EE
O2
Vodafone
Three
giffgaff
Sky Mobile
SMARTY
Talkmobile
iD Mobile
Asda Mobile
Virgin Mobile
Missed call text service
for mobile mechanics
A mobile mechanic is the hardest person in the country to reach by phone. You are under a bonnet at the side of a road, or lying under a sill with an impact gun going, or twenty miles away driving to the next job. Meanwhile the person whose car will not start is ringing every mobile mechanic within ten miles, in order, until one of them picks up.
Why mobile mechanics miss so many calls
Your hands are filthy, the phone is in the van, and the job in front of you needs both hands and your attention. Roadside work adds noise you cannot hear over and traffic you cannot step away from. And because you are mobile, you spend a real fraction of every day driving — legally unable to answer at exactly the times you are between jobs and most able to take new work.
The maths
What one missed mechanical call is worth
A diagnostic call-out is usually somewhere in the low hundreds by the time the work is done. A clutch, a cambelt or a full service is several times that. The caller who cannot reach you is not comparing quotes — their car is off the road and they want somebody today, which means the first mechanic to respond usually gets the job regardless of price.
TextTheCaller is £6.49 a month. Set against the value of the work above, it only has to keep one caller from ringing the next name on the list to have paid for itself several times over.
What to write in your text
You write the message once and it goes out on every missed call. Here's one that works for mobile mechanics:
Thanks for calling Wharton Mobile Mechanics. I'm under a car and can't answer. I'll ring you back as soon as I'm clear. If it's a breakdown, call again.
It sends from your business name
The caller sees your business name, not a phone number — so there's nothing for them to reply to. Give them something they can act on instead: a booking link, an email address, or a time you'll ring back.
160 characters
One SMS segment. The example above fits with room to spare, and we'll show you the count as you write so nothing gets cut off.
How it works
No app, no new number, no contract.
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1
Sign up with your mobile number
Enter your number, pick your network and set your business name. No password — we email you a magic link.
About 30 seconds
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2
Set unanswered-call forwarding
Follow the tailored dial-code or handset instructions for your carrier, then make a quick test call.
One time only
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3
Write your text-back
Use the example above or write your own. Next time a call rings out, the caller gets it within seconds.
Change it any time
It works on your existing number on every compatible UK network, and only ever triggers on calls you don't answer. Pick up as normal and nothing happens at all. If you want the general version before the mobile mechanics detail, read the missed call text service overview.
Step two is the only one that changes depending on who your line is with. We have written the unanswered-call divert up for each network separately — EE, O2, Vodafone, Three, giffgaff, Sky Mobile, SMARTY, Talkmobile, iD Mobile, Asda Mobile and Virgin Mobile — because the menu names, the codes each one accepts and what happens after a SIM swap are genuinely different. If you are not sure where to start, the general guide to stopping calls going to voicemail covers the part that is the same everywhere.
Worth knowing for mobile mechanics
Mobile mechanics run more second lines than most trades — a cheap SIM kept for work so the personal number stays private. That is worth knowing here, because pay-as-you-go is the tariff where diverting to an external number is most often restricted, on every network. If your work SIM is PAYG, test the divert before you rely on it.
Questions from mobile mechanics
Not if you add them to your skip list. Motor factors, recovery operators and the garages you subcontract for can all be excluded, so they never receive an automatic text.
Not at all — that is when it earns its keep. The text is sent by us rather than by your phone, so it goes out whether your handset is in your pocket, in the van or switched off entirely.
Yes, and you should. "I'll call you back within the hour" converts better than "I'll call you back", because it gives the caller a reason to stop dialling other mechanics.
Also built for
Every missed call is a job someone else gets
Keep your number. Two minutes to set up. Cancel whenever you like.
7 days free, then £6.49/mo. Cancel any time.