diff --git a/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.service.js b/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.service.js
index 2800341e7e..4e179e6c73 100644
--- a/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.service.js
+++ b/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.service.js
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ const documentation = `
 <p>
   Your badge should be working fine now.
 </p>
+<p>
+  NB - The badge will display 'inaccessible' if the specified repo was not found on the target Gitlab instance.
+</p>
 `
 
 class GitlabPipelineStatus extends BaseSvgScrapingService {
diff --git a/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.tester.js b/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.tester.js
index 49183c38e1..0ab56554a6 100644
--- a/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.tester.js
+++ b/services/gitlab/gitlab-pipeline-status.tester.js
@@ -20,11 +20,18 @@ t.create('Pipeline status (nonexistent branch)')
     message: 'branch not found',
   })
 
+// Gitlab will redirect users to a sign-in page
+// (which we ultimately see as a 503 error) in the event
+// a nonexistent, or private, repository is specified.
+// Given the additional complexity that would've been required to
+// present users with a more traditional and friendly 'Not Found'
+// error message, we will simply display inaccessible
+// https://github.com/badges/shields/pull/5538
 t.create('Pipeline status (nonexistent repo)')
   .get('/this-repo/does-not-exist/master.json')
   .expectBadge({
     label: 'build',
-    message: 'repo not found',
+    message: 'inaccessible',
   })
 
 t.create('Pipeline status (custom gitlab URL)')