There have been several questions regarding Trumpia (the power behind the mobile mini course) and how it works with international sign ups. Here are the questions and the answers I received from Trumpia. Hope these help.
Q:
I subscribed to your mobile opt-in form and got the first text message with a 4-digit verification code (sent from a UK number).
(1) There’s nowhere to input the code
(2) When I try to verify from the email link it doesn’t recognize my information, so that fails too.
A:
Our outgoing message technology works great across the globe; therefore your UK contact had no problem receiving the “verification” code. The reason international users must receive a verification code to opt in, in the first place unlike domestic mobile phone users, is because there is no inbound message/keyword capability between our system and foreign carriers. This is why the typical “Reply OK” message would not apply to international numbers, because their local carriers would have no short code 69302 registered, which would lead to the “OK” reply to be lost.
In direct results of this, any foreign phone numbers will get a 4-digit “verification code” to their phone, via our outgoing message. This is the alternative method we have in place to ensure double-opt-in status for anyone who wishes to register their number in our system. The page where they entered their information will then change to reveal a text box for inputting the verification code. In the case of your embedded online sign up page, after clicking “Submit” the box will refresh to reveal a screen similar to:
If in their browser they did not see the embedded form update to an image similar to above, then I must gather more information on the matter.
• Did they happen to navigate away from the screen after entering in their phone number?
• Did they refresh the screen after submitting their information?
• Have they attempted to re-enter their information to rule out any 1-time bug?
• Which browser are they using?
If you can collect the answers to any of these questions or perhaps collect their mobile number manually we may investigate the matter further and provide you with case specific information. In addition, you would be able to add the number manually with the contact’s permission so they could receive further updates from your account.
Q:
When someone subscribes to such a ’4-day SMS mini course’ from another country and then wants to stop receiving messages, where will the subscriber’s ‘STOP’ message be sent to?
For instance, I am in Australia. I noticed I can select my country and the country code +61 is being pre-popped. So I sign up and let’s say I am the customer wanting to sign up for your fee mini course, but after 3 messages I want to stop receiving them. Will my reply SMS (‘STOP’) be sent to a USA based number?
If so, it may cost me a fortune to send it…or will this be a local SMS in respect of my phone carrier’s charges?
A:
Your potential subscriber does not have to worry about spending a fortune to send a text message to our system. Our short code is not registered in Australia and therefore the message will simply stop at the domestic level. Of course, your potential subscriber may incur his local phone carrier’s charges in attempting to send the message.
This leads us to the heart of the matter. The handling of unsubscribe messages from international numbers. Currently the “STOP” and “STOP ALL” commands do not get sent to our system from foreign phones. Coincidentally, our engineers actually have this very item up for discussion tomorrow in our upcoming development meeting for a more efficient way of international unsubscribing. Currently, the user will have to contact you or us-either by remembering where he signed up to start receiving SMS messages or by researching our short code-and request to be unsubscribed manually. I realize at this time, this may not be the best answer for you, but we are actively working on a better solution.