Very frustrating that I cannot send text to my clients!

[VGLawrence269]

Square is now forcing us to ask clients for permission if their algorithm thinks we are offering a promotion, which is complete nonsense! Square is just trying to make more money and as a customer I find that very disrespectful. I run a dog grooming business and if a customer gives us feedback on google, we offer a free ear cleaning. That's not a promotion, that's just a way to have feedback for our business and when a customer texts us to tell us their happy, I want to be able to remind them of that! It's not a promotion but I now get flagged and Square won't let me text my clients. Extremely frustrating and if it continues, we will be moving to Stripe. 

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

@VGLawrence269 I’ve included a few links to articles below.  In a nutshell, we must ask for clients’ permission before texting them for any reason.  This is federal law and applies to all 50 states.  I’ve read of a few businesses who ran into legal trouble with the their state and the FCC for not getting a customer’s express written consent.  I’d imagine that Square is very aware of this and has written their software to keep them out of hot water by providing something that would allow us to skirt the rules.

We used to use a third-party text messaging app for promotions.  And that company made it completely clear that, while we were allowed to import our existing customer list, we either had to give them a file showing consent for every customer we imported, or we had to use their tools to get said consent.

This is not just for promotions.  It is for all text communication.

https://www.tatango.com/resources/tcpa-videos/can-i-legally-text-message-my-customers/

https://simpletexting.com/in-depth-guide/sms-compliance-guide/introduction-sms-compliance/

[VGLawrence269]

Thank you for that information, Chip! It makes a lot more sense now. Still an annoyance, but I guess I can thank the federal government for this one.