Privacy policy.

1. Who we are

The Dent & Spot Repair Specialists (Pty) Ltd, registration 2007/006897/07, is the responsible party for personal information it receives for repair enquiries and related services. We operate at Units 6–8, 1011 Kruger Avenue, Lyttelton, Centurion, 0157, South Africa.

This policy explains our handling of information under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). It covers website enquiries and information you send us by WhatsApp, email or telephone.

2. Information we collect

We collect information directly from you when you choose to send us an enquiry, including:

• Your name, mobile number, email address and preferred contact method.
• Your vehicle make, model, optional year and registration, service required, damage description and preferred repair timing.
• Vehicle photographs you send, and the messages and follow-up information needed to deal with your request.

Photos may contain registration plates, people, addresses or embedded information such as location and the date taken. Please share only what is relevant to the repair.

Providing information is voluntary. Fields marked with an asterisk are needed to prepare the online enquiry; photos, registration, vehicle year and timing are optional. Without sufficient contact and damage information, we may be unable to respond or assess your request. You may call us instead. No law requires you to submit this online enquiry.

3. How online enquiries work

The quotation form lets you enter details, select photos and review your request. Pressing Send quote request uploads your details and resized photos, saves a private enquiry record and sends email notifications with the photos attached to both workshop inboxes. The general enquiry form saves and emails your message in the same way. Drafts are held in your current browser session.

After a quote request is submitted, the optional Follow up on WhatsApp button passes your request reference and name to WhatsApp in a draft message. The customer chooses whether to send that message. Photos submitted through the form are already available to the workshop in its email notifications and private WordPress record.

Email links open your email application. We receive information you choose to email when you send that message. WhatsApp, email applications and their providers also handle information under their own privacy terms.

4. Why we use your information

We use relevant information to respond to you, assess visible damage, prepare or discuss a quotation, arrange an inspection or repair, communicate about agreed work and manage related customer records. Where necessary, we also use records to meet legal obligations and deal with disputes.

Depending on the purpose, POPIA permits processing based on your specific consent, steps needed to enter into or perform a repair agreement, a legal obligation, or legitimate interests such as responding to an enquiry or protecting legal rights. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it. Withdrawal does not undo earlier lawful processing or prevent processing that has another lawful basis.

The enquiry checkbox authorises use for your repair enquiry and follow-up. It does not subscribe you to marketing. We will not sell your personal information or use your enquiry photos for advertising without separate permission. Repair assessments are made by our team; this form does not make automated quotation or eligibility decisions.

5. Your photographs

Photographs sent for an assessment are for handling your enquiry and any related repair. Sending a photo does not give permission to publish it in our gallery, on social media or in marketing. We will ask for separate permission before using identifiable customer photographs for those purposes.

Before sharing, crop out people, children, identity documents, paperwork, addresses and unrelated vehicles where possible. Remove location metadata if it is not needed, and avoid including a number plate unless relevant. Only share information about someone else if you are authorised to do so. Please do not send identity documents, banking details, medical information or other sensitive information through the quotation form.

6. Sharing and overseas processing

Information may be used by authorised workshop personnel who need it to handle your request. Necessary information may also be processed by providers of website hosting, email, messaging and IT support, professional advisers, or authorities where disclosure is required by law or needed to establish or defend legal rights. We limit disclosures to the relevant purpose. Operators acting for us must handle information confidentially and be subject to the written security obligations required by POPIA.

WhatsApp (Meta) and our Gmail email service (Google), as well as hosting and support providers, may process information outside South Africa. Overseas laws and protections may differ. Any transfer for which we are responsible must meet section 72 of POPIA, for example through adequate legal or contractual protection, your informed consent, or necessity for contractual steps you request. Using an external service does not remove our POPIA responsibilities.

Read the providers’ notices for their own processing: WhatsApp privacy policy and Google privacy policy. Contact us if you prefer to discuss another way of sharing your enquiry.

7. Keeping and protecting information

Our retention rule is to keep personal information only as long as needed for the enquiry, agreed repair, warranty, applicable record-keeping duties or a lawful dispute. Unsuccessful enquiries must not be kept indefinitely. Records no longer lawfully needed must be deleted, destroyed or de-identified; deletion must also account for copies and backups within our control. You can ask us about the retention applicable to your enquiry.

POPIA requires reasonable technical and organisational safeguards against loss, unlawful access and misuse. Our responsibility includes limiting access to authorised people, protecting devices and accounts, requiring confidentiality from operators and reviewing security risks. No website, device or messaging service can guarantee absolute security.

If there are reasonable grounds to believe that personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we must notify the Information Regulator and affected people as soon as reasonably possible, subject to POPIA’s requirements and permitted exceptions. Please report suspected misuse using the contact details below.

8. Website information and external links

Submitted form details and resized photos are stored privately in the website database. Access to saved enquiries and photos requires an authorised WordPress administrator account. Email copies are held in the two workshop inboxes. A temporary hashed network identifier limits repeated submissions. Your browser or device may independently retain history, autofill information or copies of files.

Website hosting and network providers may process technical information, such as IP addresses, requested pages, timestamps and browser details, to deliver the site and maintain security. Links to WhatsApp, Google Maps and other websites take you to services with their own privacy practices. This policy will be updated if the website’s collection or submission features change.

9. Your privacy rights

Subject to POPIA and applicable legal exceptions, you may:

• Ask whether we hold your personal information, and request access to it and information about recipients.
• Ask for inaccurate, outdated, excessive, misleading or unlawfully obtained information to be corrected or deleted.
• Request deletion of information we are no longer authorised to retain, or restriction where the law provides for it.
• Withdraw consent where processing depends on consent, and object on reasonable grounds to processing based on applicable legitimate interests.
• Object to direct marketing and complain to the Information Regulator.

Email or call us to exercise these rights. We may need proportionate proof of identity before disclosing or changing records; please ask us how to provide it safely. Confirmation of whether we hold your information is free. If an access request attracts a lawful prescribed fee, we will explain it beforehand. We will respond within the applicable legal timeframes and explain any lawful reason for retaining information or declining a request.

10. Contact and complaints

For a privacy question, access request, correction, deletion or concern, please address your message to the Information Officer, The Dent & Spot Repair Specialists (Pty) Ltd:

You may complain directly to the Information Regulator at any time; you do not have to complain to us first.

Regulator contact details · POPIA request and complaint forms

We may update this policy when our services, information practices or legal requirements change. The date at the top identifies the latest version.