Boost recurring donations this giving season with the upsell prompt!Most reports of a missing text turn out to be one of two things: the bidder never opted in, or they are waiting for an alert the Auctions app sends by email rather than by text.
1. Are they expecting a text that is never sent by text?
This is the most common cause, and no amount of checking their settings will fix it.
Sent by text — to bidders who have opted in:
- The auction starts in about an hour
- The auction ends in 30 minutes
- The auction ends in 5 minutes
- They have won an item, or bought a fixed price item
Sent by email only — to everyone:
- Registration confirmation
- They are now the highest bidder
- They have been outbid
- The reserve price has not been met
- Their win or purchase confirmation, with next steps
Important: There is no outbid text message. A bidder who says "I wasn't told I'd been outbid" is describing an email they should have received. Check their email, including its spam folder, rather than their phone.
2. Did they opt in?
Text messages go only to bidders who agreed to them when they registered. The opt-in is a checkbox below the phone field on the registration form, and it is cleared by default — a bidder who registered quickly will not have it.
A bidder can check and change this themselves: sign in, open the account menu, click My Preferences, and look at Mobile notifications under Mobile Phone.
You can also check their record: open the auction's Bidders tab and click their name.
3. Is their phone number right?
On the bidder's detail panel, check the Phone Number, including the country. A number entered without the correct country will not reach them.
The panel shows a Verified indicator when the number has been confirmed. You can correct a number on their behalf from the same panel.
4. Was the auction actually within the window?
The three reminder messages are tied to the auction's own start and end times, in the auction's configured time zone. An auction whose end time has been changed, or which was created in a different time zone from your own, may have passed its window already.
Still nothing?
Text delivery depends on the mobile network, and carriers occasionally filter automated messages. If a bidder has opted in, has a correct number, and is missing texts other bidders received, raise it with support with the auction name and the bidder's number.
Related articles: