Dejan
Frustrating Lack of SMS Functionality and Overzealous Verification
For a start, their ID verification is borderline phishing, as even financial institutions do not require so much information. It’s a VOIP service, not access to top-secret documents with extra security clearance 🤷♂️ Most similar companies don’t even require anything besides an email… Then there is a lack of transparency in what they offer. We ported a US number from another VOIP provider and only after porting was completed did we find out that they do not offer text (SMS) functionality. They want us to add an 800 number and complete some paid registration process to be able to text US and Canadian numbers. Mind you, we do not engage in any text marketing; we simply need to reply to received texts, and even that might be only a couple of messages monthly. This is ridiculous nonsense on their part, as clearly, other providers have no such issues. Furthermore, their support seems to be run by a Temu version of ChatGPT, as responses are basic and sometimes unrelated to the actual issue. All this is really a shame, as technically they are top-notch, pricing is competitive, and they have a great app for smartphones. UPDATE: As Zadarma has now replied with some excuse about regulations, I would like to add that this is simply not correct, and there are no regulations in place for P2P texting. The TCPA they are referring to is meant for entirely different purposes and has nothing to do with offering two-way text messaging, nor is it the basis for restricting such services to so-called SenderID and predefined, pre-approved replies and campaigns. If that were the case, numerous other services such as Line2, Voip.ms, and even Google Voice (for free!) would not be able to offer it. So Zadarma, I would suggest you stop looking for excuses and make your offerings transparent, as of now, your promo page for SMS mentions absolutely no such restrictions.
Response from ZadarmaJul 29, 2024
Hi Dejan, We appreciate your feedback and the opportunity to address your concerns. Upon reviewing your case, we noticed that some crucial information was detailed on our website, which might have been overlooked. The USA and Canada have strict rules regulating SMS traffic, so sending messages to these destinations is only possible after registering the SenderID and an SMS campaign. If you need any other assistance - please, feel free to contact us!




