove a previously saved preference.

You can contact us to request an opt-out from uses of your information for targeted advertising or other processing covered by applicable privacy law. A request sent to our office is not the same as changing your browser's settings. See the privacy-request instructions below.

The opening and closing guides can save your pool details and service choices in local storage on the same browser for up to seven days, so you can choose to resume an unfinished plan. Contact information, service addresses, preferred dates, private notes, referral answers, help codes and payment details are not saved in that seven-day plan. Saved choices do not send a request or reserve service. Prices are recalculated using the current guide when you resume. Use Reset all selections or Start over to remove the saved plan, or clear this website’s browser storage.

The inquiry forms can separately keep your name, phone number, email, service address, ZIP code and preferred weeks in this tab’s session storage for up to 30 minutes to restore an interrupted form. This temporary draft is not sent to the office or included in analytics or staff-assisted sharing. Notes, photos, referral answers, security tokens and payment information are excluded. It is removed after a confirmed send or an uncertain submission. Use “Clear contact details and weeks” in the form to remove the draft. Recognized staff browsers do not use this contact-draft feature. The hot-tub comparison can save model choices and filter preferences on this browser for up to seven days; use Clear choices and Reset filters to remove those selections. It stores no contact details.

Optional Google Analytics 4

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand public page visits and a limited set of actions, such as starting a service guide, reaching its request form, tapping a phone link, or successfully sending an inquiry. Google’s tag loads only after you choose Allow analytics. Choosing No thanks, withdrawing permission through Website privacy, or a supported Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track setting keeps this analytics collection off. The site and inquiry forms continue to work.

When allowed, Google receives fixed public page addresses and titles, limited event and service categories, recognized referral-provider names, and technical request information such as browser and device details. Our events exclude names, phone numbers, email addresses, service addresses, notes, typed form contents, preferred service weeks, WEB references, staff-sharing codes, full query strings and advertising click identifiers. Automatic form, outbound-link and site-search measurement is turned off. Google Signals and advertising-personalization signals are disabled in our tag.

Analytics cookies distinguish browser activity. We set their lifetime to up to 180 days without extending it on each visit. The Allow or No thanks preference is stored in local storage for up to 180 days. Turning analytics off stops future collection and clears the website’s Analytics cookies in this browser; it does not remove information already processed by Google. Google handles its data under its Privacy Policy. Google Analytics data is not a complete or verified count of people; blockers, privacy choices, device changes and undetected automated traffic affect the figures.

Private staff pages, recognized staff browsers, local previews and marked test visits are excluded from the new collection. Staff browsers retain a local exclusion preference until browser storage is cleared. Our private performance panel combines separate Google aggregate reports with request and office-entered booking totals. Visitor events are not joined to customer contact details or individual sales records, and a phone-link tap does not prove that a call took place.

We use a first-party counter to understand which stages customers reach in the opening and closing guides, including the shorter Help me choose inquiry and phone-link taps. The counter receives only a guide name, fixed step names, a broad request-source category and a random attempt identifier. It does not receive your name, phone number, email, address, preferred weeks, typed form contents, full URLs, advertising click IDs or staff-sharing code. A phone-link tap does not establish that a call occurred.

The random attempt identifier is kept in this tab’s session storage for a limited 30-minute attempt and is not included in the office email or sales register. The server stores a daily one-way hash for deduplication, retaining current/previous-day hashes for up to about 48 hours. Aggregate daily counts use a rolling 90-day window. Expired hashes and daily counts are removed on the next counter update or report read. The new counts exclude recognized staff browsers, local previews and marked test visits. Earlier aggregate counts that included testing are retained separately; marking a WEB request as a test does not rewrite past aggregate counts. The counter does not store IP addresses or browser fingerprints; GoDaddy’s normal technical request processing remains separate.

Use Website privacy → Turn off signup-step counting to stop future optional counts on this browser. The preference is kept in local storage until you change it or clear browser storage. A supported Global Privacy Control signal or Do Not Track setting also disables these counts. Turning counting off does not remove anonymous aggregate counts already recorded. The guides and inquiry forms continue to work when counting is off.

Accepted-request counts are recorded only after the website accepts a valid inquiry and hands its email to the mail system. They do not independently verify inbox delivery, customer contact, a booking or a payment. Staff follow-up and not-booked reasons are office-entered records. Earlier contact statuses retain their original recorded meaning; they are not reclassified as a confirmed customer response.

Google address suggestions

The opening, closing and property-service inquiry forms use Google Maps to suggest a service address as you type. Focusing the address field loads Google’s service; the address text you type and technical request information, such as your IP address and browser details, are sent to Google to provide suggestions. This feature does not send Google your name, phone number, email, service selections or preferred weeks. You can edit the suggested address or type it manually.

Google handles this information under its Privacy Policy. The address you confirm and submit is included in your inquiry to our office. It is not saved in the browser’s unfinished plan or shared in the staff-assisted view.

6. Contact and marketing choices

When you ask us to contact you about a product or service, we use your contact information to respond and manage that request. A general inquiry does not automatically subscribe you to a promotional email or text program.

If you subscribe to promotional email, you can use the unsubscribe link in a promotional message or contact us to opt out. If you separately enroll in a text-message program, its enrollment disclosure explains the program and how to stop messages. You may also contact us to change your communication preferences.

Opting out of promotional email does not necessarily stop a reply you requested or a necessary service or transaction email. A request to stop text messages will be handled according to the applicable program and legal requirements; an alternative contact method can be arranged for service communications.

7. Retention and security

We retain information for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described in this policy, including responding to an inquiry, managing the customer relationship, maintaining required records, resolving disputes, and meeting legal obligations. Relevant factors include the type of information, whether you become a customer, applicable recordkeeping requirements, and an outstanding request or dispute. A minimal record may be retained to honor an opt-out or deletion request.

We use reasonable safeguards appropriate to the information we handle. No website, transmission, or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure. Please avoid sending sensitive information through an ordinary inquiry form or email. Contact us if you believe information provided to us has been misused.

8. Privacy requests

You may contact us to ask about information associated with you or request a correction, access, a copy, or deletion. Depending on your location, the law that applies to our business, and applicable exceptions, you may also have rights to opt out of targeted advertising, the sale or sharing of personal information, or certain profiling.

Email Contact@ThePoolStoreInc.com with the subject "Privacy Request," call (804) 642-5194, or write to the address below. Describe your request and how we can contact you. Do not send sensitive identification documents in your initial message. We may request information reasonably needed to verify your identity or authority before disclosing or changing records.

We will handle requests and any applicable appeal within the time required by the law that applies. If we decline a request, you may ask us to review the decision by contacting the same address with "Privacy Appeal" in the subject. We will explain applicable reasons, exceptions, and further complaint options. We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising privacy rights.

9. Children and other websites

This website is intended for people seeking pool, hot tub, and related retail services. It is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through the website. If you believe a child has provided personal information, please contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

Links or embedded services from other businesses may lead to information collection governed by their own notices. Review those notices when you use an outside website or service. This policy does not govern information another business collects independently.

10. Updates and contact information

We may update this policy as our website, practices, or legal requirements change. We will post the revised policy and its effective date and provide additional notice or obtain permission when required by law.