Vermont Lingerie Chest understands your concerns for a secure shopping experience. We respect your privacy as well. To help you shop securely, we only accept orders from Web browsers that use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, including Netscape Navigator 3.0 or higher, or Internet Explorer 3.02 or higher. Simply stated, that means when your browser communicates with our secure server, the information you submit is sent in a way (using industry standard encryption) that is extremely difficult for anyone else to decode.

Most of your activity on our site involves browsing our selection of bras and panties or viewing general information accessible to everyone. There is no need for these pages to be "secure". What is secure is the environment where you actually purchase the items you've placed in your shopping bag... essentially the 'checkout' section of our site.

You'll know you entered the secure portion of our site because your browser will show you in several ways: Your browser may display a somewhat intimidating alert message such as: "You have requested a secure document... " Despite its ominous look, the alert is simply telling you that you're entering the most secure area of a shopping web site. Just click continue. When you leave the checkout area, you'll likely receive another similar alert message, just to make sure you know that you are now exiting from the secure shopping server. Also, all SSL capable browsers have a symbol to indicate secure mode -- typically a closed lock or a key. And, if you look at the web address while in secure mode, you'll notice it now begins with https:// (the "s" indicates you are on the secure server we use for shopping transactions).

Many experts in Internet security say the most important thing is what happens once the merchant receives your order. We take several steps to keep things on our end as safe as possible. For example, we keep orders encrypted until we're ready to process them. In fact your order and credit card number are actually split into two parts and must be matched with your order number. This adds yet another layer of security. We process orders daily, so your information doesn't "sit" anywhere very long. We do not store credit card numbers after the transaction is complete. Final credit card processing is handled on a system that is not connected to the Internet, so there's no danger of people gaining access to customer numbers.

In the very unlikely event of fraud, we'll assume all liability for what you owe. In most states/provinces, this means that we'll pick up the first $50, and the credit card company takes responsibility for the rest.

Our goal is to ensure that you can make purchases from Vermont Lingerie Chest with complete confidence.

Respecting Your Privacy

Privacy refers to information we obtain about you and how we use it in the course of our business. We ask for only the information we need to provide the service you've requested. For purchases we require your name, address, phone or e-mail, and credit card information as necessary for purchase and delivery.

How We Use Your E-mail Address

We enjoy hearing from our customers. Every message that comes to us is read. We also try to respond back within at least 24 hours of its receipt.

After you place an order on our site, you will receive an email confirmation.

We never sell or give out e-mail addresses to anyone, nor do we trade or sell your name or any of your contact information.

We save messages and/or e-mail addresses only for a few specific reasons. We save messages if we think we'll need to refer to them later when we communicate with the customer - i.e. for backorders or to resolve a customer question.

We also keep e-mail addresses of those who opt for notification (opt-in) of special sales, announcements of new styles and product lines, or about helpful new features on our site. The recipient can discontinue receiving such notices at any time by simply replying to the email with the word 'REMOVE' typed into the Subject: line of the the email. Again, we only send this information to you if you ask to receive it!

Other Statistical Info We Collect

In order to make improvements to our site, we do gather statistical information that helps show how customers use the site. For example, we might do research to determine which products seem most or least popular, or we may examine data that shows which search engines our customers use to arrive at our site. This information is analyzed only in aggregate (as a whole or in groups), and not at the individual level. Personal information, such as your name and email address, is never included in the analysis.

Questions?

If you have any questions or suggestions about security or privacy at the Vermont Lingerie Chest web site, we'd be pleased to discuss it with you. Contact us at sitemanager@vermontlingerie.com.