Nobody left waiting
A customer is left waiting and hears nothing
No noise on every message; one holding message after four working hours without a reply from a person, asking for anything the quote still needs
The situation
Automated acknowledgements ("Message received, we will reply shortly") after every message are noise, and customers learn to ignore them. But silence is worse: a customer who hears nothing for a day assumes nobody is there and goes elsewhere.
What the app does
An answer to what they said, not a receipt. The assistant's reply already says who will come back to them and what they will check ("Martin H will check price, availability and DHL Express shipping to Košice for you in EUR"). There is no separate "message received".
One holding message when a person is slow. If no person has replied four working hours after the customer's first unanswered message, the customer gets one message saying who has their request and when we are open. Working hours are the shop's: Monday to Friday 09:00–17:30, Saturday 09:00–13:00, UK time. A message sent on Friday at 17:00 gets its holding message on Saturday at 12:30, not in the middle of the night.
It asks for what the quote still needs. On a sales inquiry it adds "please tell us where the parts are to be delivered (town and country, or drop a pin) and the currency you would like" for whatever is still missing.
Once per wait. A reply from a person ends the wait. It promises a reply from the named person, never a time.
It uses an approved WhatsApp template, so it still arrives when more than 24 hours have passed since the customer last wrote.
What it does not do yet
UK bank holidays count as working time.
The salesperson is not notified that a holding message went; it shows in the conversation.
The tests that hold it
tests/unit/test_holding_message.py, test_inquiry_prompt_copy.py.