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First, chatting with a bot is not "Live Chat." Second, according to the website, "Live phone support for RingCentral MVP (2+ users) plans is available 24/7." I never got past the robot and then it said "live service is only available M-F." I am getting increasingly upset with this customer service, or lack of it.

My question is this: If I have unlimited digital calling in the US and I don't use any international or toll-free calling, why am I automatically purchasing calling credits? Do calling credits cover faxes and SMS? And if they do cover SMS, why are SMS bundles sold separately? How much is faxing? And why did I autopurchase $20 worth of calling credits if I already had $18+ available:ring-billing-snip.jpg

Hi Julie, for billing questions, you may send an email at billingsupport@ringcentral.com


I had the same issue. I've been with RC since 2010 and never used international calling or credits, yet I was billed for calling credits on 6/28. I will forward my issue to the email provided by Mary.


@Julie Martinez , while Mary is working with billing ops in your separate cases, and we do apologize for the inconvenience caused. But I would like to clarify on how SMS is metered and billed, as looks like it's not very well understood, and that may be the reason of inconvenience.

Here's the support article: https://support.ringcentral.com/article-v2/Enhanced-Business-SMS-new-Price-Changes.html?brand=RC_US&product=RingCentral_MVP&language=en_US

but as it doesn't fully explain the way SMS is metered, so here I am providing more context:

There are two types of SMS:

1. Domestic SMS (i.e. inbound/outbound SMS using local US/CA numbers, also called 10DLC/10 digit local code numbers)

2. Toll Free SMS(i.e. inbound/outbound SMS using North American Toll Free numbers)

How is SMS billed?

There are 3 different buckets from where SMS is metered against, with some rules.

1. Free allotments - Based on your MVP license, you get some free allotments at account level

2. Pre paid SMS bundles - This is the SMS usage monthly bundle purchased by customer. (optional but recommended if you use decent amount of SMS per month)

3. Pay as you go(PAYG) - This is same as Purchased Calling Credits, which comes as $20 or $100 charge to your bill in case Auto charge is enabled. NOTE: This is NOT Calling credits, as Calling Credits are not used by SMS. (We understand the name may be confusing, which is something we will check to address internally)

Domestic SMS will first use free allotments. Once free allotments are depleted, then pre paid SMS bundle(if it's there), and once bundle is depleted, it will use PAYG bucket(purchased calling credits).

Toll Free SMS will also follow above, just that TF SMS can't use free allotments.

So, if you see a Purchased Calling Credit charge on your bill and you are not using international or TF calling, and just using SMS, it's most probably that your free allotments are already consumed, and SMS is being billed against the Purchased Calling credits.

Good news is that you can track all of your accounts SMS usage, and also see where it's getting billed in all transparency on SMS usage logs available in Admin portal. Here's the support page that will provide all details on how to check you SMS usage.

https://support.ringcentral.com/article-v2/Viewing-SMS-usage-logs-in-the-Admin-Portal.html?brand=RingCentral&product=MVP&language=en_US

Let us know if this was helpful.

Thanks & Regards

Gurpreet Singh

PM, RingCentral Platform Products


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