A2P 10DLC - What to do when my A2P SMS registration is rejected?

The A2P SMS registration is reviewed by independent third parties. If the registration is rejected it means it did not fulfill one or more points of the approval criteria that we mentioned in the previous article. Below we listed the most common rejection reasons and how to correct them.

Rejected Brand

Your A2P “Brand” in your company. A rejected brand means your business data cannot be verified because there is a mismatch between your business registration number and legal name. This information needs to match your company's tax filings associated with your business registration number.

Rejected Campaign

Your A2P “Campaign” is the sum of your SMS use case, a website with the landing page, policies, and example messages. If any of these do not match the acceptable criteria, the registration will be rejected.

Opt-in

An SMS opt-in process is mandatory. Sending unsolicited SMS may put your account at risk of being suspended.

Example Opt-in Process

To help you, here is an example of an acceptable signup form. You can also watch this short video demo for more context.

The signup form has to have:

• An SMS disclaimer in it: "You agree to receive automated follow-up, reminder, and promotional messages with varying frequency. Txt and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to end. Text HELP for help. Click for Terms of Service, Privacy Policy."

• The disclaimer has to have a link to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

• The disclaimer has to be shown above the submit button.

• Opting into getting SMS has to be optional, thus either agreeing to get SMS or submitting the phone number has to be optional.

Acceptable opt-in processes

1. The most straightforward is an online form with an SMS disclaimer: "You agree to receive automated follow-up, reminder, and promotional messages with varying frequency. Txt and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to end. Text HELP for help. Click for Terms of Service, Privacy Policy." AND either entering the phone number is optional or there's an optional checkbox next to this disclaimer.

   1. In this case, you need to the link to the form.

   2. If there's no public link, you need to upload screenshots to a could storage - Google drive for example - and link to those screenshots (the screenshots still need to show the disclaimer)

2. Appointment booking link with SMS disclaimer.

3. Via Text: the customer has to text you first, so all your SMS traffic has to start with an inbound message; we need a publicly available Call to action, where you inform clients that they need to text you if they want to start an SMS conversation.

4. Verbal (on a phone call): we need a script for that conversation.

See the detailed criteria for each of these opt-in methods here.

Registration rejected due to an acceptable opt-in Process or missing Call-to-action (CTA)

If your registration is rejected due to the lack of a proper opt-in process, your opt-in process is missing one or more points from the criteria above. If it’s rejected due to the CTA (call to action), it’s not clear how the clients get to your booking page or know where to send “Start” to start getting massages, for example.

Website criteria

Suppose your A2P registration was rejected due to an unverifiable website. This means your website is either unavailable or the business name you registered cannot be connected to it.

Privacy Policy and Terms

You need to have compliant Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy on your website to get approved for sending A2P SMS. Please see the requirements below. We also have a short video demo about the most important points. These documents have to be linked on your sign-up page (where you collect phone numbers) and in the footer of your website.

Privacy Policy:

• You must include in your privacy policy that your customer's data will not be shared.

• Twilio, our telephony partner, maintains that consent can't be sold, shared, or transferred, not even to affiliates. Otherwise, the registration will be rejected.

• The allowed scenarios for sharing personal data are:

  • With service providers that help fulfill the order (for example, a shipping company that sends the product that was ordered)

  • In the case of business mergers and acquisitions.

  • Law enforcement.

  • With the user's consent.

Terms and Conditions:

• We do have a snippet of the acceptable Terms of Service from our provider (it's specifically the SMS part); see it here.

• Include it in your Terms of Service under the “SMS” section.

Disallowed or High-risk Content

When the reviewers check your website, they categorize the business activity. If it falls under one of the forbidden categories for A2P SMS, they will reject your application. This mostly means that you are in an industry that is highly targeted by fraud, which is what this process is meant to curb.

Sample SMS

The sample SMS messages have to meet the following criteria:

• The sender identifies themselves: “Hello, This is John from Close…”

• There’s opt-out information at the end of the message: “Reply STOP to opt-out.”

• If you’ll be sending links and phone numbers, mark this information during your registration.

• Do not send unbranded shortened links such as “bit.ly.”

• Make sure the content of the message fits your use case. If you stated you would send meeting reminders, you can’t submit a promotional message.

• An example message that meets the criteria: “Hello, This is John from Close. See you in our Zoom meeting today at 3 pm ET. Join at https://close.zoom.us/j/862231. Reply STOP to opt-out.”