If something goes down

Short factual guide from how PhoneTill is built today — not fiction. Live checks: /status.

AI / voice agent stuck or caller needs a human

• There is no live call transfer to Ryan (Retell transfer_call is not built).
• The agent can call request_human_callback → POST /api/internal/ai-rescue → WhatsApp (preferred) / SMS to Ryan (+447342924730) with shop, customer phone, and a short reason.
• Cap: max 3 rescues per shop per Europe/London day. Further attempts return capped — Ryan is not notified. The agent must apologise, tell the caller to go inside / order in person, and end_call. Never read out a phone number, never promise a callback when capped, never go silent.
• On success: apologise that someone will call back shortly, then end_call.
• Spoken failover line (exhausted): “Sorry, we can't take this order over the phone right now. Please go inside to place your order.”

Shop paused or suspended (billing / flood)

• Agent is reprovisioned with a divert prompt — does not take orders.
• Paused (admin flood/abuse): callers hear phone ordering is paused — please order in person — then end_call.
• Suspended (unpaid / cut-off): callers hear we're not partnered with this shop anymore — please go inside — then end_call.
• Never invent a transfer, hold music, or a backup number to ring.

WhatsApp / kitchen ticket down

• Kitchen tickets normally go via Twilio WhatsApp (and optionally Sunmi printer). If WhatsApp is not configured or send fails, the order may still be logged; the failure is recorded on the order / shop lastError path used by ops.
• Shops and Ryan use /status (and Ops in the console) to see whether WhatsApp / SMS channels are configured and whether the admin API / DB are up.
• There is no separate public “WhatsApp outage banner” beyond status — check /status and kitchen WhatsApp on a test order.

Who gets alerted

• Ryan — AI rescue WhatsApp/SMS when the agent requests a human callback (within the daily cap).
• Shops — see divert speech on the line when paused/suspended; check shop page / support WhatsApp for ops help.
• Callers — always get a spoken next step (go inside / paused) — never silence.

What we do not claim

No automatic PSTN failover to a human agent. No invented SLA beyond the behaviour above. Meta / UK WhatsApp registration and card-sell work are separate and not part of this playbook.