WEBSITES and apps can experience outages leaving customers without access to essential services – and Gumtree is no different.
The company’s website and app was unavailable on June 25 with dozens of users reporting problems.
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Users started reporting issues at roughly 6.30pm and they appeared to be stopping around 2am on June 26.
However, they started up again at 5am.
A message on Gumtree’s website said the issues were due to “essential maintenance” and apologised to users.
If you’re one of the Gumtree customers who was unable to get on the website or app, here’s what you can do.
How can I check if Gumtree is offline?
You can check the status of a website or app via downdetector.co.uk.
The site tells you how many people have been reporting issues and what they relate to.
Bear in mind though the site relies on customer-reported issues so is not always 100% accurate.
Also, companies will often update their social media channels if they are experiencing technical issues.
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For example, during Gumtree’s most recent outage, it posted on its Twitter and Facebook pages letting people know the issues were due to maintenance work.
Can I claim compensation if a website or app goes down?
In most cases, it’s worth gathering evidence of any problems you experience if a website or app goes down to see if you can get compensation.
You can make a note of when you were unable to access the website or app and if you were left out of pocket as a consequence.
For example, if the outage meant you received a late payment fee after you couldn’t make a transaction, you should keep a record of this.
If you spoke to anyone to try and resolve the problem, jot down their name and when you spoke to them, as well as roughly what you discussed and what they advised you do.
You will need to think about how much you expect in compensation, and when you expect to receive it.
Because all listings on Gumtree’s website are free, there’s no compensation available in that respect.
But, users can buy features to make their listings stand out, for example by bumping an ad higher up the page.
For any users who bought one of these while Gumtree’s website was down you are entitled to a free three-day feature.
A spokesperson said users should contact its help desk for more information via https://help.gumtree.com/s/contact-us#Technical-Issues.
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