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Beautiful Australian Opals

Policies

Privacy Statement for Opals International Jewelers, Inc.

Opals International Jewelers, Inc. has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this website: www.australianopals.com.

We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our Web site. Your IP address is used to help identify you and your shopping cart and to gather broad demographic information.

Our site uses cookies to keep track of your shopping cart and to make sure you don't see the same ad repeatedly. We use cookies to deliver content specific to your interests and to identify you with subsequent visits.

Our site's registration form requires users to give us contact information (like their name and email address). We use customer contact information from the registration form to send the user information about our company. The customer's contact information is also used to contact the visitor when necessary during a credit card transaction. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings; see the choice/opt-out section below.

This site contains links to other sites. www.australianopals.com is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites.

Our site uses a secure order form for customers to request information, products, and services. We collect visitor's contact information (like their email address), unique identifiers (like their mailing address and phone number, as well as their account or credit card numbers), and demographic information (like their zip code, age, or income level). Contact information from the order form is used to send orders and information about our company to our customers. The customer's contact information is also used to get in touch with the visitor when necessary to verify the order. Demographic and profile data is also collected at our site. We use this data to tailor our visitor's experience at our site, showing them content that we think they might be interested in, and displaying the content according to their preferences. Credit card numbers are NEVER seen by us when the Secure Encryption Server is used by you to place your order. Only if you give us this number via another media i.e. fax, phone email or mail will we ever see it. The number is shredded after all transactions are approved and closed.

Our online surveys ask visitors for contact information (like their email address) and demographic information (like their zip code, age, or income level). We use contact data from our surveys to send the user information about our company. The customer's contact information is also used to contact the visitor when necessary such as when aa contest is won.

We run contests on our site in which we ask visitors for contact information (like their email address) and demographic information (like their zip code, age, or income level). We use contact data from our contests to send users information about our company. The customer's contact information is also used to contact the visitor when necessary WE DO NOT SELL OR SHARE ANY CLIENT INFORMATON WITH ANYONE OUTSIDE OF AUSTRALIANOPALS.COM WEBSITE. With our secure e-commerce ordering process the customers credit card information is not recieved by any of our employees. We fully protect the privacy of the bank card information. It is against the law and all credit card merchant programs to use your credit card information for anything besides the initial credit card purchase that you authorized.

Security

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. We utilize industry standard SSL encryption when accepting your credit card information during our online checkout process, unless you specifically choose the non-SSL encryption version of our order form. In addition, with the CyberCash seeecure e-commerce system, your credit card information does not reside on our server. Instead, once you submit your order, your credit card information is immediately encrypted (or scrambled) and this encrypted series of numbers goes directly to the CyberCash server for de-encryption (unscrambling) and then verification of credit card authenticity, address verification and card members account balance. If your credit card information is authorized then a message goes back to the merchant without any credit card information. The merchant is informed that the transaction is approved or not approved. The chances of your credit card information being stolen from your order processing (you placing an order) is very remote if not impossible. It has been shown that your credit card information is more likely to be compromised from your last visit to your local restaurant than through a secure internet transaction.

General consumer credit card usage policies:

1. In most cases, a surcharge fee cannot be added to the price of goods or services that you purchase on your credit card. Here are questions to help determine if the fee being charged is a surcharge.

• Is the fee added regardless of whether you pay by cash or credit card? If so, it is not considered a surcharge.
• Does the merchant offer a discount if you pay cash? If so, this is permitted.

2. Most credit card companies prohibit a merchant from setting a minimum or maximum purchase amount before they will accept your credit card for payment of goods or services.

3. When the credit card logo is displayed by a business to show the card is welcome, the merchant must accept, without discrimination, any valid credit cards presented for payment.

4. The merchant cannot require additional identification as a standard business practice when you use a credit card for payment. There are a few exceptions, such as when additional information is required to complete the transaction. For example, a merchant will need your address if goods are to be delivered to your home. They may require a photocopy of your credit card front and back to further authenticate card holder via an Internet transaction.

5. As a general rule, in the event of disputed charges resulting from a purchase from a Opals International^Sm , all transactions that are paid for with a credit or charge card are subject to the Fair Credit Billing Act. For maximum rights, should disputed charges arise, use a charge card for your transaction. In the case of charges arising from unauthorized use of a consumer's credit or charge card, consumers are generally held liable only for the first $50.

6.You will receive a confirmation of your purchase order by e-mail. Be sure to print a copy for your records. In addition, you should know that the Federal Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule also covers orders made via the Internet. This means that, unless stated otherwise, merchandise must be delivered within 30 days, and if there are delays, the company must notify you.

For credit card usage policies relating to a specific credit card, please contact the issuing bank or credit card company directly.

In addition, any disputes between Opals International Jewelers and individual customers may result in possible arbitration of the particular issue. We will do our best to help resolve the concerns only after all avenues between Opals International Jewelers and customer have been exhausted.