# BRD-104 — The support phone must reach the business

> The brand support number must route to the business and be answerable during business hours.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-104
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.phone`
- **Severity:** HIGH — Rejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** External record we cannot query — reported as a warning to verify
- **Fix type:** Wait on an external system or a required interval
- **Required by:** Klaviyo, Telnyx
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-104/

## Why this rule exists

Reviewers call it. That is the whole check: a number that rings out, reaches a personal voicemail, or lands on a disconnected line tells them the business either does not exist or cannot be contacted, and both readings end the same way. Businesses supply the owner's mobile or a line that was reassigned during an office move, and never learn that the number was the finding.

## How to fix it

Use the number published on the business website, and make sure it is answered — by a person or by a greeting that names the business — during ordinary business hours. Done when calling it yourself from an unknown number reaches the business by name.

## Check this yourself

**When you call this number from a phone the business does not recognise, during business hours, does a person or a greeting name the business?**

1. Do exactly what the reviewer will do: dial it yourself, in business hours, from an unknown number, and listen to what a stranger hears.
2. Use the number published on the business website, not the owner's mobile — and check it was not reassigned during an office move.

*What wrong looks like:* It rings out, or reaches a personal voicemail with no business name. The reviewer reads that as a business that either does not exist or cannot be contacted, and never tells you the number was the finding.

## Notes

We cannot dial it. What the user has to do is exactly what the reviewer will: call the number from a phone the business does not recognise, in business hours, and listen to what a stranger hears.