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SMS for individuals (10DLC)

eli-hu
Listener

I am an individual. I do not own or run a business. I got a Zoom phone so I could talk and text and hold unlimited Zoom meetings with my family across the country. My account type is Pro (Named Host). I am the Owner and Admin.

Like all the other Zoom phone users, I received multiple emails about setting up a brand and a campaign so I can continue to use SMS.

I don't see how to set this up as an individual (not a business).

People in other threads are referring people to Setting up Zoom SMS with 10DLC Compliance for conversational messaging. That page says:

If you are currently using Zoom Phone SMS as a conversational (person-to-person) messaging tool, you can follow the guidelines below to set up your campaign. This will allow you to set up your account to work similarly to how it did before 10DLC registration was required.

Great! So I start following the instructions. The first step is to create your brand. Step 6 of creating your brand is:

In the Brand Summary page, enter the following:

  • Legal Company Name
  • DBA/Brand Name (if applicable)
  • Your Companyā€™s Legal Form.
  • Tax Number, ID, or EIN (Employer Identification Number)
  • Your Business Location Address
    • Select or enter your Country of Registration.
    • Enter your business address, city, and zip code.

There are several problems with these instructions:

  1. I am not a company and do not have a Legal Company Name.
  2. The only options for Legal Form are the following, none of which apply to an individual:
    • Private Profit
    • Public Profit
    • Non Profit
    • Government
  3. I am not going to provide my Social Security Number to Zoom.

Is there a FAQ or specific instructions for how an individual is supposed to fill this out to keep SMS working?

 

16 REPLIES 16

sachinzoom
Community Champion | Zoom Employee
Community Champion | Zoom Employee

Hi @eli-hu 

 

I will update you on this shortly

Is there any update on this? 
I have the same question too. 

Only using SMS as individual and not Business. 

Is there an individual option? 

I sent a ticket to Customer Service and this is the reply I received:

 

I understand that you have a concern regarding signing up for an SMS campaign without an EIN (Employer Identification Number). I apologize for any inconvenience caused, but it's important to note that this requirement is imposed by network carriers and is beyond our control.
 
Network carriers require the EIN number to ensure compliance and security when creating an SMS campaign. Unfortunately, we are unable to bypass or remove this requirement.

 

It seems that, according to Zoom's response, that there is no alternative for those of us who are without EIN and as of mid-July we will no longer be able to utilize SMS with our numbers, taking away a key element that we are paying for. How a large section of paying clientele were not considered when this regulation was crafted is beyond me. Since I am a freelancer (and use my number for work and contacting clients), the US gov't does not require me to have an EIN. I'm not sure why this requirement is included in this new regulation. It essentially makes internet numbers only useful for employers and companies? What will stop this?  A class action lawsuit?

This issue is FOUR MONTHS old -- when can we expect an update/support for individuals / SMS as a conversational (person-to-person) messaging ???

melanacious
Listener

I'm having the same problem, only I am a freelancer and use the number for work, but have no EIN. Have you found a way to register as an individual or without an EIN?

y2jimmy
Listener

hmmm does SMS work for you at all right now? Or you must "verify" in order to use SMS. 

Which Plan are you on? 

I'm on the Basic Plan and it works right now. 

Where does it say "Mid-July"? Does that mean SMS will stop working after Mid July? 


I saw this post here, so I'm wondering if "Basic" Plan is not affected and only the latter. 

Prerequisites for 10-Digit Long Code compliance

SMS does work for me currently. Zoom sent out an email stating that they were allowing SMS to continue through mid-July without creating campaigns but come mid-July they would disable SMS for anyone who had not complied with the campaign creation requirement. I have a Pro account, so I'm not sure what the difference might be for a basic plan. The requirements might be different.

aalejo
Listener

Hello!

 

I just opened a Zoom Phone account and ran into that problem since all the SMS sent from my own account were immediately rejected by the app.

 

After doing some research I ended up reading about 10DLC compliance and SMS campaign. I totally agree that is super confusing and not intuitive on the platform, especially for individuals like me who is a Real Estate Agent, as I'm not planning on running any marketing campaign by SMS. All the wording and the user interface is obviously meant for brands and large companies. But it looks like that's the only way.

 

Regarding the EIN, it is true that it's not required for a sole proprietor, and it's super annoying that we cannot use our SSN. Though you can easily request one from the IRS as it's free and instantaneously generated online. From what I can read in different places the benefits are: preventing identity theft, credibility, loan applications, separate credit score, business bank account, etc.

 

Anyway, I just did the 10DLC application but for now all my attempts are getting "rejected" because my brand is unverified. Though it looks like I can send SMS now šŸ™ƒ

Good luck everyone.

I went ahead an applied for an EIN after checking with my accountant to ensure it would not complicate my tax filings as a freelancer. My use of SMS is limited to communications regarding appointments and certainly there are no ā€œcampaignsā€ involved. After going back and forth with Zoom customer support regarding my inability to submit an application without an EIN, I was offered the opportunity to submit my SSN but by that point I had already obtained an EIN. That said, my SMS capabilities stopped today, 8/3/23.

pammy543
Listener

WOW. I see that I'm not the only one with this issue. I can't get Zoom to even reply to my support ticket. Thinking I need to cancel my Zoom phone and go with Google. I don't have an EIN and there should be a workaround for people like us. 

I have an EIN and still having issues with their instructions.  No one at Zoom responds to my support ticket.

Same. I have a ticket and Zoom has ceased responding. Despite submitting an application, I no longer have access to SMS. I'm hoping it's simply a backlog and texting abilities will be restored soon. As of now, customers have no way of texting me and if they try, their attempts will fail, which does not look for a business (or a freelancer such as myself).

 

Scratch that. I just looked up my Campaign application and it seems that it has been rejected. Zoom never contacted me about this nor is there any information on why I've been rejected. Suffice it to say, Zoom has really failed its smaller customers here. The phone abilities that I have purchased through them are my lifeline to customers on the day of their appointments. This failure to support their smaller clientele directly affects my ability to sustain the effectiveness of my communication to and support of my clients. 

 

jeffster
Listener

Today, my texting just stopped. I guess Aug 1st was the deadline for a campaign. I also don't send outbound texts other then responding to people who call me. The thing about campaigns is you need to add the words " reply stop to cancel" which I really don't want to add to every single reply text. any thoughts? 

davidjurado
Listener

This is irresponsible from Zoom and the regulator to not have resolve a solution for this regulation for individual users of Zoom accounts.  The Zoom Support reps take it personally that one tells them that Zoom is failing to resolve options. This is very unacceptable. 

 

It makes no sense that as an individual I would have to register as a company and pay corporate taxes and report as a company to be able to send text messages.

gavonrud76
Listener

If I may make a suggestion. It's a stupid poorly thought out system. You can't do anything to change it, so "game it." Consider yourself a Sole Proprietor. It costs you nothing and you don't have to make any money doing so. Herre's an idea. Rather than complain, find a loophole. Create a website. There are literally places where you can make a free site to advertise your sole proprietorship business. And get an online presence for your sole proprietorship which is just your name and social.  You don't have a business? Offer to email someone a silly birthday wish for the low low price of 20 thousand dollars. Technically not illegal and if someone actually hires you, I will laugh. But you have a Sole Proprietor business. There is no law saying that you must be profitable.  Now, take this number, create a brand, point it to your website. The website should state clearly that anyone providing their number is opting in for SMS and they can cancel anytime by replying with the words "STOP."  And technically if Aunt Mildred doesn't want you to text her,  I guess she can also reply "STOP" to be in compliance. Congrats, you can now text on your "business line."