[Main Thread] Premium rate / short code text messages

[PeterWh_1550878]

Hi I gather from a few other posts that these are not possible at the moment!

I found this in some information blurb from SMARTY - 

" At some point you'll be able to send other kinds of messages which will be chargeable. This will include premium-rate texts and short-codes, which are used for entering competitions, buying ringtones and voting on reality TV shows, and paying for parking."

As other people say they don't indicate when this will be available! I agree with the others that it should be no problem with a decent quality service! 

I too, like some other people may well be switching to another provider which doesn't have this problem! 

[George · Accepted solution]

Hey, @PeterWh_1550878 

We understand how this service is becoming more popular with our customers and have already been feeding back. This is something we are still looking into, hopefully, this is available for you soon.

[BrianMcBriany]

@MSF 

Thanks for the reply. Yes I understand the why, I’m just looking for an update.

This should be considered a high priority fault/outage as being able to respond to banks or doctors through SMS is increasingly common and essential.

[NigelJo]

Smarty’s out of plan add-ins are not a solution. Texting premium or short text numbers now requires urgent action from Smarty as this has become an indispensable feature which no network should rightly omit from its service.

[The_Button_King]

I am adding to the chain hoping this basic feature will be added soon. I cannot authenticate some payments with my bank because of this shortcoming! Now I have to go out of my way to call the bank tomorrow morning and see if it can be resolved. Incredibly disappointed at this as Smarty has been great otherwise.

[MSF]

@The_Button_King  Much as I understand the general levels of frustration, I don't think that further postings are going to make much difference to when (& if) Smarty add this feature.

It will depend, I think, upon a simple equation:

Cost of installing the service - loos of income from customers leaving as a result

[Swarming1095]

Unacceptable that this ‘feature’ has not yet been implemented.

[MSF]

@Swarming1095  The good thing about being a Smarty customer is that you are not 'trapped' in a long contract but can leave easily at the end of any plan.

For those who find that they cannot do without a certain feature, they are free to move to a network that offers it. As I have mentioned previously (in other posts), there are a large number of customers (me included) for whom these features do not represent a deal breaker.

Obviously, if I suddenly found myself needing to be able to send texts to short code numbers, I would have to think again.

[JohannF]

Well this wasnt what I was hoping for on Smarty. I guess its truly a low-cost "no frills" service if they dont even offer short code texts. To think they could easily resolve this and probably not lose customers over it? Or maybe they are not bothered since they are part of a much larger 3 network? Who knows!    I was going to put 3 other family members on Smarty but definitely rethinking that one now. Might look at Voxi since they do allow short code messages I believe....