diff --git a/check_monitor_bot.py b/check_monitor_bot.py
index efe6d5d..bb56def 100755
--- a/check_monitor_bot.py
+++ b/check_monitor_bot.py
@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@ def main():
 
     r = requests.get(args.metrics_endpoint)
     if r.status_code != 200:
-        print(f'UNKNOWN: monitor bot endpoint returned a bad status code {r.status_code}')
-        sys.exit(nagios.UNKNOWN)
+        print(f'CRITICAL: monitor bot endpoint returned a bad status code {r.status_code}')
+        sys.exit(nagios.CRITICAL)
     soup = BeautifulSoup(r.text, 'html.parser')
     tooltips = soup.find_all('span', {'class', 'tooltip'})
     data = {}