The support contact in the terms must match the HELP reply
The requirementstatement
The support email or phone number in the SMS terms must be one the HELP auto-reply also gives.
- Severityseverity
- HighHIGHRejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- When it bitesphase
- Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
- What is checkedobject
- SMS terms contact block vs campaign.help_message
- Where it liveslayer
- Policy pagesPOLICY_PAGE
- How Ekas settles itdetectability
- DeterministicDETERMINISTIC
- Settled in code from the values you submitted. No model involved, no judgement call, same answer every time.
- What the fix involvesfailureClass
- Fix the policyTERMINAL_POLICY
- The fix lives in your privacy policy or SMS terms. Ekas can generate the missing clauses.
- Who requires itauthorities
- CTIA
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
A subscriber who texts HELP and a subscriber who reads the terms should reach the same place, and when they do not, one of the two routes is usually a mailbox nobody watches. The mismatch appears when support changes address and only the auto-reply is updated, because that is the one somebody tests.
How to fix itremediation
Use the same support address and number in the HELP reply and in the terms. Done when at least one contact route appears in both, and both are monitored.
A compliant exampleexample
HELP reply and SMS terms both give support@acmecoffee.com.
Notesnotes
Requires an overlap rather than an identical set: a HELP reply that gives an email and a phone number while the terms give only the email is consistent, and failing it would push brands to pad both documents.
Rules you will hit next
Other policy pages rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
POL-021Policy URLs must not redirectHighHIGHPOL-023A social profile is not a policy pageHighHIGHPOL-025Exactly one privacy policy must be discoverableHighHIGHPOL-026The policy on the site and the policy attached to the registration must agreeHighHIGHPOL-030Both documents must be linked from the site footer on every pageHighHIGHPOL-053The clause must say NOT SHARED, not merely "not sold"HighHIGH
POL-229 is one of 157 policy pages rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.