Text message terms and privacy

How your number is collected

You give the shop your mobile number at the counter, on the check-in screen, or over the phone when you book work in. That is the only way a number reaches the system — numbers are never bought, rented, appended from another source, or shared between shops.

Agreeing to text messages is never a condition of getting your vehicle repaired. If you would rather not have them, say so and the shop will leave the box unticked.

What the messages say

Most messages are about the work on your vehicle: that it has arrived, that an estimate has gone to your insurer, that it is waiting on a part, that it is ready to collect, and what you owe when you collect it.

The shop can also message you directly about your repair, and you can reply — those replies go to the shop handling your vehicle.

A day or two after you collect the vehicle the shop may ask whether the process met your expectations, and if you say yes, ask you to leave a review. That is the only message that is not strictly about the repair itself, and answering it is entirely optional.

There are no promotions, no offers and no marketing campaigns. If a shop ever wants to send those, it is a separate agreement asked for separately.

How often

Expect four to eight messages per vehicle while it is with the shop. These go out when your vehicle’s status actually changes, so the exact count depends on the repair — a job waiting on parts or a supplement sits at the higher end of that range.

After you collect the vehicle there may be up to two more: the question about how the process went, and the review link if you answer yes. Those are the automated messages, and ten per vehicle is as many as they reach.

Direct messages from the shop may increase the message quantity. You can reply to those, and the shop will reply to you.

You are not messaged on a fixed schedule, and nothing is sent to fill a quiet week.

Who the message comes from

Each shop has its own messaging number, and the sender named to you is set per shop. The message will say which shop it is from.

Storm Rider Solutions LLC operates the software that sends the message on the shop’s behalf. Replies go to the shop.

What it costs

Message and data rates may apply, depending on your plan and your carrier. The shop does not charge you for messages, and neither does Storm Rider Solutions.

Carriers

Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Delivery is not guaranteed — if a message matters, the shop will also reach you by phone.

What is kept, and who sees it

Your number is held on your customer record in the repairing shop’s own database, alongside the usual contact details. Each shop has its own separate database; there is no shared pool and no cross-over between shops.

The record of what was sent to you — the message, when it went, and whether it was delivered — is kept with that shop’s file on your vehicle, because it is part of the record of the repair.

Your number and your messages are not sold, rented, or shared for anyone else’s marketing. They are shared only with the messaging provider that carries the message and with anyone the shop is legally required to give them to.

A closed file is kept as the shop’s business record. Personal contact details have a ten-year outer limit and move to archival storage a year after the file closes. You can ask the shop to delete your contact details before then.

Your choices

You can stop messages at any time, ask what the shop holds about you, and ask for it to be corrected or deleted. Ask the shop first — it is their record. If they cannot help, the contact details at the foot of this page reach us.

Nothing on this page limits any right you have under your own state’s law.

Changes to this page

If what is sent or how often changes, this page changes with it and the date at the top moves. A material change to what you agreed to is asked for again rather than assumed.