Términos del Programa de Mensajes / Messaging Program Terms

Two audiences, deliberately in one document.

• Sections 1–5 and 8–10 bind the Tenant. They are Exhibit C to the Platform Terms of Service (Platform Terms of Service) and form part of that agreement.
• Sections 6 and 7 are consumer- and carrier-facing. Section 6 is the program disclosure published for recipients and for carrier review; Section 7 is the exact language shown at the point of consent. The Spanish-first consumer version lives in Customer Notice §6.

1. Scope, and why this document is separate

Messaging is the most closely regulated thing the Service does. Federal law, state telemarketing law, carrier rules and the CTIA Messaging Principles all attach to it, and their requirements are specific and evidentiary: who the sender is, what the recipient was shown, what the recipient did, and what happened when the recipient asked to stop.

This document therefore does two distinct jobs, and they should not be confused with each other:

1. It allocates responsibility between Techne and the Tenant (Sections 2, 8, 9). That allocation is an agreement between the parties to these Terms.
2. It documents the consent mechanics the software actually implements (Sections 3–7), so that both parties — and, where required, a carrier or a regulator — can check them against the product rather than take them on faith.

The design principle behind Sections 3–7. The consent-capture surfaces are the control that matters, so they are built to be inspectable and are not left to anyone's discretion: appointment messages and promotions asked about separately, with no box ever pre-checked; the exact language pinned in the software by automated tests; an append-only record of what each person was shown and did; automatic, immediate honoring of opt-out keywords, checked against the phone number itself before every text; marketing consent that only the customer can give, in writing; and a customer portal that can turn text messages off but never on. Those surfaces are identical for every Tenant, and neither a Tenant nor Techne may weaken them without treating the change as a legal change under Section 10.

2. Who is the sender

2.1 The Tenant is the sender of record. For every SMS and email sent to an End Customer through the Service, the Tenant is the sender: it owns the customer relationship, it decides the program exists, it owns the content, and it is the party that must hold the consent.

2.2 Techne is the transmitter. Techne provides the software and the connection to Twilio. Techne does not select recipients, does not compose marketing content, and does not decide that a given business should have a messaging program.

2.3 The number is shared, and that has consequences. Techne Studios CRM sends over a Twilio toll-free number shared across all Techne Studios CRM tenants, verified with carriers for the declared use case.

(a) A recipient who replies STOP to that number stops messages from every Techne Studios CRM business that texts them from it — transactional and marketing alike. Neither Techne nor any Tenant can override that.
(b) Carrier action against the number — filtering, throttling, revocation — caused by one Tenant's traffic affects every Tenant. This is why Acceptable Use Policy §5.6 permits immediate action without notice.
(c) The program registered with carriers describes the traffic the Service actually sends. Sending content outside that declared use case is a breach (Acceptable Use Policy §5.3).

2.4 Techne's identity is disclosed too. Because the number is shared and Techne operates it, Techne is identified in the program disclosure (Section 6) alongside the sending business. This is accurate and is not an assumption of the Tenant's obligations.

3. The consents, and how they are captured

3.1 One text for two periods. For a Tenant in Puerto Rico or the United States, the booking page asks about appointment text messages in one of two ways, and the Service uses the same one for every Tenant at any given time:

(a) the checkbox period, in which the booking page shows a transactional checkbox (Section 3.2); and
(b) the notice period, in which the booking page shows, in place of that checkbox, a notice beside the phone-number field and an opt-out box (Section 3.3).

The Service is in the checkbox period until Techne moves it to the notice period, which Techne will do only after the carriers approve the updated registration of the shared toll-free number; Techne may later move it back. Techne announces each move on the Service's "Novedades" page. This Exhibit describes both periods, so a move does not change these Terms. In either period, appointment messages and promotions are asked about separately, no box is pre-checked, and no messaging consent is a condition of booking or of service. A Tenant in the Dominican Republic sends appointment messages by WhatsApp, and its booking page shows the WhatsApp checkbox in both periods (Section 7.1).

3.2 Checkbox period: two separate checkboxes, neither pre-checked. At the final step of a booking on a Tenant's public booking page, beside the phone-number field, the customer sees two distinct, independently operable checkboxes, both unchecked by default:

(a) Transactional messages — confirmations, changes, and reminders about the appointment being booked. This one is optional as well — messaging consent is never a condition of booking or of service — but it is offered at booking because the messages are about the very transaction the customer is entering into. A customer who leaves it unchecked completes the booking and simply receives no text messages.
(b) Marketing messages — offers and promotions. Optional. Never required. Never bundled with (a). Never a condition of booking, of service, or of a price.

During the checkbox period, and only then, staff may also record in the Service that a customer agreed to appointment messages by text (by WhatsApp, for a Tenant in the Dominican Republic), for example when they create the client or book an appointment for them. Staff may do so only after asking the customer and hearing yes (Section 8). The record says that staff recorded it and names who did. Staff can never record a marketing consent (Section 3.5).

3.3 Notice period: a notice and an opt-out box. Beside the phone-number field, the booking page shows the notice quoted in Section 7 and, under it, an optional box, unchecked by default, saying that the customer does not want text confirmations or reminders. A customer who gives a phone number to book and leaves that box unchecked consents to the appointment text messages the notice describes: the confirmation, the reminder before the appointment, and notices that the appointment was changed, cancelled or moved to another staff member. A customer who checks the box still books, and is recorded as not wanting those messages. Where a Tenant offers the booking page's chat assistant, the chat shows the same notice under its message field and is instructed to tell the customer, before booking, that these texts will come and that the customer may decline them; a customer who declines is recorded the same way.

Other transactional texts — post-visit thank-you messages, waitlist offers, "Mis citas" sign-in links and repair-estimate links — are not covered by the notice. They are sent only to a customer who has given transactional consent in another way this Section describes, for example with the transactional checkbox during the checkbox period, or by a START reply.

Giving a number never overrides a recorded refusal. A number that replied STOP receives no text from any business until that number replies START (Section 5.2). Only a START reply from that number takes it off the list: a booking, the "Mis citas" portal and staff cannot. A customer who refused appointment texts in another way (the opt-out box, the "Mis citas" portal, or a request recorded by staff) receives none of them until they turn them back on: by replying START or, during the checkbox period, by checking the transactional box when booking.

For each booking made online in the notice period, the Service records the wording shown, whether the customer declined, and the time; a booking made through the booking form also records the IP address and browser. For an appointment staff create in the Service during the notice period, the Service records that the number was given to the business for that appointment, the signed-in user who recorded it, and the time, and records as well that the software showed the customer no consent sentence, because it did not. When the customer's latest record for appointment texts is already a refusal, the Service records no new consent from the booking: nothing is sent to that customer, and the refusal stands.

3.4 Appointment emails. Appointment emails — confirmations, reminders and changes — are sent to any customer with an email address on file, in both periods, without a consent record: they are transactional messages, not commercial email. So are the receipts the business sends. The "Mis citas" portal therefore offers no switch for them. Promotional email requires a marketing consent (Section 3.5).

3.5 Marketing consent is written, and only the customer gives it. Marketing consent can be given only by the customer, through one of these doors:

(a) the marketing checkbox on the booking page, in both periods, which carries the full disclosure and is tied to the phone number the customer is typing. It is the only way to agree to promotional text messages;
(b) for promotional email only, the promotions page linked from the appointment confirmation email, where the box starts unchecked and carries the sentence quoted in Section 7.2. The link is personal to the customer and expires after 30 days, and the record stores the exact sentence, the time, the IP address and the browser; and
(c) for promotional email only, the "Mis citas" portal.

Neither the promotions page nor the portal records consent to any text or WhatsApp message: both are reached through the customer's email, and an email address does not prove who holds a phone (Section 5.5).

Staff can never record a marketing consent. The Service refuses one from every staff screen. A booking made on the public booking page by someone signed in as staff of that business does not record its promotions box, and the promotions page saves nothing for a visitor signed in as staff of that business. What the software cannot see is governed by the staff rules in Section 8.

3.6 Imports and off-platform consent. A Tenant moving from another system may import its client list. Importing records no consent of any kind: an imported contact gets no messages until the person agrees through one of the ways in this Section 3, or the Tenant records, through the Service, a consent the person actually gave. A Tenant that imports contacts must be able to produce, on demand, the evidence of each one's consent obtained outside the Service: the exact language, the date, and the person's affirmative act. Importing or recording a consent that was not actually given is a breach of Acceptable Use Policy §5.2 and, in most cases, a violation of law.

3.7 They may not be merged, defaulted, or reworded. The separation, the unchecked defaults, and the disclosure text are product invariants pinned by automated tests against the live dictionary strings (sms-disclosure-copy.test.ts, consent-rework-copy.test.ts, src/app/book/[slug]/SmsDisclosure.tsx). A Tenant may not alter them (Acceptable Use Policy §5.2). Techne will not change them without treating the change as a legal change under §10 of this document.

4. The consent record

4.1 Append-only. Consent is stored as an append-only event log. Every event records the exact language displayed to the person (or, for an appointment created by staff in the notice period, a statement that the software displayed none), the method by which consent was given or revoked, and the timestamp. Records are never edited in place; the current state of any consent is simply the most recent event for that person and channel.

4.2 Why it is built that way. A consent record that can be edited is worth little as evidence. An append-only log with the verbatim language shown is the artifact that answers the only questions that matter in a TCPA dispute: what exactly did this person see, and what exactly did they do?

4.3 Consent records survive account deletion. When a Tenant deletes its account, customer personal information is erased on day zero — but consent records are deliberately excluded from erasure and are retained (Data Processing Addendum §7.2(c), Privacy Policy §7.2). They are retained because they are the proof that messages already sent were lawfully sent. Both parties benefit; neither can waive it unilaterally.

4.4 Consent records are never sold or shared. Mobile opt-in data, phone numbers collected for messaging, and consent records are never sold, rented, or shared with any third party for marketing purposes, and are disclosed only to the subprocessors strictly necessary to deliver a message (Privacy Policy §6.5). This commitment is also a carrier registration requirement and must appear in the published Privacy Policy.

5. Stopping, getting help, and resuming — exactly what the software does

5.1 STOP. A reply consisting of any of the following words — STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, REVOKE, OPTOUT, or in Spanish PARAR, PARE, ALTO, BAJA, CANCELAR — stops messages. Keyword opt-outs are matched on the whole message. In addition, the software recognizes natural-language revocation requests written inside a longer message and honors them. The recipient receives one confirmation message and then nothing further.

5.2 What STOP stops. Because the toll-free number is shared, STOP ends both the transactional and the marketing program, for every business on Techne Studios CRM messaging that person from that number (Section 2.3(a)). The Service records a STOP against the phone number itself, not only against the customer records it matches, and checks that number-level list before sending any text for any business. A number that replied STOP receives no text from any business that uses Techne Studios CRM, including a business it had not booked with when it replied, until that number replies START. The list is kept per channel: a STOP by text stops texts, and a STOP in the WhatsApp chat stops WhatsApp messages. When the carrier reports that a number has opted out, the Service adds it to the list in the same way. STOP does not affect email.

5.3 HELP. A reply of HELP, INFO, or AYUDA returns contact information and program identification.

5.4 START — and what it deliberately does not do. A reply of START, UNSTOP, YES, UNPAUSE, or RESUME takes the number off the list in Section 5.2 and resumes transactional messages only. It does not restore marketing consent. Marketing consent, once revoked, can be given again only by the customer, through the doors in Section 3.5.

5.5 The customer portal turns text messages off, never on, on purpose. In the "Mis citas" portal, a customer can turn promotional email on or off, but can only turn text messages off — appointment texts and text-message marketing alike, and, for a Tenant in the Dominican Republic, the WhatsApp appointment messages — never back on. Appointment texts come back with a START reply from the phone (Section 5.4) or, during the checkbox period, the transactional box when booking; text-message marketing comes back only through the marketing checkbox on the booking page (Section 3.5). The consent-preference system marks those pairs as revoke-only and fails closed on any preference pair it does not recognize.

The reason is worth stating because it is unusual and no comparator does it: a portal session is authenticated by email, not by the phone number. Allowing an email-authenticated session to grant consent for a phone number would break the link between the consenting person, the number, and the disclosure text — the exact link a TCPA record must preserve. So consent to text messages is never given in the portal, nor on the promotions page, which is reached by email too and offers promotional email only (Section 7.2). It is given beside the phone field on the booking page, by a START reply from the number, or, for appointment messages during the checkbox period, recorded by staff after asking the customer (Section 3.2).

5.6 Opt-outs by any other means must be honored. The keyword list above is what the software recognizes automatically. The law requires honoring a revocation made by any reasonable means — spoken at the counter, by email, by phone, by note. A Tenant that receives one off-platform must record it in the Service promptly, with the button on the client's profile that records that the customer asked to stop ("El cliente pidió que no"); the software cannot honor what it was not told (Acceptable Use Policy §5.4). That button records a revocation and nothing else: no staff screen records a marketing consent.

5.7 Timing. Automatic keyword opt-outs take effect immediately on receipt. Opt-outs recorded by a Tenant take effect when recorded. Neither party may send after that point.

6. Program disclosure (published to recipients and to carriers)

Techne Studios CRM appointment and marketing messages

Program. Techne Studios CRM is the appointment and messaging platform operated by Techne Studios LLC (Raritan, New Jersey) on behalf of independent local businesses — salons, barbershops, auto shops and similar service businesses. Messages you receive come from the business you booked with, sent through the toll-free number Techne Studios CRM shares among those businesses.

Two kinds of messages. Appointment messages: confirmations, changes, reminders, receipts, and sign-in links for the "Mis citas" portal. Marketing messages: offers and promotions, sent only if you agreed to them in writing: by text, only with the marketing box when booking; by email, with that box, on the promotions page linked from your appointment confirmation email, or in the "Mis citas" portal.

How you agree to appointment messages. Depending on the booking page, either by checking the appointment-messages box, or by giving your number to book under a notice that says confirmations and reminders will come, with a box to say you don't want them. That notice covers your confirmation, your reminder and notices that your appointment changed or was cancelled; the other appointment messages are sent only if you agreed to them in another way, such as the appointment-messages box or a START reply.

Frequency. Appointment messages are sent as your appointments require. Marketing messages: up to 4 per month.

Cost. Message and data rates may apply. Techne Studios and the business do not charge you for messages; your carrier's rates apply.

Opt out any time. Reply STOP to any message. Because the number is shared across the businesses that use Techne Studios CRM, STOP stops messages from all of them, until you reply START. You will get one confirmation. You can also turn off appointment texts and marketing messages in the "Mis citas" portal (it can turn texts off, not on), or just tell the business.

Help. Reply HELP or AYUDA, or email soporte@technestudios.net.

Resuming. Reply START to resume appointment messages. START does not turn marketing messages back on — for text promotions, agree again with the marketing box when you book; promotions by email can also be accepted again on the promotions page linked from your confirmation email or in the "Mis citas" portal.

Carriers. Messages are delivered by wireless carriers that are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Participating carriers may change without notice.

Privacy. We do not sell or share your phone number or your consent record with anyone for marketing. See our Privacy Policy at crm.technestudios.net/privacy and these terms at crm.technestudios.net/terms.

7. Point-of-consent language

The following is the language shown at the point of consent. Spanish is primary; English is the secondary rendering. Every sentence is reproduced exactly as the software shows and stores it, and {merchant} is replaced with the booking business's name when the page renders.

Checkbox period (Section 3.2). The two boxes beside the phone field. The first carries the word (optional) / (opcional) after the sentence, because messaging consent is never a condition of booking.

Español (primary)

☐ Acepto que {merchant} me envíe recordatorios, confirmaciones y recibos de mis citas por mensaje de texto, y por correo electrónico si proporciono uno. La frecuencia de los mensajes varía. Pueden aplicar tarifas de mensajes y datos. Responde HELP o AYUDA para ayuda, STOP para cancelar. (opcional)

☐ También me gustaría recibir promociones y ofertas ocasionales de {merchant} por mensaje de texto, y por correo electrónico si proporciono uno. Hasta 4 mensajes al mes. Pueden aplicar tarifas de mensajes y datos. Responde HELP o AYUDA para ayuda, STOP para cancelar. El consentimiento no es una condición de compra.

English (secondary)

☐ I agree to receive appointment reminders, confirmations and receipts from {merchant} by text, and by email if I provide one. Message frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel. (optional)

☐ I'd also like to receive occasional promotions and offers from {merchant} by text, and by email if I provide one. Up to 4 msgs/month. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel. Consent is not a condition of purchase.

Notice period (Section 3.3). Beside the phone field, the notice, and under it the opt-out box, unchecked by default. The marketing box above stays as it is, separate and unchecked.

Español (primary)

Te enviaremos confirmaciones y recordatorios de tu cita por texto. Responde STOP para dejar de recibirlos. La frecuencia varía. Pueden aplicar tarifas de mensajes y datos. Responde HELP o AYUDA para ayuda.

☐ No quiero confirmaciones ni recordatorios por texto

English (secondary)

We'll text you confirmations and reminders about your appointment. Reply STOP to stop receiving them. Message frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help.

☐ I don't want text confirmations or reminders

Required elements, so the language can be checked rather than admired. Any revision must retain all of the following across the point-of-consent surface — the checkbox sentences or the notice and box above, together with the messaging-program section published on the same booking page: identification of the sending business by name; identification of Techne Studios LLC / Techne Studios CRM as the platform; a description of the message type; "message and data rates may apply"; the STOP instruction; the HELP/AYUDA instruction; frequency language on the marketing box; the express statement that marketing consent is not a condition of booking or service; links to the Terms and Privacy Notice; and the shared-number disclosure.

7.1 WhatsApp, for businesses in the Dominican Republic. For a Tenant located in the Dominican Republic, appointment messages are sent by WhatsApp, through Twilio and Meta Platforms (WhatsApp), instead of by SMS, and only the appointment messages listed in Platform Terms of Service §5.12 are sent: no promotions and no campaigns. On those booking pages, in both periods, the appointment-messages checkbox is a WhatsApp checkbox, unchecked by default, optional, and never a condition of booking (appointment emails are sent without it, Section 3.4); the marketing checkbox is by email only. During the checkbox period, staff may also record a customer's agreement to WhatsApp appointment messages as Section 3.2 describes. The promotions page linked from the appointment confirmation email offers promotional email only, never WhatsApp messages (Section 7.2). Reply STOP in the WhatsApp chat to stop WhatsApp messages from every business on Techne Studios CRM using that sender, and reply START to resume appointment messages by WhatsApp from businesses that offer them (never marketing); each channel (SMS, WhatsApp, email) is stopped and resumed separately, and the keyword lists in Section 5 apply to WhatsApp as they do to SMS. The sentences are reproduced exactly as the software stores them.

Español

☐ Acepto recibir por WhatsApp, y por correo electrónico si lo indico, mensajes de {merchant} sobre mis citas (confirmaciones, recordatorios y cambios). La frecuencia varía. Responde STOP para dejar de recibirlos.

☐ También me gustaría recibir promociones y ofertas ocasionales de {merchant} por correo electrónico, si proporciono uno. El consentimiento no es una condición de compra.

English

☐ I agree to receive WhatsApp messages, and email if I provide one, from {merchant} about my appointments (confirmations, reminders and changes). Frequency varies. Reply STOP to stop.

☐ I'd also like to receive occasional promotions and offers from {merchant} by email, if I provide one. Consent is not a condition of purchase.

7.2 The promotions page linked from the appointment confirmation email. The confirmation email for an appointment links to a page where the customer can agree, in writing, to receive promotions by email. For every Tenant, the page offers promotional email only, and only to a customer with an email address on file who has not already agreed. It records no consent to text messages or WhatsApp messages: a link that arrives by email proves an inbox, not a phone. The page shows the masked email address the box covers and starts the box unchecked. The sentence is reproduced exactly as the software shows and stores it.

Español

☐ Acepto recibir promociones y ofertas ocasionales de {merchant} por correo electrónico. Puedo darme de baja con el enlace de cada correo.

English

☐ I agree to receive occasional promotions and offers from {merchant} by email. I can unsubscribe with the link in any email.

8. Tenant representations, warranties, and covenants

The Tenant represents and warrants, continuously:

1. It holds prior express written consent, meeting TCPA requirements, for every number to which it sends or causes to be sent a marketing message through the Service, and appropriate consent for every number receiving transactional messages.
2. Every number and address in its account came from a lawful source and not from a purchased, rented, scraped, appended, or third-party list.
3. It has not created, altered, or backdated a consent record inaccurately.
4. It honors every revocation, by whatever means received, and records off-platform revocations promptly.
5. Its message content complies with law, with carrier rules and the CTIA Messaging Principles, and with the use case registered for the shared number.
6. It complies with applicable calling-time restrictions and state telemarketing law.
7. It will not alter, obscure, or work around the disclosure language or the consent controls.
8. Its staff never create a marketing consent on a customer's behalf. In particular, staff never tick the promotions box on the booking page for a customer, never book "as the customer" on the public booking page while signed out in order to tick it, and never open, forward or use a customer's promotions link from a confirmation email. A customer who wants promotions agrees to them personally, on the customer's own phone or computer.
9. During the checkbox period, its staff record a customer's agreement to appointment messages (Section 3.2) only after asking the customer and hearing yes.

Breach of any of these is a material breach of Platform Terms of Service and triggers the indemnity at §12 of those Terms, which expressly covers TCPA and CAN-SPAM claims.

9. What Techne does, and does not, undertake

9.1 Techne will: operate the consent-capture surfaces and the append-only consent log; honor recognized opt-out keywords automatically and immediately, and check every text against the number-level opt-out list (Section 5.2) before sending it; refuse to send marketing to a person without a recorded marketing consent; send appointment emails without a consent record (Section 3.4); maintain the revoke-only portal design; keep the disclosure text pinned by automated tests; and maintain the toll-free registration for the declared use case.

9.2 Techne will not: accept a marketing consent recorded by staff (Section 3.5); review or approve a Tenant's message content in advance; verify that an off-platform consent a Tenant records was actually obtained; supervise a Tenant's compliance; or act as the Tenant's compliance function. Techne has no duty to monitor (Acceptable Use Policy §11.5).

9.3 No delivery commitment. Delivery depends on Twilio and on carriers. Messages may be filtered, delayed, or dropped, including lawful ones. Techne is not liable for undelivered, delayed, or misdirected messages, and neither are carriers (Platform Terms of Service §§8.5, 13.6).

9.4 Techne may act on risk immediately. See Acceptable Use Policy §5.6 and Platform Terms of Service §15.2.

10. Changes to this Exhibit

Techne may update this Exhibit on notice under Platform Terms of Service §16.2, and immediately where a change is required by law, by a carrier, or by Twilio — in which case Techne will notify Tenants as soon as reasonably practicable.

A change to Section 3 or Section 7 — the consent surfaces or the point-of-consent language — is a legal change, not a copy change. It requires: updating this document; updating the pinned dictionary strings and re-running sms-disclosure-copy.test.ts (and, for the Section 7.1 sentences, the pin in meta.test.ts; for the notice-period and Section 7.2 sentences, the pins in consent-rework-copy.test.ts); and checking the approved toll-free verification submission for consistency. Moving the Service between the checkbox period and the notice period (Section 3.1) is not such a change: both are described here.

Exhibit C to Platform Terms of Service. Related: Acceptable Use Policy §5 (the operational rules) · Privacy Policy §6 (the consumer-facing summary) · Customer Notice §6 (the Spanish-first booking-page notice).