McDonald's customers claim they were turned away from outlets all across the world, including the UK, after the company experienced significant IT issues this morning (March 15).
The issues seemed to be technical in nature and had to do with the self-ordering kiosks and the mobile-ordering system.
UK branches have since fixed the issue and issued an apology in a statement, clearing cybersecurity rumours.
It said: "We are aware of a technology outage which impacted our restaurants. The issue has now been resolved in the UK and Ireland.
"We thank customers for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. The issue is not related to a cybersecurity event."
As well as being refused entry into some McDonald’s across the UK, people who wanted to order through the app faced the same trouble.
A system called Downdetector, which keeps track of IT difficulties in companies, observed a surge in problems with the McDonald's UK app starting at approximately 5am on Friday.
A few UK social media users expressed their displeasure.
One user tweeted: “Sooooo, for the first time in ages I'm gagging for a nice McMuffin… order online, drive to the McD's and… you've got a country-wide failure?”
@McDonaldsUK Sooooo, for the first time in ages I'm gagging for a nice McMuffin... order online, drive to the McD's and... you've got a country-wide failure? How about you lock the app then until it's sorted instead of allowing people to order? Just a thought?
— @stefanpaetow@mastodon.online (@stefanpaetow) March 15, 2024
Another user added: “Why can I order through the app this morning but all of my local McDonald’s are closed when they are meant to be 24 hours?!”
@McDonaldsUK why can I order through the app this morning but all of my local McDonald’s are closed when they are meant to be 24 hours?!
— Tom Bennison (@DrBennison) March 15, 2024
While a third user disappointed with the system mess-up said: “World now relying too much on Tech.”
World now relying too much on Tech
— asiapac01 (@asiapac001) March 15, 2024
- McDonald's resolves IT issue for customers in UK - Global issueshttps://t.co/ZdQozEATeh
As well as the UK, the following countries were also impacted: Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, and Japan. It is not known if these countries have fixed the issue.
What caused the outage and which systems were impacted are still unknown.
McDonald's has approximately 40,000 locations worldwide, in addition to more than 1,450 in the UK.
