Why You Still Receive Some Emails and Texts
WinniePaws lets you turn off promotional and reminder notifications in your account settings. Even with a channel turned off, you'll still receive a small set of messages required to safely operate your account and bookings. This page explains why, and exactly what's covered.
Two Different Things: “Turned Off” vs. “STOP”
These are not the same, and it matters which one you use:
- Turning a toggle off in Settings only stops non-essential alerts and reminders for that channel. Required account and booking messages still come through — see the list below.
- Replying STOP to a text blocks every message from that number, with no exceptions, including the required messages below. This is a stronger, carrier-enforced rule (TCPA / CTIA guidelines) that applies the moment you send it. If you STOP a number and later need those messages again, reply START, or contact support.
Email — What's Exempt From Opt-Out, and Why
Under the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, messages that confirm or facilitate a transaction you've already started are “transactional” messages, not marketing — the law doesn't require an opt-out mechanism for these (15 U.S.C. §7702(17)). On WinniePaws, that includes:
- Booking accepted, declined, confirmed, cancelled, or modified
- Payment failures, , or payout issues
- Final warnings before a pending booking auto-cancels
- Support ticket receipts and admin replies
- Care guide requests tied to an active booking
SMS — What's Exempt From the Preference Toggle, and Why
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and carrier guidelines (CTIA) treat purely informational, non-marketing texts differently from promotional texts — they don't require the same opt-out handling marketing messages do. WinniePaws applies this only to the same account-critical categories listed above for email, sent by text instead. It never applies to promotional or marketing content — we don't send marketing texts.
Other Regions
If you're located in the UK or EU, the same idea applies under PECR and GDPR: messages “necessary for performance of a contract” fall outside the marketing-consent rules that apply to promotional messages.