Check your tenant’s status
Open Health → Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Your tenant is your organization’s Microsoft 365 cloud environment. Check EX1550543 for Exchange Online and MO1550821 for the broader incident. If you cannot sign in, use Microsoft’s public status page.
US reporting cited roughly 130,000 peak Outlook problem reports on Downdetector. That figure measures self-reports, and your tenant’s service-health record is the relevant evidence for a claim.
Recover email and keep working
Try Outlook on the web and test incoming and outgoing mail with an external address. Check shared mailboxes, the Outbox and nondelivery reports before resending. Ask an Exchange administrator to run a message trace using the sender, recipient, time and Internet Message ID if available.
Use an independent phone, messaging or CRM login for urgent business. Confirm meetings through a working channel. If errors persist after recovery, open a separate support case with affected accounts, timestamps and error messages.
File with your billing provider
If Microsoft bills you directly, open Help & support in the Microsoft 365 admin center and request an Exchange Online SLA service credit. If a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) bills you, start with the reseller on your invoice and ask it to submit or escalate through its distributor.
Microsoft’s partner rules give the submitting CSP one month after the end of the affected billing month for Microsoft 365. Ask your supplier for its deadline and written case reference promptly. Check your direct agreement for its cutoff. A standard calendar-month November claim is typically due by December 31, 2026.
GoDaddy US · For Email & Office bought from GoDaddy, open a support case against the subscription and request a written credit assessment.
What to put in your support case
Provide your Microsoft 365 tenant ID (the GUID shown on the Microsoft Entra admin center Overview page), billing reference, subscription and affected workload. Record the incident ID, start and end times with time zone, licensed and affected users, locations, webmail symptoms and message-trace evidence.
Save the Service health notice and case number. Keep lost sales and staff costs in a separate record and check the signed contract and business interruption cover for any rights beyond a service credit.
How the Exchange Online credit works
For Exchange Online webmail availability under the standard SLA, qualifying user-minutes determine monthly uptime. The credit tiers are 25% below 99.9%, 50% below 99%, and 100% below 95% of uptime, applied to eligible fees. Six hours for every user in a 30-day month is about 99.17%. The same six hours for one in ten users is about 99.92%.
Desktop Outlook errors alone may not establish qualifying webmail downtime. Delayed email delivery has separate SLA metrics. Record each affected workload separately.
Alternatives and business continuity
Pilot Google Workspace, Zoho Workplace or Proton for Business with real mailboxes, delegation, calendars, retention and mobile access. For Office-dependent teams, test Excel macros and shared files before changing licenses.
If you stay on Exchange Online, test a separately hosted email continuity service with an independent sign-in. Plan MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC changes, retention and rollback before migrating.