How customers opt in to text messages

This page documents the consent a repair shop collects before Auto Shop App sends a customer any text message, and the exact words its advisor reads at the counter.

Where the consent happens

Auto Shop App is management software used by independent auto repair and collision shops. Every phone number it texts is one a customer gave to a shop in person, at the counter, while leaving their own vehicle for repair. There is no web form, no purchased list, and no imported list. A number reaches the system only when a member of shop staff types it onto that customer's record during check-in.

Consent is therefore verbal, given face to face, and recorded by the advisor who took it. The messages that follow are about the repair that customer has just authorised. They are not marketing: Auto Shop App has no bulk send, campaign, newsletter or mailing-list feature, and its API rejects any message marked as marketing.

What the advisor says

The check-in screen shows this disclosure to the advisor at the moment the mobile number is entered, and will not record consent until the advisor confirms the customer said yes.

Read to the customer

“Is this the best mobile number to reach you on? We’ll text you from [shop name] about this repair — when your estimate is ready to approve, if we need your authorisation for anything, and when your car is ready to pick up. That’s usually three or four messages while we have the car, and only about your vehicle. Message and data rates may apply. You can reply STOP at any time to stop them, or HELP for help. Is that okay?”

Only on a clear yes

The advisor ticks “Customer agreed to be texted about this repair”. The system records the consent against that customer with the date, the number, and the name of the employee who took it. If the customer says no, the box is left unticked and no text is ever sent to that number.

What we send, and how often

Roughly three to four messages per repair visit, sent while the shop has the vehicle. A visit typically lasts a day or two.
An estimate is ready to review and approve.
An authorisation to sign, when work is needed or when a repair exceeds what was already approved.
The results of a vehicle inspection, with photographs.
The vehicle is ready to collect, with the balance due.
A question from the advisor about that customer's repair.

Every message names the shop that sent it and gives that shop's own phone number, so the customer always knows who is writing and can reach a person directly. Nothing is scheduled, batched, or sent to more than one recipient at a time.

Stopping the messages, and getting help

Reply	What happens
STOP	All messages stop immediately. Also recognised: STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT. The customer receives one confirmation and nothing after it. The shop sees on its own screen that the number opted out and why, so staff phone instead.
START	Messages resume. Also recognised: UNSTOP. Only the customer's own handset can undo an opt-out — no shop and no member of our staff can text a number again once it has said STOP.
HELP	Explains who is messaging and how to stop. Also recognised: INFO.

Message and data rates may apply. Consent is not a condition of any purchase or of any repair: a customer who declines texts is served exactly as before, by telephone.

What we do with the number

A customer's phone number belongs to the shop that collected it and is used only to message that customer about their own vehicle. It is never sold, rented, shared with other shops, or used for advertising. Opt-outs are recorded permanently so that a number which has said STOP is never texted again, and that record is checked before every single message leaves.