Misconceptions About HeyCosmo Service

Although vast majority of HeyCosmo apps users and call recipients have reported great experiences and are devoutly loyal to our service, some blog critics recently misconceives HeyCosmo as a telemarketer and questions how we obtain phone numbers of the call recipients. To clarify our service:

Where does HeyCosmo get the phone numbers?

• Call recipient phone numbers are input by the user. We do not obtain those numbers ourselves. Call recipients are getting call blasts from someone that they know. The only time we ask for a call recipient’s phone number is if they wish to have that number block or unblock from future calls.
• There is always the possibility that a SPAM company could use HeyCosmo apps that are contrary to our usage policy. We watch for unusual bulk activity on our servers to try to spot this activity, however it is very important that our users report improper activity so we can contact the sender and stop the inappropriate action as quickly as possible.

Why does HeyCosmo Blast ask you to “press 1” at the beginning of the call?

• When you receive a HeyCosmo Blast on your cell phone, pressing “1” opts you in to listen to the message—you are not purchasing anything from HeyCosmo.

What’s with the ad during the call?

• A short ad is played at the end of the message while your selected option is being processed back to the originator of the call. This ad is how HeyCosmo provides the service free-of-charge to users. Some ads ask for the listener to interact if they are interested in receiving more information. You are never required to interact with the ads and will never falsely state this. This type of ad placement is becoming more important in our communications and multimedia future. Most have already accepted this reality. (see articles on The New York Times or Computerworld)
  

Block/Unblock calls

• We’ve made it easy for a call recipient to block all HeyCosmo app calls by providing the Block/Unblock button on our new website. One blogger suggested that the function didn’t work for him when he tried to block his cell phone number. We periodically test to make sure this is working and have validated that the functionality in order.
• For security we have a verification function that calls your number to validate and confirm that it is indeed your number that you wish to Block/Unblock. I will be releasing more information about this when it is readily available.

Your constructive comments are really important to us and to clear up any concerns about our service. Please post public facing comments to this blog, or send me an email.