Linq iMessage dunning for failed Stripe payments

Build me a code workflow that recovers failed Stripe payments by texting the customer instead of relying on Stripe's dunning email. Every step is a fixed lookup or send, so this should be deterministic code, not an agent.

Trigger: a webhook from Stripe for the invoice.payment_failed event.

Steps:

1. Stripe Retrieve Invoice using the invoice id from the webhook payload. Pull the customer id, the hosted_invoice_url, and a short description from the first line item (fall back to "your subscription" if there is no line item description).

2. Stripe Retrieve Customer using that customer id. Pull the name and the phone field. If the phone field is empty, log "skipped: no phone on file" and stop. Do not raise an error.

3. Linq List Phone Numbers and pick the first active sender number on the account. If the workflow has more than one, the user should be able to configure which one to use.

4. Linq Check iMessage Capability for the customer's phone from the chosen sender. If Linq cannot reach the number (unsupported region or no capability for any service), log "skipped: unreachable" and stop. The capability check just tells us whether to try at all; the actual chat will route to iMessage, RCS, or SMS automatically.

5. Linq Create Chat from the chosen sender to the customer's phone (E.164) with an initial text part: "Hi {first name}, your payment for {description} didn't go through. You can update your card and retry here: {hosted_invoice_url}. Reply STOP to opt out." If the Stripe customer has no name, use "there" as the greeting. Keep the message under 320 characters.

Notes:

- The customer's phone on Stripe must be E.164 (for example +14155550123). If it isn't in that format, try a simple normalization; if normalization fails, treat it like a missing phone and skip.

- Linq enforces a limit of 30 messages per sender/recipient pair per 60 seconds. This workflow only sends one message per failed payment per customer, so we should not hit it under normal usage. Just surface the Linq error if it ever does fire.

- Output of the workflow run: a small JSON object with { invoice_id, customer_id, action: "sent" | "skipped:no_phone" | "skipped:unreachable", chat_id (if sent), reason (if skipped) }. This makes it easy to glance at the runs and see what happened.

Additional information

What does this prompt do?

Listens for failed Stripe payments and reacts within seconds, no inbox to babysit.
Pulls the customer's name, phone number, and a one-tap link to update their card.
Sends a short, friendly text from your Linq number, delivered as iMessage when possible and SMS otherwise.
Quietly skips customers with no phone on file or numbers in regions Linq can't reach, so the workflow never fails noisily.

What do I need to use this?

A Stripe account with the failing customers and invoices in it.
A Linq account with at least one phone number provisioned for sending.
Customer phone numbers saved on their Stripe profile in international format. Customers without a phone are skipped automatically.

How can I customize it?

The wording of the recovery text: greeting, tone, and the opt-out line at the end.
Which Linq sender number to use if you have more than one number on your account.
Whether to also post an internal note in Slack each time a text goes out or a customer is skipped.

Frequently asked questions

Why text customers instead of relying on Stripe's dunning emails?

Billing emails get opened about 20% of the time, while text messages get read closer to 90%. Teams that replace dunning email with SMS routinely see failed-payment recovery roughly double, because the customer actually sees the message in time to update their card.

What happens if a customer doesn't have a phone number on file in Stripe?

The workflow checks the Stripe customer's phone field first. If there's no number, it logs the skip and stops. No text is sent and no error is raised, so your Stripe email dunning can still take over for those accounts.

Will this work for international customers?

Linq supports iMessage, RCS, and SMS, and routes automatically based on the recipient. Before each send, the workflow asks Linq whether your number can actually reach the customer. If Linq says no (for example, a region it doesn't cover), the workflow skips that customer instead of failing.

How fast does the text go out after the payment fails?

Stripe notifies the workflow the moment the failed payment is recorded, usually within a second or two. The workflow then pulls the invoice, looks up the customer, and sends the text, so most customers receive it within a few seconds of the decline.

Does the customer pay anything to receive the text?

No. Standard carrier rates may apply for the recipient as with any text message, but you're not charging them. The cost of sending sits on your Linq account.