PRIVACY POLICY & TERMS AND CONDITIONS

FULL DISCLOSURE

The content on Benchmark Group is owned and edited by Benchmark Group and its affiliates. It is based upon personal experiences, preferences and expertise in the field of fitness, health and wellness. To remain ethical and transparent to our valued readers, we provide full disclosure of relationships we have with brands when writing about a product. 

Brands and advertisers will never influence the content found on Benchmark Group. Topics, products and content will always be chosen by us and will always be relevant to the “Benchmark Group” philosophy of helping our clients and readers live their best life. Sometimes we enter into agreements with advertisers or brands – when this happens, we will make readers aware by adding a disclaimer at the bottom of the post(s). 

The views and opinions expressed on Benchmark Group are always our own and we only share our 100% honest opinions. Compensation will never influence our opinions of a product, nor will we ever promote a brand or product that we do not fully support. We will only share brands and products that align with the mission of the Benchmark Group and the best interests of our readers.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Your access to and use of this website is subject to legally binding terms and conditions. Carefully read the following terms and conditions before accessing or using this website. Your accessing or use of this website indicates your acceptance of the following terms and conditions and your agreement to be bound by them.

 The following terms and conditions form a binding agreement (“Agreement”) between you, Benchmark Group Inc. and all of its properties (“Benchmark Group”). We may change these terms and conditions at any time without advance notice. Changed terms will become effective once posted on this website. Your continued use of this website after any change means you have accepted the changed terms and conditions. All references to money amounts in this Agreement, unless otherwise specified, are in Canadian dollars.

1) COPYRIGHTCanadian Copyright LawCopyright protection is automatic in Canada. A work need not be registered with the Canadian Copyright Office nor does it have to be marked with a © to indicate that it is copyright protected.

  1. a) Restricted Uses

Unauthorized copying or commercial publication or exploitation of text, images, audio and video clips and other content of this website including publication, retransmission, broadcast, circulation, selling, reproduction or redistribution, except as authorized by Benchmark Group, is specifically prohibited. Anyone wishing to use any text, images, audio and video clips and other content for commercial use, publication, or any purpose other than fair dealing as defined by Canadian law, must request and receive prior written permission from Benchmark Group. You covenant and agree not to use any screen scraping, framing, bots, spiders, crawlers, avatars, intelligent agents or other automated processes on this website or its content, without Benchmark Group’s written consent. Permission for such uses may be granted on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of Benchmark Group. A usage fee may be assessed depending on the type and nature of the proposed use.

  1. b) Links to Third Party Websites

The Benchmark Group website contains links to third party websites. The linked sites and pages are not under the control of Benchmark Group and Benchmark Group is not responsible for the contents of any linked website. These links are provided as a convenience only and shall not be construed as an endorsement of, sponsorship of, or affiliation with the linked website by Benchmark Group.

  1. c) Entire Agreement

These terms and conditions and any other legal notices, policies and guidelines of Benchmark Group linked to these terms and conditions constitute the entire Agreement between you and Benchmark Group relating to your use of this website and supersede any prior understandings or agreements (whether oral or written), claims, representations, and understandings of the parties regarding such subject matter. This Agreement may not be amended or modified except by Benchmark Group making such amendments or modifications available on this website.

  1. d) Termination of Access

You agree that Benchmark Group, in its sole discretion, may suspend or terminate your password, account, or use of Benchmark Group Properties, Services or Paid Services and remove and discard any User Postings at its convenience or for any reason, including without limitation if we believe you have violated or may violate these Terms and Conditions. You agree that any suspension and/or termination of your access to Benchmark Group properties, or use of the Services or Paid Services may be effected without prior notice and that the Benchmark Group will not be liable to you or to any other person as a result of any such suspension or termination.

  1. e) Limitation of Liability and Indemnity

IN NO EVENT WILL Benchmark Group OR ITS AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL (INCLUDING AMONG OTHER THINGS LOSS OF REVENUE OR PROFITS), PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY, DAMAGES OF ANY KIND OR SUBJECT TO EQUITABLE OR INJUNCTIVE REMEDIES (WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE) ARISING OUT OF ACCESS TO, OR USE OF THIS WEB SITE, OR DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THIS WEB SITE, OR ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS WEB SITE. NOTHING IN THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL EXCLUDE LIABILITIES NOT PERMITTED TO BE EXCLUDED BY APPLICABLE LAW. As a condition of your use of this website, you agree to indemnify Benchmark Group and its affiliates from and against any and all liabilities, expenses (including legal fees) and damages arising out of claims resulting from your use of this website, including without limitation any claims alleging facts that, if true, would constitute a breach by you of these terms and conditions.

2) PRIVACY POLICY

  1. a) Personal Information Protection and Privacy

Benchmark Group understands how important your privacy is. We are committed to protecting your privacy and any personal information we collect about you. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you about what personal information we collect and how and why we collect it, to outline the steps we take to keep your personal information confidential, and to provide you with contact information at Benchmark Group should you have questions or concerns about our personal information protection practices.

  1. b) What is personal information?

“Personal information” is personally identifiable information such as your name, residential address and e-mail address and includes information about your products, services, subscriptions and usage, credit card information and billing records. It does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.

  1. c) What type of personal information does Benchmark Group collect?

Benchmark Group collects various types of personal information. We may collect any of the following:

  1. i) Your name, billing/shipping address, email address, telephone number, and credit card information, including card number, card type, cardholder name and expiration date, when you purchase products or services from us or products from the online Benchmark Group shop. We may also obtain some or all of this information when create a user account on Benchmark Group. By purchasing a product or service from us you consent to have your email address added to a Benchmark Group mailing list with the purpose of updating you on your purchase, delivering virtual products, informing you of upcoming news, events, updates, promotions and contests pertaining to Benchmark Group.

  2. ii) Personal information you provide to us when you participate in any of our events. This personal information might include your name, profession, e-mail address, phone number, photograph, answers to specific questions, password and computer information.

iii) Personal information you provide to us when you participate in any of our on-line programs, other meeting spaces, blogs or forums. This personal information might include your name, profession, e-mail address, phone number, photograph, answers to specific questions, password and computer information. The personal information you provide to us when participating in our online programs, meeting spaces, blogs or forums may be used for marketing purposes.

  1. iv) Personal information you provide to us when you participate in one of our contests, sweepstakes or surveys. This information may include your name, email address and street address, and the answers to survey questions. The personal information you provide to us when participating in these promotions, surveys and contests may be used for marketing purposes.

  2. v) Personal information you provide to us when subscribing to our newsletters or emails or when you use our web site, including, but not limited, to when you created a Benchmark Group profile at benchmarkgoup.ca or on our mobile app hosted by www.mindbodyonlin.com . This personal information might include your name, billing/shipping address, email address, telephone number, and credit card information, including card number, card type, cardholder name and expiration date.

  3. vi) Your personal information from our business partners and other third parties provided they have agreed to obtain your consent before disclosing your personal information to us.

vii) Certain technical information from your computer each time you request a page during a visit to our web site www.benchmarkgroup.ca. This information is collected from your computer’s Web browser to enhance your experience on our web site and may include your IP address, operating system, Web browser software, screen resolution, and referrer Web site.

  1. d) How Does Benchmark Group collect personal information?

We collect personal information that is voluntarily provided to us by our customers, members, sponsors, web site users and the public in general when they contact us via telephone, e-mail, web browser, or in person. As mentioned above, we may also collect personal information from our business partners and other third parties who have agreed to obtain the consent of the person the information pertains to before disclosing the information to us. Benchmark Group may also collect personal information through the following means:

  1. i) Cookies. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a web site user’s computer hard drive containing information about the user. When someone signs in at our web site as a Benchmark Group Insider, we record their Member ID and name on the member account in a cookie file on their computer. We may also record their password in this cookie file if they checked the box entitled “Save this password for automatic sign-in.” The user’s Member ID, password, and the name on their member account is stored in the cookie file as encrypted data, to prevent unauthorized persons from viewing the information it contains. Cookies automatically delete this information from our computer storage system after 30 days, but permanent cookie files remain on the user’s computer’s hard drive until they manually delete the file. Benchmark Group can use cookies to deliver content specific to your interests and to save your password so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you visit our web site. Cookies, by themselves, cannot be used to disclose your individual identity. A cookie will identify your browser, but not you, to our computer servers when you visit our web site. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can set your browsers to refuse cookies. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may be limited in some areas of our web site.

  2. ii) Web beacons. To assess the effectiveness of promotional and marketing e-mails we send, we may attach a web beacon to the email that provides us with confirmation when the recipient opens the e-mail. This only occurs if the recipient’s computer supports such technology.

  3. e) Why does Benchmark Group collect your Personal Information?

Benchmark Group may collect personal information about you and use it for the following reasons:

  1. i) To provide products and services to you, to inform you of changes and other relevant information pertaining to your purchase, to bill you when you make a purchase from us, to acknowledge your support and to provide that information to the Canada Revenue Agency and to contact you when necessary for these purposes.

  2. ii) To provide you with services or recognition you request.

iii) When you register a Benchmark Group user account we use your information to create and manage your membership.

  1. iv) For marketing purposes. We may use your contact information to send you emails about promotions, surveys, contests and special events or providing other marketing information to you. Promotional e-mails are intended to inform you of new or unique opportunities, events or special deals that are available from Benchmark Group. You can opt not to receive these emails from us by either clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the email when you receive it or by sending an emailthat includes your e-mail address and a request that you not receive our promotional e-mails. In addition, we may send you postal mail notifying you of promotions, surveys, contests or special events or providing other marketing information to you. You can unsubscribe from this postal mail service by sending an e-mail with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to hello@benchmarkgroup.ca that includes your e-mail address and street address. This information will only be used to remove your from our list of recipients of marketing emails and mail.

  2. v) To improve the quality of your visit to our web site. We use electronic information such as “cookies” to improve your use of our web site. We collect certain information (e.g., purchasing trends) based on your navigation of our web site to better understand and serve our customers, members and web site visitors. This data allows us to streamline your ability to navigate our web site and develop featured programs and content that will be of interest to our customers and members and web site visitors.

  3. vi) To improve our service offerings. We monitor and analyze the use of our service offerings in order to determine which services are popular and useful to our customers, members and web site visitors so that we can improve them.

vii) To better understand your interests. Benchmark Group may also prepare aggregated user statistics or information summaries to describe our services and their popularity to our business partners and prospective advertisers and for other lawful purposes. The aggregated user statistics and information will not contain any personally identifiable information.viii) To provide a secure and safe environment for our visitors and employees.

  1. ix) To co-operate with law enforcement and to protect against violations of criminal or civil laws.

  2. x) We may use your personal information to respond when you submit a question or suggestion to us, or when you request assistance with your membership, viewing your purchase(s), logging on to benchmarkgroup.ca, or accessing your account from our web site.

3) THE DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Benchmark Group takes your privacy very seriously and WILL NEVER sell or rent any personal information we collect. Benchmark Group may disclose some personal information we collect to service providers who help us provide personalized content and advertising to you. When you buy a product or products through our Benchmark Group Shop (www.benchmarkgroup.ca), Benchmark Group discloses your personal information to a third party service provider for production, fulfillment and shipping of your order. Benchmark Group takes steps to ensure that each of our service providers to whom we share personal information are committed to maintaining the privacy of such information as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

4) HOW BENCHMARK GROUP PROTECTS YOUR PRIVACY

Benchmark Group is committed to protecting your privacy. Security measures, such as locked filing cabinets, restricted access and the use of passwords and encryption have been adopted to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. Our employees have been trained to respect your privacy at all times. Our employees who have access to your personal information are required to use it strictly in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable laws. All information submitted to our web site or email addresses is transferred to the Benchmark Group computer servers. During an on-line transaction, this information is submitted using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. SSL-enabled web browsers employ a security protocol between the client and the server computer in order to ensure that information will be transferred to the intended recipient secured servers only.Benchmark Group will keep your personal information only as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy or as required by law.There are several places throughout our web site that may link you to other web sites that do not operate under Benchmark Group’s Privacy Policy. When you click through to these web sites, Benchmark Group’s Privacy Policy no longer applies. We recommend that you examine the privacy statements of any third-party web sites you visit to understand their procedures for collecting, using, and disclosing your information. Benchmark Group makes no promises, warranties or representations about these third-party web sites and bears no liability whatsoever for your use of them.The internet is, by its nature, inherently open and subject to interception of information. We cannot guarantee that information you provide to us over the internet or otherwise will not be intercepted by third parties while it is being communicated by means that are outside of our control.

5) YOUR CONSENT

By choosing to provide us with your personal information you are consenting to its collection, use and disclosure in accordance with the principles outlined in this Privacy Policy. If you are under the age of 18, you must not provide any personal information to us without the consent of your parent or guardian, or as otherwise provided for by applicable law. Benchmark Group encourages you to review our on-line Privacy Policy on a periodic basis. This Privacy Policy may be updated from time-to-time and your subsequent use of our web site will be your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your information as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you don’t want Benchmark Group to collect, use or disclose your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Policy, please tell us at the time the information is requested or collected. You can also contact Benchmark Group’s Founder, Mark J. Stables, at 416 428 3536 or by email with any questions or concerns.

6) VERIFYING AND AMENDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Benchmark Group tries to ensure that all personal information about you that is in our possession is accurate, complete and up-to-date. To enable us to do so, please inform the person to whom you provided your personal information of any change to that information.You can inquire about, access and review your personal information held by Benchmark Group and make corrections to it. Please us by sending an email to our Customer Relations for assistance with these matters. In some cases Benchmark Group will be prevented from disclosing the requested information to you. If any request you make for access to personal information is denied, we will provide you with an explanation.7) RESOLVING YOUR CONCERNSIf you have any questions or concerns about Benchmark Group’s personal information collection, use and disclosure practices, please let us know and we will do our best to help you. You can contact Mark J. Stables, at 416 428 3536 or by email with any questions or concerns.

BENCHMARK GROUP STORE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

TERMS OF SALE

All digital products, services, gift cards, online programs, workshops and event tickets are final sale. Please carefully read all of the information available and contact us at hello@benchmarkgroup.ca if you have any questions. For all other products, please see our Returns, Refunds and Exchanges policy.

1) SHIPPING

  1. a) Order Confirmation

As soon as you place your order you will receive an order confirmation e-mail. This means that we have received your order in our system and charged your credit card for the purchase. If your item(s) are available, your order will be processed for immediate shipment (within 5 business days). If you’re item is on backorder (as stated during purchase), we will process your order as soon as the item(s) are stocked.

  1. b) Order Shipment

We will send tracking information once your order is processed to the e-mail address provided when checking out. If you do not receive tracking information from us within seven business days of your order feel free to follow up with us at hello@benchmarkgroup.ca.2) RETURNS, REFUNDS AND EXCHANGES POLICYNon-returnable items: Digital products, services, gift cards, online programs, workshops and event tickets. The following applies to Benchmark Group Health and Fitness Products only.

  1. a) Returns

Returns and exchanges will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for damaged and defective goods only and must be received by Benchmark Group within 30 days of receiving your order. If 30 days have elapsed since receipt of your order, we will not be able to offer any refunds or exchanges. To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging. To complete your return, we require a receipt or proof of purchase.

  1. b) Refunds

Once your return is received and inspected, we will send you an email to notify you that we have received your returned item and inform you of the approval or rejection of your refund. If you are approved, then your refund will be processed, and a credit will automatically be applied to your credit card or original method of payment, within 10 business days.

  1. c) Exchanges

Items are only eligible for exchange if they are defective or damaged. If you need to exchange it for the same item, send us an email at hello@benchmarkgroup.caand send your item to: 402-510 King Street East, Toronto Ontario Canada M5A0E5.

  1. d) Shipping

To return your product, please mail your product to: 402-510 King Street East, Toronto Ontario Canada M5A0E5. You will be responsible for any shipping costs when returning items. Shipping costs are non-refundable. If you receive a refund, the cost shipping will be deducted from your refund. If you are shipping an item over $75, you should consider using a trackable shipping service or purchasing shipping insurance. We don’t guarantee that we will receive your returned item.