TCPA and text messages: a small business plumber's guide
Texting customers under the TCPA comes down to three lanes: replies, job texts and sales texts. What each needs, how STOP works, and what 10DLC costs a small shop.
Most texts a plumbing, HVAC or electrical business sends are fine under the TCPA if you get three things right. Reply to people who contacted you, and say who you are. Send sales texts only to people who agreed in writing. Stop the moment anyone says stop. On top of the law, the US carriers want any texts your software sends registered for 10DLC, or they cost more and get filtered harder.
I'm a plumber, not a lawyer. I build phone and follow-up systems for trade businesses, so I've had to read these rules for every text my systems send. This is the plain version I work from. Check your own wording with your own advisor before anything goes out. If you're in the UK, none of the TCPA applies to you; the UK plumbers post covers PECR instead.
Every text is a call as far as the TCPA is concerned
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act was written in 1991 about phone calls. The Supreme Court settled the texting question in 2016: "A text message to a cellular telephone, it is undisputed, qualifies as a 'call'". So every rule about calls reaches your texts.
The reason owners should care is the damages. The statute lets a person sue for their actual loss or $500 per violation, and a court can triple it if it was willful or knowing. Each text can be its own violation. One wrong reply won't sink you. One wrong text to your whole customer list is a different sum.
There's a twist that the scary blog posts leave out. In 2021 the Supreme Court narrowed what counts as an autodialer: the system must be able to store or produce numbers "using a random or sequential number generator". Your job software texting a customer from their job card probably doesn't do that. So does the federal consent rule even bite? Maybe not, and it doesn't matter as much as you'd hope, for three reasons:
- The Do Not Call rules aren't about autodialers. They cover sales calls to registered numbers, whatever makes them, and a text is a call.
- States have their own versions. Florida's statute counts a text as a sales call and wants written consent for automated sales texts.
- The carriers enforce consent through 10DLC whether a court would or not. They're the cop you meet first.
So I build as if the strict version applies. It costs almost nothing, and it keeps you out of the argument.
The three lanes: reply texts, job texts and sales texts
The simplest map I've found is the one the carriers' own trade body uses. CTIA's messaging guide sorts every business text into conversational, informational and promotional, each with its own level of consent. I call them the three lanes and translate them into trade texts:
| Lane | Trade example | Permission you need | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Reply | Customer texts "can you look at my water heater?" and you answer | Their text is the permission | You tack an offer on the end |
| 2. Job | "Mike's on his way", the estimate link, tomorrow's reminder | They gave you the number for this job | You keep texting them about other things after the job |
| 3. Sales | Spring AC tune-up, $50 off a drain clean, "we're in your area" | Written consent, signed, not a condition of buying | Texting last year's customer list |
The rule that catches people is in CTIA's own words: "Adding a call-to-action (e.g., a coupon code to an informational text) may place the message in the promotional category." Your appointment reminder with "10% off your next visit" on the end is no longer a lane 2 text. It's a sales text sent to someone who never agreed to sales texts. One text, one lane.
Then there's the missed-call text-back, which most trade software now sells. No rule I've read names it. CTIA's reply lane starts with the customer texting first, and a phone call isn't a text. So I build it to sit in the safest spot there is: one message, it says who you are, it answers the call they just made, there's no offer, and it says how to opt out.
Hi, it's Dave's Plumbing. Sorry we missed you. Reply with what's going on and Dave will call you back. Reply STOP to opt out.
That's the whole text. No second one tomorrow asking if they still need help. No "while you're here, ask about our maintenance plan".
Sales texts need written consent, and "yes" on the phone isn't it
The FCC's rule for automated marketing to a mobile is prior express written consent. The definition is specific: an agreement in writing, bearing the signature of the person, that clearly authorises you to send them marketing messages, and it must tell them that signing isn't a condition of buying anything.
In practice most shops collect it as a separate, unticked box on the online booking form or the signed estimate, worded plainly. Ask your advisor whether your wording qualifies. Don't tick it for them, and don't make the job depend on it.
Here's what AI can't do in this lane. My receptionist can't collect written consent by being polite on the phone. A caller saying "sure, text me deals" out loud is not a signature. The most it should do is text a link to the form, and even that I leave out unless the owner has a marketing programme worth signing up for. Most don't.
Two more things people mix up:
- The established business relationship. The rule defines it as a purchase in the last 18 months or an enquiry in the last three. It's an exemption from the Do Not Call list. It is not written consent, and it doesn't make an automated promo text to an old customer safe.
- Quiet hours. Sales calls and texts can't go out before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the customer's time zone. The rule is written for solicitations, but I apply it to every automated text. Nobody wants "your estimate is ready" at 11 at night.
STOP means stop, everywhere, and fast
This is the part where small shops actually get caught, because their texts come from three tools that don't talk to each other.
The FCC's revocation rule says customers can revoke consent by any reasonable means. A reply of "stop", "quit", "end", "revoke", "opt out", "cancel" or "unsubscribe" counts. You have up to ten business days to honour it, and you may send one confirmation text within five minutes, with no marketing in it. Compliance has been required since 11 April 2025, per the FCC's April 2025 order.
One piece is delayed. The part that makes a STOP to one kind of message cover every unrelated message from you has been pushed to 31 January 2027. Don't build your business around that delay. A customer who texts STOP to your review request and then gets a promo from your marketing tool doesn't care which FCC paragraph applies. Florida gives you 15 days after a STOP on sales texts, and I wouldn't use those either.
Here's the failure I look for first. The missed-call tool has its own STOP list. Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan has another. The review tool has a third. Your own mobile has none. A STOP typed into one never reaches the others. No AI fixes that by being clever. Somebody has to decide there's one list and every tool reads it.
10DLC: the carriers' rulebook, and what it costs a small shop
The law is one layer. The carriers are another. Twilio's documentation says anyone sending texts from an application to US numbers over an ordinary ten-digit number must register a brand (who you are) and a campaign (what you send and how people opted in). Unregistered traffic pays extra carrier fees and gets filtered. The small-sender option is a sole proprietor brand, capped at about 3,000 texts a day. If you send 500 texts a month, that's under 20 a day.
This is why the lanes matter even if no lawyer ever reads your texts. The campaign form asks what your messages are and how customers opted in. Describe lane 2 and then send lane 3, and the filtering starts.
The money is small. One platform, HighLevel, publishes the pass-through fees in its July 2026 fee list: about $24.50 one-time for a sole proprietor or low-volume registration, $1.50 a month for a low-volume mixed campaign, and $0.003 per outbound text on each of the big three carriers. Say you send 500 texts a month. That's 500 × $0.003 = $1.50 a month in carrier fees, plus $1.50 for the campaign. Year one: $24.50 + (12 × $1.50) + (12 × $1.50) = $60.50, before your platform's own price per text.
Set that against the $500 a text the statute puts on the table. It isn't close. Your texting software usually does the registration on your behalf, so the job is to ask them, not to do it yourself.
And if you're wondering whether texting is worth this bother at all, it is when it's the reply to a call you missed. Speed to lead is why, and the calculator runs what those missed calls cost you on your own numbers.
Do this this week: the one-page text audit
This takes an hour with a coffee. Do it before you switch on any new texting tool, mine included.
- List every text your business sends, and which tool sends it: your mobile, your job software, the missed-call tool, the review tool, any marketing tool.
- Put each one in a lane. Anything with an offer, a discount or "book your next service" is lane 3.
- For every lane 3 text, find the signed consent. If there isn't any, stop sending it until there is.
- Ask each vendor two questions. Is my brand and campaign registered for 10DLC, and under what use case? Does a STOP here reach my other tools?
- Test STOP yourself. From your personal phone, text STOP to your business number. Then watch that phone for a fortnight. Anything that arrives after the one confirmation is the bug.
If you want the follow-up side done properly after that, the quote follow-up sequence shows the day 0, 3, 7, 12 texts I'd send, all lane 2.
Where AI fits, and where it doesn't
The system I build answers the phone when you can't. It sends two texts: the job summary to you, which is your own phone and no customer's, and one lane 2 reply to the caller saying you'll ring back. It doesn't send marketing. It doesn't chase. It doesn't collect consent. It hands the job to you, and you call back in your own voice.
That's a deliberate choice. The lanes stay clean, the STOP list stays short, and there's nothing for a carrier to filter. My first client is a plumbing company going live in October 2026, so there's no result to quote here yet, only the rules I build to.
If you'd like someone to go through your text list with you, book a growth call. Thirty minutes, free. I'll tell you which lane each text is in and which tool is the leak. I won't pretend to be your lawyer. What I build for plumbing companies is on the plumbers page.
Questions people ask
Can a plumbing company text customers without their permission?
You can reply to someone who texted you first, and you can text a customer about the job they gave you their number for. Sales texts are different: automated marketing texts to a mobile need prior express written consent under the FCC's rules, signed, and it can't be a condition of buying. If a text contains an offer, treat it as a sales text.
Is a missed-call text-back legal under the TCPA?
No rule I've read names it either way. The caller rang you, so a single text that answers that call, says who you are, contains no offer and explains how to opt out sits in the safest lane there is. Keep it to one message, never add a coupon, and check the wording with your own advisor.
Do I need 10DLC registration if I only send a few texts a month?
If the texts go out from software over an ordinary ten-digit number to US phones, yes. Twilio's documentation says anyone sending from an application must register a brand and a campaign, and unregistered traffic pays extra carrier fees. Small senders can register as a sole proprietor or low-volume brand. Your texting software usually handles it, so ask them.
What is the penalty for a TCPA text message violation?
The statute lets a person sue for their actual loss or $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and a court can triple it if the violation was willful or knowing. Each text can be a separate violation, which is why a bad text to a whole customer list is the expensive mistake, not one wrong reply.
Does the TCPA apply to UK plumbers and electricians?
No. The TCPA is US federal law. In the UK the rules for marketing texts are in PECR, which needs consent or the soft opt-in for anything that markets. The UK plumbers post on this site covers PECR and the recording rules side by side with the US version.
Sources
- 1.Cornell Law School LII: 47 U.S. Code § 227 · (b)(1)(A) prior express consent for autodialed or artificial-voice calls to mobiles; (b)(3) actual loss or $500 per violation, up to three times if willful or knowing; (c)(5) the same for do-not-call violations
- 2.Cornell Law School LII: 47 CFR § 64.1200 · (a)(2) prior express written consent for autodialed telemarketing to mobiles; (a)(10) revocation by reasonable means, stop words, honour within ten business days, one confirmation text within five minutes; (c)(1) 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; (c)(2) do-not-call registry; (f)(5) established business relationship 18 months or 3 months; (f)(9) written consent definition
- 3.Cornell Law School LII: Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez (2016) · A text message to a cellular telephone qualifies as a call under § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii)
- 4.Cornell Law School LII: Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (2021) · An autodialer must have the capacity to store or produce numbers using a random or sequential number generator
- 5.FCC: Order DA 25-312 (7 April 2025) · Revocation rules required from 11 April 2025; the part that applies one opt-out to all unrelated messages delayed
- 6.Wiley: FCC extends limited waiver for part of the TCPA consent revocation rule · Second extension order of 6 January 2026 moves the revoke-all part to 31 January 2027; the duty to honour reasonable opt-outs is unchanged
- 7.CTIA: Messaging Principles and Best Practices (May 2023) · Section 5.1: conversational, informational and promotional messages and the consent each needs; a coupon code can move an informational text into promotional
- 8.Twilio Docs: What is A2P 10DLC? · Anyone sending SMS over a 10DLC number from an application to the US must register a brand and a campaign; unregistered traffic pays additional carrier fees; sole proprietor brands about 3,000 segments a day
- 9.HighLevel Support: A2P 10DLC messaging fees · Updated 29 July 2026; pass-through fees: one-time registration bundle $24.49875 for sole proprietor or low volume; $1.50 a month low-volume mixed campaign, $10 standard; $0.003 per outbound SMS on AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon
- 10.The Florida Senate: Florida Statutes 501.059 · A telephonic sales call includes a text message; automated sales texts need prior express written consent; a STOP reply must be honoured within 15 days; $500 per violation, up to three times if willful
Written by Ivar André Knutsen
I build and run AI systems, internal tools and workflow automation. You work directly with me from the first conversation through implementation and support. About Ivar
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