UPDATE:
We had a few telephone complaints this morning from customers who tried to pay for goods yesterday through our website, and were unable to do so. The situation got worse for ARC between 7pm and 11pm.
We checked our payment logs which agreed with the complaints being brought to our attention.
ARC uses SagePay as the payment gateway on our site, connecting to a bank merchant services provider. Looking at their monitoring system failed to provide answers. Called them for an explanation and waited in queue, but gave up after 10+minutes on hold. This seems to be the 'new normal' for many corporates practising 'mindfulness working from home' policy.
Went onto www.downdetector.co.uk and noted that most financial institutions (banks) had 'down issues' between 7pm and 11pm, peaking at 9pm.
This hopefully explains why customers were finding it difficult to pay during that period.
Ketan at ARC.