Compliance
TCPA basics for plumbers
5 min read · Updated May 2026
TCPA stands for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It's the US federal law that governs business text messages. Violating it can result in fines of $500 to $1,500 per text — and law firms actively scan for violations to file class-action lawsuits.
The good news: complying is straightforward. There are basically three rules. Follow them, and you're fine.
One disclaimer up front: This article gives you the practical rules of thumb. It's not legal advice. If you're running large outbound campaigns to thousands of contacts, talk to a lawyer who specializes in TCPA.
Get consent before you text.
You can text someone if they've given you their phone number in the context of doing business with you. Past customers and people who filled out your "request a quote" form count. People whose numbers you bought from a marketing list do not count.
Specifically, the law recognizes two flavors of consent:
- Prior business relationship. They were your customer in the last 18 months, or asked about service in the last 3 months. You can text them about services they'd reasonably expect (quote follow-ups, review requests, appointment confirmations).
- Express written consent. They specifically opted in to receive marketing texts — e.g. ticked a checkbox on your website. You can text them about anything (within reason).
Only text between 8am and 9pm — in their timezone.
Quiet hours are federal law. A text sent at 9:01pm Eastern to a customer in California (where it's 6:01pm) is still a violation, because California is on the West Coast. Plumbify automatically respects this — we look up the area code, infer the timezone, and queue messages that fall outside the window.
For all automated SMS Plumbify sends — review requests, quote follow-ups, missed-call text-back — you don't need to think about this. It's done for you. The only time it matters is if you're sending one-off messages from your phone directly.
Honor opt-outs immediately.
If someone replies STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT, you must stop texting them. No "are you sure?" follow-up, no "we'll miss you" message. Just stop.
Plumbify handles this automatically. Any reply containing those words flips the contact's "DO NOT TEXT" flag, and future automated campaigns skip them. You'll see the opt-out flag in your contacts list so you also know not to manually message them.
STOP applies globally — once a customer opts out, every Plumbify automation (review requests, quote follow-ups, text-back, anything else) is blocked for that number until they explicitly opt back in.
What Plumbify does for you
Most of the heavy lifting is automatic. Specifically:
- ✅ Quiet hours — every outbound message queues if outside 8am–9pm recipient local time.
- ✅ Opt-out detection — STOP/UNSUBSCRIBE replies auto-flag the contact.
- ✅ Required identification — every promotional message identifies your business by name.
- ✅ Opt-out instructions — every automated message includes "Reply STOP to opt out."
- ✅ Audit trail — we log who consented, when, and how.
What you have to do yourself
- ❌ Don't text from your own phone in ways that violate quiet hours. One-off personal texts from your business cell aren't covered by Plumbify's automated guardrails.
- ❌ Don't text restricted content. Sweepstakes, debt collection, payday loans, cannabis, firearms, adult content, or gambling — these are restricted message categories under TCPA and Plumbify isn't licensed for them.
- ❌ Don't try to use Plumbify for outbound marketing campaigns. Plumbify supports transactional SMS only (responses to caller actions, post-job reviews, quote follow-ups). It's not a mass-marketing platform.
Verbal consent script (used by Plumbify's AI receptionist)
Plumbify's AI voice receptionist verbally discloses SMS consent during the intake call, before collecting and storing the caller's phone number for outbound SMS. The disclosure is woven into the natural conversation flow. Verbatim wording:
"To confirm — I have your number as [PHONE NUMBER]. We'll text you to confirm the appointment, send any quote follow-ups, and ask for a quick review once the job is done. Message frequency varies based on your job — typically 2 to 4 messages per service. Message and data rates may apply. You can reply STOP at any time to opt out, or HELP for help. Sound good?"
The caller verbally confirms before the AI continues. If the caller declines or asks not to receive texts, the AI marks their record with a do_not_text flag and no SMS is sent — neither at the time of the call nor later.
For plumbers handling intake calls themselves (when AI is paused or not in use), Plumbify provides the same script as part of customer onboarding training. The plumber reads or paraphrases the disclosure before confirming the customer's number.
Auto-reply messages. If a recipient texts HELP to the toll-free number, they receive:
"This is Plumbify, sending transactional SMS on behalf of your plumbing contractor. Messages include missed-call replies, quote follow-ups, and post-job review requests. Reply STOP to opt out. Msg & data rates may apply. More info: getplumbify.com/help/tcpa-basics.html"
If a recipient texts STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, or QUIT, they are immediately added to the platform-wide opt-out list and no further messages are sent to that number from any Plumbify customer's account.
If a recipient texts START or YES after a previous STOP, they receive:
"You're opted back in to receive SMS from your plumbing contractor via Plumbify — appointment confirmations, quote follow-ups, and review requests. Reply STOP to opt out anytime, HELP for help. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply."
What about Florida-specific rules?
Florida has its own consumer protection statute (Florida Telephone Solicitation Act / FTSA) that's stricter than federal TCPA. Notably it requires prior express written consent for telephonic sales calls and text messages, even for past customers in some cases. There's ongoing litigation about how broadly it applies — talk to a lawyer if you're sending Florida-scale outbound campaigns.
For routine review requests (responding to a job completion) and quote follow-ups (responding to a quote you sent), you're generally on safe ground because of the prior business relationship.
The indemnification clause in our Terms
Important to flag: in our Terms of Service §5a, you agree to indemnify Plumbify if a TCPA claim arises from your use of the service — for example if you uploaded contacts you didn't have consent to text. We provide compliance tooling, but we can't verify the consent status of every contact you import. That responsibility is yours.
This isn't unusual — every SMS platform has this clause. We're just being transparent about it.
The bottom line
If you only ever message:
- Customers you've worked with before, or
- People who explicitly opted in on your website
…between 8am and 9pm their time, and you honor STOP requests — you're compliant. That covers 95% of how plumbers use Plumbify.
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