Outlook Went Down? Microsoft May Owe You Money
If your Microsoft business services were offline last week, you’re probably entitled to a partial credit on your next monthly bill.
Microsoft's recent tech outage has left businesses pondering if they are owed compensation. Microsoft's Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are designed to ensure high levels of availability, often around 99.99 percent. If a provider fails to meet these standards, they must provide a refund or credit towards the next billing cycle. However, SLAs are not only for large enterprises but also for businesses with Microsoft accounts, regardless of size.
If your business account with Microsoft experienced an outage, you may be entitled to compensation. It's important to note that individual or personal plans are not covered under these SLAs, so individual users are unlikely to receive refunds or credits. To request compensation, you must review Microsoft's SLA for Online Services, which is over 53,000 words long and broken down by product.
The SLA defines downtime as periods when users cannot send or receive email with Outlook Web Access. Uptime Percentage is calculated by subtracting downtime minutes from total User Minutes, then dividing by User Minutes and multiplying by 100. If the calculated Uptime Percentage falls below 99.9 percent, you are entitled to a credit in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
To file a claim, navigate to the Microsoft Admin Center, find the headset icon at the bottom right, click on the Help & support option, and then contact support. Fill out the email service request form with the relevant information, and you'll receive a case number and tracking ID. Claims must be submitted within 30 days of the outage, so if you experienced an outage on November 12, you have until December 31, 2026 to file your claim.
Written by urgent.news from Wired's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
