McDonald's customers' fury as major IT outage stops restaurants serving food

15 March 2024 , 10:56

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McDonald's appeared to be having IT issues (Image: DDP/AFP via Getty Images)

McDonald's customers were left furious after a global IT outage left them unable to buy food at some restaurants this morning.

Several customers took to social media to share their frustration this morning as staff were unable to take orders in store. Others reported being turned away from their local McDonald's branch and some reported issues with online orders. McDonald's confirmed that an IT outage occurred in stores across the UK this morning but that the issue had now been fixed.

The outage appeared to have affected branches worldwide, including in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, and New Zealand. Although not all stores were affected and a number continued to operate during the outage. According to data from the Downdetector website, reports of outages on the McDonald's app began this morning at around 5:30am (GMT)

A post on X - formerly Twitter - from McDonald's Japan confirmed there was a "system failure" in the country this morning (March 15) at 6:55am GMT. The post read: "There is currently a system failure. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and ask that you please wait for a while until the service is restored."

Explaining further, Patrik Hjelte, owner of several McDonald's restaurants in central Sweden, near the Norwegian border, told local newspaper Nya Wermlands Tidning: "All McDonald's restaurants are connected to a global network and that is what's messed up. Right now we are restarting all systems and we hope to be up and running again as usual soon."

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Posting on X, Brits shared their frustration, one said: "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?" Another said: "All McDonald's in Eastbourne closed due to technical issues."

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Meanwhile, a second fumed: "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?!" A third posted: '"Why can't you take orders with pen and paper and take it back to the kitchen? I've not had my McBreakfast today." Another added: "Well, that's what #McDonalds gets for having those bad self-serve kiosks. They never work and or are just slow."

A McDonald’s McDonald’s spokesperson told the Mirror: “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.”

Ruby Flanagan