About

What is Pioneer Chicks?

Ambition begins here.

Founded by Melanie Fielden, Pioneer Chicks is an award-winning support network for ambitious entrepreneurs, providing everything you need to build a successful business and life based on your beliefs & passion. Designed for women but open to all!

We do this through a series of online & in-person masterclasses, workshops, meets, networking, our blog and shop 😉  Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you’re kept informed of upcoming events and blog posts, and to be notified of when the doors to our brand new Members’ Club open (coming September 2020)!

We have an online shop providing everything to equip the busy woman, from journals and planners, to bags, handbag organisers and motivational prints. To see our range click here.

In 2018 we introduced the ‘Local Meet Sessions‘. These are where small groups of entrepreneurs meet monthly to help each other develop their businesses/start their new business and smash personal goals. One or two topics are discussed in detail at each meet, as chosen by our guests, and we rotate each month to ensure everybody gets to choose a topic. For further details and to find your closest Local Meet Session, click here.

See all of our upcoming online and in-person meets here.

Pioneer Chicks also has a blog where we aim to provide inspiration, advice, motivation and resources for all women in business and for personal development.

Who is Pioneer Chicks for?

If you’re a business owner that’s ready to take your business to the next level and achieve some major growth, you’re in the right place! The Pioneer Chicks team and our rapidly growing community of ambitious entrepreneurs have got your back.  We strongly believe in the power of working together, sharing ideas, sharing knowledge and lifting each other up – who says the sky should be the limit!

How can I get involved?

  • Join us at one of our Local Meet Sessions (your first session is free!) for some help with your business and personal goals and to network with like-minded women in your region.
  • Want some free advertising for your business? We have the following options for collaborations:
    • You can write a guest blog post for the Pioneer Chicks blog
    • We can record an interview with you
    • Workshops – we’re happy to run a workshop together with other local businesses
    • Speakers – we’re always on the lookout for our next guest speaker

Email us on info@pioneerchicks.com if you’re interested in any of the above.

Now a little about me, Melanie (Mel) Fielden:

Having worked in a small family run business for the past 15 years selling microscopes, I’ve covered all areas of running a business, with 10 years in sales and marketing, and 5 years as a Company Director handling the day-to-day running/operations.  This has given me an insight into the challenges that business owners face, along with a platform to think up and find solutions.

Following in my father’s footsteps, my brain ticks away churning out new business ideas by what feels like the second. Finding the relevant information that  I need to turn these ideas into reality has proven to be a challenge!  That’s what made me decide to take action and put the information, that I’ve spent years finding, into one location and to share it with other women in similar situations.  Hence the birth of Pioneer Chicks.

Of course it’s not just my knowledge that I hope to share, I look forward to meeting new, exciting people along the journey, that also want to share their stories and knowledge with Pioneer Chicks.

So lets have fun, stick together, go forth and prosper! Let the journey commence….

PRIVACY POLICY:

At Pioneer Chicks we (we, us, our, or Pioneer Chicks) are committed to safeguarding and preserving the privacy of our visitors.

We have implemented data practices and this Privacy Policy to comply with the requirements of the European Union General Data Protection Regulations.

We understand that you want clarity about how we manage the personal information that you provide to us.  This Policy explains what happens to any personal data that you provide to us, or that we collect from you whilst you visit our site http://www.pioneerchicks.com, and how we use cookies on our website.

We do update this Policy from time to time so please do review this Policy regularly.

Pioneer Chicks is the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data.

Contact Details:

Our full details are:

  • Full name of legal entity: Pioneer Chicks
  • Email address: info@pioneerchicks.com
  • Postal address: Aspen Grove Farm, Assington Green, Stansfield, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 8LY 

It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing us at info@pioneerchicks.com.

Personal Information and Sensitive Information:

Personal information is defined in the Privacy Act as:
Information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:
(a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
(b) whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not,
(Personal Information).

Sensitive information includes things such as race, sexual orientation, political opinions, members of a trade association or trade union, criminal record or health information (Sensitive Information).

Information That We Collect About You, For What Purpose and How We Process It:

In running and maintaining our website we may collect and process the following data about you:

  • Communication Data that includes any communication that you send to us whether that be through the contact form on our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send us. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
  • Customer Data that includes data relating to any purchases of goods and/or services such as your name, title, billing address, delivery address email address, phone number, contact details, purchase details and your card details. We process this data to supply the goods and/or services you have purchased and to keep records of such transactions. Our lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps at your request to enter into such a contract.
  • User Data that includes data about how you use our website and any online services together with any data that you post for publication on our website or through other online services. We process this data to operate our website and ensure relevant content is provided to you, to ensure the security of our website, to maintain back-ups of our website and/or databases and to enable publication and administration of our website, other online services and business. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business.
  • Technical Data that includes data about your use of our website and online services such as your IP address, your login data, details about your browser, length of visit to pages on our website, page views and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website, time zone settings and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. The source of this data is from our analytics tracking system. We process this data to analyse your use of our website and other online services, to administer and protect our business and website, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising.  Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business and to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
  • Marketing Data that includes data about your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. We process this data to enable you to partake in our promotions such as competitions, prize draws and free giveaways, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of this advertising.  Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy. You may opt out of these additional communications at any time and can do so by emailing us at info@pioneerchicks.com
  • We may use Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests which is to grow our business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).

Sensitive Data:

We often carry out surveys and quizzes to better understand you (our audience), so we can help you to build a successful business or build on your personal development. Some of the questions we ask may provide us with sensitive data about you. We will also collect sensitive data from you if you join our membership or become an ambassador for us.

We require your explicit consent for processing sensitive data.

Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.

We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. For more information on this please email us at info@pioneerchicks.com. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.

We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.

Marketing Communications:

Our lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).

Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, we may send you marketing communications from us if (i) you made a purchase or asked for information from us about our goods or services or (ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since. Under these regulations, if you are a limited company, we may send you marketing emails without your consent. However, you can still opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time.

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link and the bottom of our emails.

If you opt out of receiving marketing communications this opt-out does not apply to personal data provided as a result of other transactions, such as purchases, warranty registrations etc.

Disclosures of your personal data:

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:

  • Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
  • Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers
  • Government bodies that require us to report processing activities.
  • Third parties to whom we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets.

We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Retention of your personal information:

If you have a membership with Pioneer Chicks, are a Pioneer Chicks Ambassador, or are signed up to receive our communications, we will retain your Personal Information for as long as your account is active, or as needed to provide you with our services. We will also retain and use your Personal Information for as long as someone could bring a claim against us, and as necessary to comply with all other legal obligations and regulatory requirements, to resolve disputes and to enforce our agreements.

International transfers:

Countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) do not always offer the same levels of protection to your personal data, so European law has prohibited transfers of personal data outside of the EEA unless the transfer meets certain criteria.

Many of our third parties service providers are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we do our best to ensure a similar degree of security of data by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is in place:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that the European Commission have approved as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data by; or
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; or
  • If we use US-based providers that are part of EU-US Privacy Shield, we may transfer data to them, as they have equivalent safeguards in place.

If none of the above safeguards is available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.

Credit card data:

We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information. We will never store your credit/debit card information on our website. All electronic transactions you make to us will be processed by PayPal. Data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet. You are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. We will not ask you for your password.

Data security:

We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Data retention:

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for, we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.

For tax purposes, the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they stop being customers.

In some circumstances, we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your legal rights:

Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.

You can see more about these rights at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at info@pioneerchicks.com

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you.

If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.

Third-party links:  

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

Use of cookies:

Cookies provide information regarding the computer used by a visitor. We may use cookies where appropriate to gather information about your computer in order to assist us in improving our website.

We may gather information about your general internet use by using the cookie. Where used, these cookies are downloaded to your computer and stored on the computer’s hard drive. Such information will not identify you personally; it is statistical data which does not identify any personal details whatsoever.

You can adjust the settings on your computer to decline any cookies if you wish. This can be done within the “settings” section of your computer. For more information please read the advice at AboutCookies.org.

Social network sharing:

We encourage users to share our content and/or like our own profile on the popular Social Media websites Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn. In order to make ‘Social Sharing’ accessible, our website utilises widgets either provided directly from the Social Networks and/or via amalgamated widgets from third parties such as AddThis. Cookies and privacy implications from the social networks vary and will be dependent on your nominated privacy settings with each Social Network. Social Sharing buttons will only deploy cookies if you are signed in to that respective Social Network at the time of being on our website.

Changes to this privacy policy:

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

If our website is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that we may continue to sell products to you.

REFUNDS & RETURNS POLICY:

Information on the Pioneer Chicks online returns, cancellation and refunds policy.
We offer our customers complete peace of mind. If you’d like to return any items bought online from Pioneer Chicks we will be happy to refund or exchange the product in accordance with the conditions below, provided they are returned in a fully resaleable condition and you have cancelled the order within 30 days of receipt. We operate a 1 year return policy for faulty items on most of our products. Fault or damage caused by accident, misuse, negligence and normal wear and tear is not covered by this policy. Your statutory rights are not affected.

Cancelling an order
If you’ve already checked out, you cannot amend an existing order, please place a new order. You cannot change the delivery address for an order that has already been placed. We may, at our discretion, cancel or amend an order provided you call us within 30 minutes of placing the order, although we cannot guarantee that we will always be able to provide you with this facility. Please contact the customer team on 01284 780007.

Once the goods have been dispatched, any return or exchange must be processed in accordance with this returns policy.

If you have accepted delivery and wish to return an item please read “returning your item” below. Some items are excluded from our returns policy. Please see “what can’t be returned” for details. We’re sorry but we’re unable to exchange items: please place a new order.

Your legal right to return
The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 requires us to provide you with goods in conformity with the contract and gives you the right to return goods purchased online without giving a reason (e.g. if your goods are not wanted) within 14 days starting from the day after the date of delivery.

Pioneer Chicks offers a 30 day goodwill returns policy. If you choose to return your product it should be returned unused and in a new, saleable condition, with original packaging and labels still attached, along with any free gifts within 30 days of delivery.

Any refund due will be credited to the card used for purchase within 3-5 days of our receipt of the returned goods. Your bank may take longer to process such transactions. We may reduce the amount refunded if the goods have been used or handled unreasonably before return.

We will refund delivery charges only if all goods ordered in the same transaction are returned within 30 days. If returned items were part of a promotional offer, or e-vouchers were used, the amount refunded will be reduced using an appropriate ratio.

Please contact us on info@pioneerchicks.com to request a returns form to cancel your contract with us and return your product by post. But you are not obliged to do so, provided you cancel your contract clearly and return the goods (quoting your order number) to the address shown on your returns label, at your own cost, within 30 days.

Returning your item

We want you to be delighted with your purchase but we understand that there may be times when you are not entirely satisfied. If you have received your order and no longer want one or all of your products, and it is not excluded by our Returns Policy, please return your product(s) within 30 days in the following ways:

Returning to Store
• Simply fill in the returns label, to show which items are being returned, repackage the items (including any free items) in new, saleable condition with original packaging and labels still attached within 30 days.

• To return your parcel via Royal Mail simply attach the returns label and delivery note to the parcel and take your parcel to a Post Office.

• Please ask for (and keep) a certificate of posting. Please scan and email a copy of this receipt to info@pioneerchicks.com.  We will refund postage costs up to the amount paid for postage in your original order for the item, or the amount displayed on your receipt – whichever is the lowest value. Unless the item is faulty, a returns delivery charge of ÂŁ3.50 will be deducted from your refund.

What will be refunded?
• We may reduce the amount refunded to you if returned items were part of a promotional offer or if items have been used or handled unreasonably before return.

• Any e-vouchers used will be refunded separately and sent to you at the email address given during checkout process.

•  If you return your order within 30 days we will refund you the original outbound delivery charge if all of the items in your order are returned together.

• If you return your order outside 30 days we will only refund your original outbound delivery charge if your item is faulty and all goods are returned together.

• If you only return part of your order we will not refund the original delivery charge.

• If you return your order via Royal Mail a returns charge of £3.50 will be deducted from your refund.

• If you are returning the product because it is faulty, please see “Faulty/Damaged items” below. Any refund due will be credited to the original card of purchase within 3-5 working days of us receiving the goods. It may take an additional 3-5 days for your card issuer to apply the refund to your card balance.

Can I use the product before I return it?
You may examine the items but where you have returned a product, and it has not been returned to us in a fully resaleable condition or has been used or handled unreasonably, we may reduce the amount refunded. The withheld refund may be the full cost of the item if it has been obviously worn or willfully damaged. In such circumstances, we will return the item to the purchaser.

Amending or cancelling a delivery service
If you’ve already checked out, you cannot add extra products to an existing order, please place a new order. You cannot change the delivery address for an order that has already been placed. We may, at our discretion, cancel or amend an order provided you call us within 30 minutes of placing the order, although we cannot guarantee that we will always be able to provide you with this facility. If you have any queries please contact the Customer team on 01284 780007.

If you have accepted delivery and wish to return the product, please read “returning your item” above.

Faulty/Damaged items
We offer a 1 year return policy for faulty goods on most of our products. Fault or damage caused by accident, misuse, negligence, or normal wear and tear is not covered by this policy. Your statutory rights are not affected.

To let us know about a faulty, or damaged product, or a product that does not match its description which you’d like to return, please follow the same steps as a normal unwanted return –  return the products to us by post. In either case we’ll need to see your delivery note or other proof of purchase. Where the returned product is confirmed as faulty or damaged we will refund to you the cost of the return postage, up to the value of postage paid for the original order and where a copy of the postage receipt has been emailed to us.

We may reduce the amount refunded to you if returned items were part of a promotional offer or if items have been used or handled unreasonably before return.

Any e-vouchers used will be refunded separately and sent to the email address used during the checkout process.

Products returned as faulty may be examined for faults. If the fault found is due to normal wear and tear, misuse, negligence, willful damage or accident we may not offer a refund to you, and you will be given the option of having the item disposed of or returned back to you.

How to exchange your product
We regret that we are unable to offer an exchange policy for unwanted or faulty goods. If you cancel all or part of your order and return goods to us you may obtain replacement items by placing a new order. All items are subject to availability.

Repair/Replacement and Refunds of Digital products

Pioneer Chicks will attempt to repair or replace any goods or digital content that are of unsatisfactory quality, unfit for purpose or not as described, before you can claim a refund.

You can choose whether you want the goods to be repaired or replaced, but we can refuse if your choice is disproportionately expensive compared with the alternative.

You’re entitled to a full or partial refund instead of a repair or replacement if any of the following are true:

  • The cost of the repair or replacement is disproportionate to the value of the digital content
  • Repair or replacement is impossible
  • Repair or replacement would be significantly inconvenient
  • Repair would take unreasonably long
  • Repair has been unsuccessful.

If the attempt at a repair or replacement is unsuccessful, you may then claim a refund or a price reduction if you wish to keep the product.

If you don’t want a refund and still want your product repaired or replaced, you have the right to request further attempts at a repair or replacement.

Refunds
Refunds can only be made to the original card of purchase. Any refund due will be credited to the original card of purchase within 3-5 working days. It may take your card issuer an additional 3-5 working days to process this transaction and for your balance to update.

We’ll send an email to tell you when your refund has been processed. When a promotional offer or discount (such as a 10% off voucher, or 3 for 2) applies to more than one product, the total value of the promotional offer or discount is split and shared across each product in the correct ratio. If an item or part of the order is returned, we’ll refund the relevant correct value.

Any e-vouchers used will be refunded as an e-voucher. Our Customer Service team will be in contact with you about this.

Contact us
If you have any queries regarding our returns policy, please do not hesitate to contact us: info@pioneerchicks.com