--- title: "SMS Notifications" description: "Twilio SMS updates, kit reminders and abandoned-quote recovery." url: "https://docs.gytabuyback.com/features/sms-notifications/" --- ## SMS Notifications Trade-ins have long quiet gaps — the customer ships a device and then hears nothing until you pay them. Gyta Buyback can close those gaps automatically with three text messages sent through your own Twilio account: the label or kit is ready, the device arrived at your store, and the payout has been sent. The same **Notifications** settings section also holds two automated follow-up emails: a **kit reminder** for customers whose shipping kit arrived but who never sent the device back, and an **abandoned-quote** email for people who got a trade-in quote and then left without checking out. ![Twilio SMS notification settings for label ready, device received and payment sent](../../assets/images/gb-sms.png) Notifications is a **PRO feature**. On the free plan every field in this section is shown but disabled, with an upgrade link beside it. ## Turning It On Everything lives under **Gyta Buyback → Settings → Email**, in the **Notifications** section below Email Content. For SMS, fill in all three Twilio fields first: * **Twilio Account SID** — from your Twilio console. Leave empty to disable SMS. * **Twilio Auth Token** * **Twilio From number** — the sending number in international format, for example **+15551234567** Then switch on whichever messages you want: * **SMS: label / kit ready** — text the customer when their prepaid label (or shipping kit) is ready * **SMS: device received** — text the customer when their device arrives at your store * **SMS: payment sent** — text the customer when their payout goes out The follow-up emails are configured in the same section: * **Abandoned-quote email** — the on/off switch for the follow-up * **Send after (hours)** — how long to wait before sending it. Default **4**. * **Kit reminder after (days)** — days after the shipping kit is delivered before reminding the customer to send their device. Default **3**. The wording of the two emails is not edited here. Their subject, heading, additional content and their own enable switch live under **WooCommerce → Settings → Emails**, listed as **Trade-in kit reminder** and **Abandoned trade-in quote**. Both are registered on Pro only, so they are not in that list on the free plan. ## How It Behaves Day to Day * **Label / kit ready.** As soon as a shipping label is bought successfully through EasyPost, the customer gets a text. The wording differs for kit orders ("your trade-in shipping kit is on its way") and for plain prepaid-label orders ("check your email to send in your device"). * **Kit delivered.** When the kit's tracking reports delivered, the plugin stamps the order and schedules the kit reminder email for the number of days you set. * **Device received.** When the inbound shipment's tracking reports delivered, the customer gets the "we received your device" text. The pending kit reminder is cancelled the moment the inbound shipment starts moving at all, so nobody gets nagged about a device already in transit. * **Payment sent.** When the order is moved to **Completed**, the customer gets a text naming your store and their order number. This runs after store credit and payouts have been processed. * **Abandoned quote.** A quote is captured whenever a logged-in customer adds a trade-in to the cart or applies a net-settlement credit, and whenever anyone types their email at checkout. The follow-up is then scheduled for your chosen delay. Any further activity restarts the clock, so only one email ever goes out. ## Good to Know * **All three Twilio fields are required.** If the SID, auth token or From number is blank, no SMS is sent at all no matter which toggles are on. * **Texts go to the billing phone on the order.** A number already saved in **+country** format is used as-is; anything else is converted to international format using the order's billing country. If there is no phone number, or a local number has fewer than seven digits, or the order has no billing country to work out a dialing code from, the text is skipped silently — nothing is added to the order. * **One text per order, per event.** Re-firing a hook or re-saving an order will not double-text a customer. * **Failures are visible.** If Twilio rejects the message, the plugin clears its "sent" marker and adds an order note reading "SMS notification (…) could not be sent" with the provider's reason, so a Twilio outage never silently swallows a message. * **Messages are sent in the background** (through Action Scheduler, which ships with WooCommerce), so Twilio doesn't slow down checkout or a webhook — in the rare case Action Scheduler isn't available the send falls back to running inline. Settings are re-checked at send time — switching a toggle off, or clearing your credentials, stops anything still queued. * **Return labels never trigger a text.** When you decline a trade-in and send a device back, that conversation stays in email only. * **"Device received" and the kit reminder both depend on EasyPost tracking webhooks.** If webhooks are not set up, the plugin never learns that a package was delivered and neither one fires. * **"Payment sent" only applies to trade-in orders** — including net-settlement orders that contain a trade-in. A normal retail order moving to Completed does not text anyone. * **The kit reminder re-checks everything before sending.** It only goes out if the order is still a kit order sitting in **On hold** (shown to the customer as "Awaiting device") or **Kit sent** ("Kit on the way"), and the device has not started moving. It is cancelled outright if the order becomes Completed, Cancelled, Refunded, Failed or Customer disapproved, or if the order is deleted. Sending it also adds an order note. * **The abandoned-quote email is a single send, not a drip.** After it goes out, the saved quote is deleted. * **Guests who never type an email are out of scope.** Recovery works for logged-in customers, or for guests who reached checkout and entered an email address — there is no other address to write to. * **Placing an order suppresses it.** Before sending, the plugin checks for any order placed with that email since the quote was saved; if it finds one, the follow-up is dropped and the saved quote is deleted. * **A saved quote holds at most 10 devices**, storing only the device label and quoted amount. * **Saved quotes respect WordPress privacy tools.** They appear in the personal-data export and are removed by the erasure tool, under "Gyta Buyback — saved trade-in quote". * **Twilio bills you directly.** Message charges are on your own Twilio account; the plugin only calls the API with your credentials.