Are some of your SMS alerts failing? If you select either the red "Failed to send alert" message in the Waitlist view, or the "Failed to send SMS" message that is displayed in the Chat area, it will open up a Message Details box which will provide additional information about the message including a brief description of the error.
If a red error message is displayed (like in the above screenshot) you should be able to match that message to one on our Error Codes and Messages lists found below, which will provide a more detailed description of the error to assist you in troubleshooting the issue.
Error Codes and Messages
Provider: Twilio
Error Code | Error Message | Description |
Message Delivery - Unreachable destination handset | The carrier for the phone number Waitwhile is trying to send the message to is reporting the 'To' number is unreachable - the device is likely powered down, out of the service area, or may not accept your messages. | |
Message Delivery - Unknown destination handset | The carrier for the phone number Waitwhile is trying to send the message to is reporting the To number is unknown or no longer in service. | |
Message Delivery - Carrier violation | The carrier for the phone number Waitwhile is trying to send the message to is filtering out your messages for delivery (possibly due to being flagged as spam). | |
Message Delivery - Unknown error | The carrier for the phone number Waitwhile is trying to send the message to returned a generic error message. | |
To' number is not a valid mobile number | You have attempted to send a SMS with a 'To' number that is not a valid mobile number. It is likely that the number that you have specified is a landline number or is an invalid number. | |
Message Delivery - Landline or unreachable carrier | The carrier for the phone number Waitwhile is trying to send the message to is a landline phone or the carrier can't be reached. | |
Invalid 'To' Phone Number | You attempted to send an SMS to a number that was either formatted incorrectly or was not a valid phone number. | |
Permission to send an SMS or MMS has not been enabled for the region indicated by the 'To' number | You have attempted to send an SMS to a region that has not been enabled for SMS by Waitwhile. | |
Message Delivery - Message blocked | Your message has been blocked from reaching the guests phone. | |
The 'To' phone number is not currently reachable via SMS | The carrier Waitwhile is trying to send the message to is not a supported carrier. | |
Message cannot be sent to the 'To' number because the customer has replied with STOP | Waitwhile is attempting to send a message to a number that has opted out of receiving messages using a STOP keyword. |
These are the most commonly displayed SMS error messages. If the error message you are seeing is not listed, you can find a more extensive list of Twilio error messages and descriptions here.
Reporting SMS Issues to Waitwhile Support
In the event that a large amount of SMS are failing unexpectedly with the same error message, or the error message displayed seems incorrect, please reach out to Waitwhile support and if possible include Message IDs (or screenshots of the Message Details box) for a few of the failed messages so that we can reach out directly to our SMS providers for additional assistance.
Have you exceeded your SMS limit for the billing period?
Each subscription plan has an allotted total number of SMS messages that can be sent during each billing period, as well as a separate limit on how many messages can be sent to an individual customer per visit.
The limit of SMS per visit is typically 8 messages (though this number may be higher for certain subscription plans). In the event that a customer has rescheduled a booking, it will still count as the same visit, potentially causing the per visit SMS limit to be reached. If this occurs, you could cancel the original booking and create a new one for the rescheduled date so that the SMS messages will not count against the original per visit message quota (though the new visit will count against your overall visit allotment for the period).
If you have used all of your total allotted messages for the billing period, we recommend upgrading to a higher subscription plan.
Related Articles:
Best Practices: Making Sure Your Messages Don't Get Blocked by Cell Carriers
FAQ: Why is "Reply STOP" being added to confirmation texts?