Applies to: Everyone. Level: Medium/Advanced.
Did you know lots of companies have Service Status pages? Here I want to explain a little about what they are and how they can save you time…
What is a Service Status page?
It’s basically what it says it is, it’s a webpage which lists some products a company provides with either a “Everything is fine” sticker on it or a “This thing is broken”.
Sometimes when something is broken it will also give you more details, for example, your broadband provider might have a System status that looks like this
| Service Name | Current Status | Notes |
| Broadband | OK. 🙂 | Last updated: 2017-08-16 11.29:32 |
| Phone lines | OK. 🙂 | Last updated: 2017-08-16 11.20:45 |
| Error 🙁 – see notes for details | Last updated: 2017-08-16 11.20:00, we are currently experiencing delays in receiving incoming emails, this is affecting all customers… More updates to follow… |
This is a simplified example of what it might look like, but it will be something similar… Probably with fewer smiley faces 🙁
How can Service Status Pages save me time?
Say you pick up your phone to call someone and you get a fuzzy noise or it’s just dead. And you can still get on the internet (maybe your internet is still working or your phone has a data connection)
You can look up the Service Status page of your phone line provider and if they say everything is OK 🙂 then you need to give them a ring…
…But say you get to the page and it says “Phone lines in [Your area code/location] are down due to a fault in [technical term X] because of [Fire/Water/robots]” then you can save your time ringing up because they are already working on it.
Where are some common ones?
- BT http://www.bt.com/help/servicestatus
- TalkTalk https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Service-Status-Dashboard/bd-p/service
- EE https://myaccount.ee.co.uk/networkchecker/checkservice
- O2 https://status.o2.co.uk/
- Plusnet http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=2&?helpheader=servicestatus
- Sky https://servicestatus.sky.com/ (Includes Sky broadband/phone and Sky TV)
- Virgin Media https://my.virginmedia.com/faults/service-status (you need to sign in to see this)
- Netflix https://help.netflix.com/en/is-netflix-down
- Other: I usually google search something like “[Company Name] Service Status” and most large companies have something…
Got a status page you check often? Let us know in the comments
Mike 🙂
April 24, 2018 at 3:39 pm
Mike,
I’ve ordered from bestsalesuk.com but find my credit card payment went to Shanghai.
I haven’t received my next day delivery ordered on 18th.
Have you anything on the company?
Can you advise me where on line to look for complaints about companies?
Thanks,
Russell Potter
April 25, 2018 at 10:11 am
Hi Russell,
Jess here, Mike’s a bit busy today.
I’m sorry I’ve never heard of that website before I’m afraid. Have you been in touch with them to see where your order is? They should have a contact telephone or email address that you can use to get in touch with them.
https://www.scamadviser.com/is-bestsalesuk.com-a-fake-site.html shows that the website might not be legitimate, it might be worth speaking to your credit card company to see if you can claim the money back.
I hope this helps,
Thanks
Jess
April 26, 2018 at 10:33 am
Jess,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
I didn’t know where to look for scam advice. I do now.
My suspicions were aroused too late when I tried to find a company address, something I usually do before buying , even from Amazon sites. This was not via Amazon.
The site is worth a look to show how professional it appears. Excellent English and I suspect copied from many other companies to compile an extensive list of features.
My email to its admin address was returned unknown.
i suppose it could be genuine, I’ll keep you up to date.
Russell
April 26, 2018 at 12:10 pm
Hi Russell,
Yes the website seems pretty good at identifying unsafe websites.
I’ve had a quick look at the website and you’re right, it does look professional and it has some pretty good deals.
Here’s hoping that your order is on it’s way and it might show up soon. I did read that you can reply to your confirmation email to chase up your order. The website also has a contact form to fill in here – https://www.bestsalesuk.com/Contact-Us.html
Keep me posted,
Thanks
Jess
August 21, 2017 at 2:37 pm
Hi Mike, how do I copy a link from within an email to a website e.g. I forgot my password for Avangate, they sent me an email with a link (very long) in it for me to copy to their website to gain access for renewing my password. I tried clicking on the link but it did not work!
Hope you can help.
Thank you, Donu.
August 22, 2017 at 1:02 pm
Hello
Usually you can do what you tried and simply click it but some times your program doesn’t realise it’s a link or won’t let you click on it. There’s another way, though, without having to type it all in.
First you click with the mouse at the start of the link and hold down the mouse button. Then drag the mouse to the end of the link – it should now be highlighted in blue.
Then let go of the mouse button and point the mouse at the highlighted blue bit. Click with the right hand mouse button and choose “copy” in the little menu that pops up.
Then go into Edge (or whatever browser you like) and click in the address bar at the top. Right click again and this time choose paste and press enter and it should take you to that web address.
It’s a bit fiddly but much easier than typing the whole thing in!
Tim
(Mike’s off today so I’m answering questions instead)
August 17, 2017 at 9:54 am
Very many thanks, Mike. I have immediately added the TalkTalk link to my favourites – very much appreciated.
Ray
August 18, 2017 at 12:47 pm
Awesome, hope it helps in the future 🙂