SMS number restriction
Just found out that there is some restriction to number like 15888, 39993 and etc. Yoodo told me it only works with 20999. I can't check my saman or enter contest thru sms. Makes me wonder, what the use if it is restricted?
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Hi MAH MUN CHOONG, thanks for your suggestion, appreciate you taking time to voice it, infact quite a few in community have done so as well.
We are in no position saying that people don't use shortcodes SMS, but one of the major pain point of using telco services (mainly postpaid) is actually bill-shock, which in large part contributed by these auto-billed shortcode SMSes, usage of extra Data which costs a bomb and roaming charges. Thus, when yoodo started, we were at a unique position to address these issues, and which we did to the best of our ability (and technological limitation).
Even now we're working on whitelisting some of these numbers which are less risky (you still need to have an sms plan to be able to send to whitelisted numbers). We have been exploring different ideas to be honest; eg. Utilizing Wallet to top-up and pay for these when needed or have different SMS category for a few shortcode/premium SMS etc, but at this moment we don't have a firm method on how to go about this that works for the mass and gives us a good safe place to start it.
That's why you mostly see me saying we're looking into it, and update when we're whitelisting any of the numbers - which is the immediate direction for now. On the above ideas that we're exploring, I'll only update when there's a confirmed direction, so yea.. hopefully we'll have an option that works for most people at some point soon :)
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hi jeff, i have some suggestions for this sms to shortcode.
rather to have total restriction with a whitelist, why not open it all up and charge each and every unique sms shortcode according to the vendor cost, by way of deducting 2 times or any multiple times of the no. of standard sms? for example, say the charge of sending one this sms shortcode is RM1.00 in other telco, then deduct 2 times or whatever multiple times as equivalent of the standard sms in yoodo.
and to prevent so-called 'bill shock', prompt yoodo user about the no. of standard sms to be deducted and let them decide whether to proceed with sending the sms shortcode after tapping the 'send' button every time. they could choose to proceed or cancel sending it if they think it is too expensive for them.
i am sure the ability to send sms to shortcode is very essential to most of us. If the convenience outweighs the price, most of us do not mind paying for it for more than a standard sms charge. and if this is to be implemented, then some of us would not 'complain' that they could not utilise all the 50 standard sms in a month.
this sms shortcode is really a tie and break feature. you could see that most of us are being let down without it and considering to port out from yoodo. pls highlight it into top 10 to fix list.
and as the other user has mentioned, yoodo could also consider setting up another credit account or using the existing yoodo wallet for pay-per-use sms to shortcode. to avoid bill shock again, prompt the user about the charge every time after tapping the 'send' button and let the user to decide to proceed or cancel sending it. -
hi Mohd kamarulnizam bin ismail, it's not something broken to be fixed. I've already explained above why shortcodes aren't allowed. You have good point, that we'll get it updated in FAQ which numbers are allowed at this moment.
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MUHAMMAD AMIRUL FARHAN BINAHMAD FAUZI yup, reason why you're getting that is cause you've sent to that number before and they auto-subscribe you to different services and charge customers. Exactly why as mentioned we don't allow our customers to send to these numbers. At this moment, the number you've mentioned we still don't allow.
I've alerted our Network team, IF it's a number that we can allow, I will update it here. Thanks
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Hi theJeff, maybe you can publish the list of numbers which are allowed.
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Hi NOOR ERZIANA BINTI MD SALEH what do you mean by need to reply SMS for online MBB payment ya? Trying to get more info so we could look into the matter. I actually use M2U for online banking and e-commerce as well
Also on play store, what exactly is the issue? :)
AHMAD AMMAR BIN ABUBAKAR thanks for the suggestion. Might be an option, but we've restricted all services that cost customers more than the usual SMS rates, the logic behind that is cause there are many pay-per-use services that charges customers who don't know what they're being charged for, in the end, they get a 'bill-shock' when receiving bills, for unnecessary charges.
Understand some of the SMSes are for usual use, we have whitelisted quite a few numbers for that purposes, especially if it's to a banking service. Unfortunately, there are also shared numbers which are being used by numerous services which makes it hard to do.
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Hi MUHAMAD AZUWANSYAFIQ BIN AYOB, checking with our Network team to see if it's feasible to whitelist the abovementioned short sms number. IF this number isn't shared with other paid services, highly likely that it should not be an issue.
Will update once I have any new info. Thanks! :)
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Hi, we're looking to whitelist and/or allow premium SMS to a few more numbers. We're still in the process of doing so.
The reason why some of these numbers are not allowed is that they're not owned by the Bank itself. Many of these shortcodes are shared or rented out to various companies (including banks). What happens is that they charge the receiver anything between RM 0.15 cents to RM 5, RM 20. Many of these happen in the background and the customer only finds out later one, getting bill-shocks.
When we get a green light from these aggregators that they will not share the shortcodes with other companies, we'll open it up as it reduces the risk for our customers.
I know from a customer's perspective, it is inconvenient, totally understand that so we're working as fast as we could on these and will update once I have any other info. Thanks for your patience :)
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MUHAMMAD AMIRUL FARHAN BINAHMAD FAUZI yes, not possible at this moment. Will update if that changes. Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this
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Hi NU'MAN BIN HARUN,
I've actually explained why we don't allow all shortcodes at this moment, above in replies. We are as mentioned above working to whitelist a few of the numbers but I don't have a confirmation as yet. Will update the thread when there is. Thanks :)
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Oh man. I see so many people with this issue. Just ran into it myself. My plan doesn't include SMS in it so I took the booster coz I need to send an SMS to 66600 to get my new Hong Leong CC Temporary Pin. And I have to do it in 24 Hours. My SMS isn't going through. Tried to SMS someone to see if the booster pack works. It does. But I still can't send to 66600. Please take 10 or even 20 sms from my pack of 50 SMS. I don't care. I need to activate the card. :-(
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Hi Mee Lin,
I think this is probably due to these SMS having different charge rates (by the respective vendors) and the SMS bundle we purchase is for standard SMS only. Since Yoodo doesn't have pay-per-use, they will not be able to determine the different charge rates for different content service providers and pass on the charge to users. But yes, I guess this is a bummer for those who wish to use these services. I personally do not enter contests so can't help you there. Alternative way for checking saman is via online or smartphone application.
Maybe Yoodo can add a 'special SMS' bundle in the future, but I doubt this will be a priority unless a overwhelming number of people request for it.
Hope this helps.
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Hi HOO MEE LIN thanks for raising it up. You're right in that there are a few numbers which are restricted to be sent - since our model is not a pay-per-use we couldn't include that in the bulk SMS pricing plan that we have now.
ADNAN BINSAJAD HUSSEIN is also right in that if there's more requests/demand for this, we'll look into how we can add it on.
However, on you raising this up, we're also looking into to see if there are any of these restricted numbers that we can allow first moving forward - once I have more detail or resolution on this, I'll post it up as well. Will keep you posted on this, thanks :)
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Guys, thanks for replying and looking into this matter. My point is Yoodo should make this known to the public if the Yoodo sms plan does not cover certain numbers as exactly what other telco is so user like me would not bother to consider to subscribe the sms plan in the first place.
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