Bandwidth

Pros

The platform itself is decent and it includes most of the features you'd expect.

Cons

Support around the new 10DLC requirement changes has been unbelievably poor. Our account managers kept offering excuses for the delays in 10DLC processing, while enablement stayed stalled for months at a time. If another provider offered stronger support than Bandwidth, I'd switch my business over immediately.

Pros

Port triggering, SMS integration and overall reliability have been fairly solid.

Cons

Using it can be frustrating because support, account management, the 911 section and the support tools all seem to require different dashboards and separate logins. On top of that the add ons needed for 10DLC mandates were not automatically included or clearly made available which feels unnecessarily hidden.

Pros

Right now, there really aren't any positives I can point to though maybe that could change later.

Cons

Dealing with its A2P SMS program and their account management has been deeply frustrating and honestly felt like a nightmare. We joined the A2P program in August 2022 with real excitement, expecting a service customized to what we actually needed. Instead, more than a year later, we were still being asked to complete more forms and re register and we had not sent even one message despite supposedly being onboarded to the A2P SMS product. One of the biggest problems has been how unclear and directionless the whole process has been. We specifically asked for a rollout in just one country yet they came back with a plan for 120 countries worldwide. That showed very little attention to our actual requirements and highlighted poor communication and lack of understanding from their side. The billing side made things even worse. We found out recently that we had been charged an extra 3% simply for having a card on file and that was never clearly disclosed. No account manager mentioned it, no email explained it and it did not appear on our invoices. That level of non transparency and lack of proactive communication around charges is unacceptable and raises serious concerns about their billing practices. On top of that the constant turnover in account managers made the experience feel disorganized and disconnected. Having three different account managers in 12 months meant there was no continuity and our project suffered because of it. We kept getting mixed messages especially around the recommendation to bulk purchase 10 DLC numbers. Taken together, these issues caused a major loss of trust and left us feeling like the business had also lost revenue because of how badly this was handled. Something that was supposed to help us grow ended up being a constant source of disappointment and stress. Overall, our experience with Bandwidth has been extremely negative. They failed to stay focused on our actual needs, communication was poor, charges were not transparent and account management was inconsistent. We expected professionalism and efficiency but instead we ran into one setback after another and it has had a real impact on our business. I'm sharing this as a warning for others considering this software for similar services.