Why am I receiving this email from GarageHQ?
You landed here from the footer of a GarageHQ email and want to know why. This page explains what we send, why, and exactly how to stop any of it.
The short answer
You're receiving emails from GarageHQ because of one of three reasons, and each one has a different opt-out:
| Email type | Why you're getting it | How to stop |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional | Service-critical messages (invoices, history-check reports, sign-in security, account changes) | You can't unsubscribe: these are part of the service. Close the account if you no longer want them. |
| Service notifications | MOT / tax / insurance reminders, appointment confirmations, document-wallet expiry warnings | Click Unsubscribe in the email footer, or toggle off in Settings → Email preferences |
| Marketing | Product news, feature announcements, GarageHQ newsletters, occasional Customer-focused tips | Click Unsubscribe in the marketing email footer. You're only on this list if you explicitly opted in. |
Where each type comes from
Transactional emails (always sent)
These are bound to actions you took:
- The Stripe receipt when your subscription renews
- The PDF report when you run a history check
- A magic-link email when you (or your sales contact) request one
- An invite email when an org owner adds you as a team member
- A confirmation when you change a security setting
We send these regardless of any consent setting. Without them, the service literally can't work. The only way to stop them is to delete your account (see Closing your account below).
Service notifications (opt-out at any time)
The bread-and-butter of GarageHQ. The default for new accounts is "on", because the reminders are the whole point of the product. But you can turn them off:
- Unsubscribe link in any reminder email's footer: one click, takes you to a confirmation page, immediate effect
- Settings → Email preferences: toggle individual reminder types (MOT / tax / insurance / appointment / wallet / licence) on or off per category
Per-vehicle reminders also have a separate toggle on each vehicle's Settings tab. Turn them off there if you only want to silence one car's reminders, not all of them.
Marketing emails (opt-in only)
These are the only emails that need your explicit consent before we'll ever send one:
- Product newsletters: when we ship something genuinely new and useful (the SSO feature, the clean-air-zone grid, the document wallet, etc.)
- Price-change notices: actually these aren't really marketing, they're transactional under UK GDPR (a contract-pricing change has to reach every paying subscriber regardless of marketing consent). But they look similar so we mention them here.
- Occasional tips: at most every fortnight, never more.
You're only on this list if you ticked the marketing consent checkbox at signup or in Settings → Email preferences. The checkbox starts unticked.
How to change it
| Action | Where |
|---|---|
| Stop the specific email you just received | Click Unsubscribe in its footer. Routes to a confirmation page; no login required. |
| Stop all marketing emails | Click Unsubscribe in any marketing email, OR open Settings → Email preferences and untick Marketing. |
| Stop all service notifications | Same as above, but untick Service notifications. (Transactional emails continue.) |
| Re-subscribe after unsubscribing | Settings → Email preferences → tick the box again. We'll record the new consent with a fresh timestamp. |
| See exactly when you consented (or revoked consent) | Settings → Email preferences → Consent log. Append-only audit trail per UK GDPR Article 7. |
The unsubscribe link is one-click
Modern email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) support a "List-Unsubscribe" header that lets you unsubscribe directly from the inbox without opening the email. We support this. If you use that, the result is identical to clicking the footer link.
We don't try to talk you out of unsubscribing. There's no "are you sure?" interstitial, no "give us another chance" pitch, no "click here to reduce frequency instead". One click and you're done.
What we don't do
- We don't share your email with third parties. Marketing email goes out from GarageHQ infrastructure (Microsoft Graph via our own tenant). No Mailchimp, no SendGrid, no third-party broker has your address.
- We don't track opens or clicks for marketing campaigns. The marketing email template doesn't embed tracking pixels. The unsubscribe link is the only link we log, because we have to record the consent change.
- We don't honour Facebook / Instagram custom audiences. Even if you've given Meta your email elsewhere, we'd never upload our user list to their advertising platform.
Closing your account
If you'd rather stop everything (transactional emails included), the right path is to close your account. Settings → Account → Close my account. We confirm via a second click, then permanently delete your data within 30 days per UK GDPR Article 17.
After deletion, the only emails you'd receive are if you re-sign-up later.
Getting in touch
If you believe you're getting emails you didn't sign up for, or one of the unsubscribe paths didn't work, email hello@garagehq.uk with the subject line of the email you received. We treat unwanted email as a bug and we fix it.
For wider data-protection queries, see Data export and account deletion.