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Frequently Asked Questions:

Pricing

Registration

Features

Pricing

How much does it cost to send an SMS message using BulkSMS?

The cost of an SMS message depends on the SMS credit bundle that you purchase. The larger the bundle you buy, the less the cost per SMS. Please see our pricing table for a full break down of the cost of our SMS credit bundles.

What is the cost to send out a million or more SMS messages?

If you intend to send very high volumes of SMS messages, we can provide you with a quotation for the number of SMS credits you wish to purchase. Simply email Support in order to request a quotation.

Are there any other costs involved when sending out SMS messages?

There are no setup costs or monthly fees to send SMS messages via BulkSMS. BulkSMS operates on a pre-paid basis, where you purchase SMS credits upfront. The credits that you buy do not expire - this means that if you buy them now and only use them in few months time, they will still be valid.

Will I pay for replies to the SMS message I sent out?

No, you will not pay for replies to your SMS message. Anyone who replies to that message will carry the cost of the reply SMS.

What are the costs involved when downloading the BulkSMS Text Messenger software?

The BulkSMS Text Messenger software is free to download and free to use. The only thing that BulkSMS customers pay for is the SMS credits purchased in order to send SMS messages out.

How do I buy SMS credits?

If you are sending messages via the BulkSMS Text Messenger, click on the “Purchase Credits” link on the BulkSMS Text Messenger “Home” screen and follow the steps. If you are sending messages via the BulkSMS website, click on “Buy Credits” in the Commerce Centre section of your account. You will need to be registered with a BulkSMS account to purchase SMS credits.

Registration

How do I register?

You will need to register via our website to use BulkSMS’s messaging services. Registering for a BulkSMS account is free and takes only a few minutes. All you need to do is fill in your personal or company details. All fields must be completed in order to register. You will need to provide the following details:

Username (case sensitive) – Chosen by you
Password (case sensitive) – Chosen by you
First Name
Surname
Email address
Cellphone number (country code and number in the format: 27820010001).
Telephone number (e.g. 27215526321)
Fax number (e.g. 27215522848)
Company
Street Address
Postal Address
Postal Code
City
Country
How did you hear about us?

Once you have entered the information, Click ‘Register’ and you will receive the following message:

“You have been successfully registered. An activation code is being sent to your cellphone right now.”

You will use this code to activate your 5 free SMS credits.

What is the activation code and how do I use it?

The activation code is an alphanumeric code that is sent via SMS to the cellphone number that you entered when registering for your BulkSMS account. This code will be used to claim your 5 free SMS credits. These SMS credits can be used for sending out test SMS messages.

I’ve received the activation code, now what do I do with it?

Once an activation code has been sent to your cellphone, you will need to do the following to claim your 5 free SMS credits:

Go to our web site.
Login with your username and password.
Click 'Claim them now'.
Enter the activation code exactly as it appears in the SMS sent to your cellphone.

Note: If you are using our BulkSMS Text Messenger desktop software you can also claim your free credits from the 'My Account' menu in the programme.

I didn’t get the activation code, please could you resend it.

If you do not receive your activation code, please email Support to request it. Please include your username, cellphone number and the website address of the BulkSMS web site that you opened your account on.

One reason why the activation code was not delivered to your cellphone could be that our service is not available in your area or supported via your local network. You can test whether we can connect to your network by sending a test SMS from our website homepage. See the detailed list of our regional and network coverage.

I’ve registered, now what do I do?

Once you have registered online, you will receive an SMS with an activation code. This code can be used to claim your 5 free test credits which can be used to try out our messaging service. You are now ready to upload your contacts, purchase SMS credits, and start sending to your individual contacts or contact groups.

How do I purchase SMS credits?

Log in to your BulkSMS account and purchase credits using either a Credit Card, PayPal or transferring funds via an Electronic funds transfer. Should you require an invoice, simply email Accounts to request one. When requesting an invoice, please include your username, email address and the number of credits you would like to purchase.

How do I log in?

On the BulkSMS home page you will see that you can enter your 'Username' and 'Password' in the top left-hand side of the screen. Enter the username and password you chose when opening your BulkSMS account and click 'Login' to access your account home page. Please remember that when you type in your account details your username and password are case sensitive.

Features

How do I send an SMS message?

Please see How to send an SMS in the BulkSMS Help Centre.

Can I send a SMS message that is longer than 160 characters (concatenated SMS)?

While an SMS message is only 160 characters long, the BulkSMS Text Messenger allows you to send up to 6 SMS text messages in one send; that is, you can send a message of up to 918 characters. The message gets split into 6 parts when you send it, but when it arrives at the mobile phone it will appear as as single message. The technical term for this process is "concatenated SMS" where a multi-part messages with more than 160 characters is received as a single message. Click here to enable long messages sending from the BulkSMS Text Messenger application.

How many contacts can I send the same message to?

The BulkSMS system allows you to send a message to a database of up to 20,000 (with the Web platform) and 100,000 contacts (with the BulkSMS Text Messenger) in one submission.

Can I personalise the messages I wish to send out, without re-typing each message?

Yes you can. Please see How to send a personalised message in the BulkSMS Help Centre.

Does BulkSMS allow my customers to respond to the SMS messages I send out?

Yes, each message that is sent out using BulkSMS can be replied to. Each sent message is allocated a unique identifying number. Should your customers wish to respond to the SMS you sent, this unique number will ensure that the customer’s response is routed directly to your BulkSMS Inbox.

Can I receive an email notification of a reply message?

Yes, you can even set this up so that any responses also come to your email Inbox. Simply edit your Email to SMS settings on your BulkSMS account.

Does BulkSMS provide status reports?

All messages will have a status report whether successfully delivered or not. This can be seen when viewing your sent SMS message history of your BulkSMS account.

How long does it take for my messages to be delivered?

Typically, messages are delivered within 15 seconds.

How do I create a contact group?

Please see Add Contact Group. This will take you through the process of adding a group to your contact database.

Does BulkSMS offer discounts?

BulkSMS offers clients the option of appending their messages with the tagline via: bulksms.com. This is called a 'Tag-line discount' and is available on the BulkSMS website. This reduces the characters available per each SMS by 16 characters leaving you with 144 characters in which to type your SMS. It also reduces the cost per SMS by 25%. You can tick this option when 'Composing an SMS Message' on the BulkSMS web application. This is not available on the BulkSMS Text Messenger

Does BulkSMS offer discounts to schools or non-profit organizations?

BulkSMS offers NGO's, schools and religious organisations special messaging rates. More information on BulkSMS’ Community offering is available on the http://community.bulksms.com/ web site.

What’s the difference between Web to SMS and the BulkSMS Text Messenger?

Both the Web to SMS platform and the BulkSMS Text Messenger enable you to send and receive SMS messages. There are a few main differences between the two messaging services:

The BulkSMS Text Messenger:

Is available on your desktop. There is no need to log in to the internet.
Is similar to your email programme in that there are contacts, an Inbox and Sent Items. All sent and received messages are stored in the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Offers easy contact management. It can link to an external database (Ms Excel, MS Access, SQL, etc). This means you do not need to upload contacts but rather refresh the link to your database to ensure that you are accessing your most recent list of contacts.

Web to SMS platform

Can be accessed from any computer via the Internet. If you often find yourself away from your personal computer, or are constantly mobile, you can log into your account from any Internet access point.
Allows you to use the Tagline discount.

What is the sender ID and when is it available?

Sender ID is a computer generated identifier of the sender of an SMS message that appears when a message is received on a cellphone. This reference number can be replaced by text, for example, a company’s name.

Please note that Sender ID is not available in South Africa due to the policy of the mobile network providers.

Does BulkSMS support non-English text?

Yes, you can send non-English characters (such as Arabic, Chinese or Cyrillic characters). On the Compose Message page tick 'Send as Unicode'. This will however shorten character length for your message to about 80 characters.

What does ‘enter only alphanumeric & “_”’ mean?

Alphanumeric: a-z, A-Z and 0-9. You can use any characters in these ranges, as well as the underscore: "_".

I’ve lost my username and/or password. How can I log in?

If you have forgotten your password, you can make use of the “forgot password” facility on the BulkSMS website. Once you are on the “forgot password” page, you will need to enter either your username or email address as entered when registering for your BulkSMS account.

Once you have entered your email or username, click ‘Recover’. You will receive the following message, “Your password recovery details have been emailed to your registered email address. You need to follow the instructions contained in the email within the following 60 minutes”. This email will contain a link to a web page that will allow you to change your password in your profile. You will need to click on this link as it will take you back to the BulkSMS website where you can update/change your password. This link will only work for 60 minutes. If you do nothing with the email, no change will take place.

What does 'Delivered upstream' mean?

Delivered upstream means that the message you have sent has been submitted to a network but no status report has yet been received. We cannot ascertain why the network has not yet been able to deliver the message to the cellphone and it could be any of the following:

Status reports can sometimes be delayed
This particular network does not support status reports
The mobile is switched off
The recipients message Inbox is full
Poor network coverage
Mobile is roaming
Invalid mobile number

The status could still change later from 'Delivered Upstream' to either 'Delivered To Mobile' or 'Failed'

What does 'daily quota exceeded' mean?

The daily quota is the number of SMS messages you can send out from your BulkSMS account per day. The system is set at a default limit of 3,000. If this has been exceeded you will no longer be able to send SMS messages from your BulkSMS account for that day. You will however be able to continue sending messages the following day. Should you wish to increase your daily quota you can do so by sending an email request to our Support team.

How do I combine/concatenate information in different cells in a spreadsheet?

Use concatenation to combine information in different cells in a spreadsheet. This is used to either add leading numbers to cell numbers, i.e. the country code or leading zero, or to make a personalized message for Multi-Message uploads. Click here for more information on spreadsheet concatenation.

I have another question which is not covered here.

Please call or email our Support team for assistance or you can consult our online Help Centre for detailed help on user account functions once you have logged on to your account.