Missed SLA? You may be owed money.
Every carrier publishes an SLA. Almost nobody claims against it. Here is what those promises mean, with real examples, so you know what you are owed.
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400+ carriers and platforms, compared.
A quick clarification, because it matters.
Buckeye is an independent advisor, we do not operate a network, so we do not issue the SLA. The service level agreement comes from the carrier or platform you buy through, and it is a contract between you and them.
What we do is read it before you sign, tell you what it is actually worth, and hold the provider to it when something goes wrong. The examples below are the kind of terms you will find across the providers we work with.
Credits exist. Almost nobody claims them.
Carriers quote uptime in nines. Here is the same promise expressed as downtime you are expected to absorb in a 30-day month.
| Uptime promise | Common name | Allowed downtime per month |
|---|---|---|
| 99.999% | Five nines | About 26 seconds |
| 99.99% | Four nines | About 4 minutes 20 seconds |
| 99.9% | Three nines | About 43 minutes |
| No published SLA | Best-effort service | No committed target at all |
Two carriers can quote the same uptime number and owe you very different money when they miss it.
| Credit category | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Can reach 100% monthly credit | A long enough outage can wipe out the entire month's recurring charge. |
| Credit capped below 100% | The schedule tops out at a fraction of the month no matter how long you were down. |
| Credits set per contract | Nothing is published. Whatever your agreement says is what you get. |
| No published SLA | Best-effort service with no committed target and no credit schedule. |
Send the contract. Get the read. Collect if you want.
Send us your contract
Your MSA, service agreement, or even a recent bill. A real person reads it, and your company details stay confidential.
Get the plain-English read
We surface the exact guarantee, the credit schedule, and an estimate of what a real outage should have paid back.
We help you collect
Want it recovered? As your vendor-neutral advisor we file the claim and follow up. We are paid by the carriers, not by you.
The window is the whole game.
Every carrier requires you to open a ticket and request the credit, often within 30 to 60 days of the outage. Miss that window and the money you were promised is simply gone. That is the gap we close for you.
Your hosted phone platform has an SLA too. Cloud voice providers make the same kind of uptime promise your internet does, and the same claim rules apply.
Including whether this is legal advice (it is not)
What does the credit check cost?
Do I have to be a client?
How far back can I claim?
Will filing a claim hurt my carrier relationship?
Is this legal advice?
Know what your carrier really guarantees.
Search a provider to see its actual service-level terms in plain English, the uptime promise, the credit schedule, and the catch. Verified against each provider's published SLA. Every provider in the library has a schedule like this one. The credit is almost never automatic, and the request window is usually 30 days.
No published SLA: best-effort service
Hosted voice and UCaaS platforms
Cloud phone platforms make the same kind of uptime promise your internet does. Here is what the major providers put in writing.
Terms shown are based on each provider’s published service-level agreement and are for informational purposes only, not legal or financial advice. SLA terms vary by product, region, and contract, and change over time. Always verify the specific terms of your agreement with your provider before acting. Buckeye Telecom is an independent, vendor-neutral technology advisor, not a law firm.
Related
What drives the price.
Distance, term, construction, and which carriers reach your address.
Read → Compensation disclosureHow we get paid, in plain English.
We are paid by the carriers, not by you. Filing a credit claim does not change that.
Read → TEMMost companies cannot say what they spend on telecom.
Credits are frequently negotiable, but they are rarely automatic.
Read →Send us the contract. We will tell you what it is actually worth.
No advisory fee. A real person reads it. Your company details stay confidential.
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