Read your appointment confirmation

What the email or text saying your appointment is booked means, what the arrival time in it tells you, and what to do if it does not suit you.

When the company puts your visit on its schedule, it can send you an email, a text, or both. The usual message says your appointment is scheduled and gives its date and time or arrival window.

Steps

1. Check the day and the time. Most messages give an arrival window, for example "Tuesday, September 15 between 8:30 and 9:30 AM": the technician arrives some time in that window. The time is the business's local time, where the work happens, so it has no time zone.
2. Make sure someone can let the technician in during the whole window.
3. If it does not suit you, contact the company by replying, or by the phone number or email in the message.

What you see

• The email lists the date, time or arrival window, address and service, and says how to reach the company. It may name the assigned technician or show their photo when the company has chosen to share those details.
• There is no button or link. Nothing needs to be clicked.
• A day followed by "(time to be confirmed)" means the company has not set the time yet. It lets you know when it does.
• If the company changes the time several times in a row, it waits a few minutes and sends one message with the final time.

If something looks different

• If you ignore the message, nothing changes: the visit stays booked.
• The company moves or cancels the visit: you get another message. See Check a changed or cancelled appointment.
• A reminder arrives before the visit: see Get ready when an appointment reminder arrives.
• The very first time a company texts your number, a short text comes first, saying it will text you about your appointments and that you can reply STOP to opt out.
• Do not reply STOP to change a time: that stops all of the company's texts. To stop these messages, see Stop emails or texts from a company.
• You did not expect this message: contact the company. It may have your details on a visit by mistake.