How we ask for permission to text you
Permission to send these text messages is given out loud, on a phone call, by the person being texted. There is no form on this site to fill in and no box to tick, so there is nothing for a visitor or a reviewer to look at unless we write it down. This page is that: the words the answering service actually speaks on the call, in the order it speaks them, and everything the program does with the number afterwards.
On this page
The program is called MinutesOut appointment texts. It is run by Eveyatar Elharar, a sole proprietor.
The people who receive these messages are the customers of a home-service business — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, handyman work — who telephoned that business and had the call answered by our service. The tradesman is the one who buys the service. His customer is the one who gets the text, and only about the job they just booked with him.
How permission is given
There is one way in, and this is the whole list. A customer telephones the business, and during that call they say their mobile number out loud and confirm it. Nothing else opts anybody in. There is no web form, no keyword, no paper form, no QR code, no purchased list, no rented list, no third-party data and no number taken from anywhere but the caller’s own mouth on their own call. We never call or text a person first.
Three things are disclosed about this program, and they are written out in full further down this page: message frequency varies, message and data rates may apply, and replying STOP ends the messages. The same three are in the terms of the program and in the privacy policy, in the same words, and this page is the public record they can be checked against.
The words we say on the call
These are the lines the answering service speaks, quoted from the script it runs. They come after the appointment time has been agreed, near the end of the call.
“And this number you’re calling from — that’s the best one for him?”
If they will not be at that phone, it asks instead: “Best number for him to reach you on?”
The number is then read back digit by digit and has to get an explicit spoken yes before it is used: “Number first — nine one seven, five five five, zero one three four. That right?” A number that is not confirmed out loud is not texted.
It then asks whether that number can receive the appointment text. If it cannot: “What number can? The confirmation goes by text.”
The call closes by telling the caller the message is on its way, so nobody is texted who has not just heard it coming: “Confirmation text is coming to that number — tap the link to drop a pin.”
Agreeing to the texts is not a condition of getting the appointment. A caller who says no to the text, or who has no phone that can receive one, is booked exactly the same way: the day and the arrival window are said out loud on the call instead, and the tradesman is told that this customer got no message.
What the program sends
What the program sends: a request to confirm the service address after a booking, the confirmation of the appointment with the day and the arrival window, a message if the appointment moves or cannot be kept, an update with a live arrival time when the tradesman is running behind, and an answer to HELP. There is no advertising, no promotion and no newsletter in it, and there is no list to be added to.
An example of the first message, with a made-up trade name standing in for the real one: “Guttman-Schwartz Plumbing: confirm your address for our visit: https://go.minutesout.com/t/… Reply STOP to end.” Every message begins with the name of the business the appointment is with.
Stopping the messages
Message frequency varies. It follows the work rather than a schedule, and a customer who books one job usually gets between one and five messages about it.
Message and data rates may apply.
Reply STOP to any message and the messages stop. The words END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE and QUIT do the same thing. Reply START to begin again.
Reply HELP to any message and you are told who is texting you, what the messages are for, and how to stop them.
We do not share, sell, or provide your mobile phone number or messaging consent data to third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.
The full documents behind this page: Privacy Policy · Terms of Service