McDonald’s customers around the world have voiced their outrage after staff were left unable to serve food because of an IT issue.
Fast food fans in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Germany all encountered problems buying food in restaurants on Friday, with the company’s mobile apps not appearing to work either.
Restaurants have been offline since around 4.10pm (5.10am GMT) and it is unknown what caused the outage or how long it will take to fix.
A restaurant manager told Daily Mail Australia that 90 minutes after the initial outage McDonald’s head office had yet to tell anyone what was going on.
‘We’re in the dark,’ he said.
All computer screens inside the restaurants are black and frozen on a loading screen which states that the system is ‘waiting for the assigned host’.
All McDonald’s restaurants across Australia are offline and staff are unable to take orders
A manager told Daily Mail Australia that he was ‘in the dark’ about how long the issue would take to resolve
Apology signs are popping up across Australia informing customers that they are unable to order food due to an IT outage
A McDonald’s Australia spokesperson told the publication that it was ‘aware of a technology outage’ currently impacting stores.
‘We are aware of a technology outage currently impacting our restaurants nationwide and are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible,’ they said.
‘We apologise for the inconvenience and thank customers for their patience.’
Another spokesperson from McDonald’s UK said they were ‘looking into’ the problem.
The official McDonald’s Japan twitter account also confirmed that its stores are experiencing a ‘system failure’.
‘Please wait for a while until the service is restored,’ the statement read.
Not all stores have been affected by the outage and a small number continue to operate throughout the impacted countries.
On a Reddit discussion board between McDonald’s employees a Canadian worker reported that their help desk had been flooded with calls.
A flurry of apology signs immediately began springing up at restaurants around the world informing customers about the mass-outage.
As a workaround some locations are accepting cash payments while they wait for the registers to come back online.
Customers are flocking online to share their disappointment about being unable to order
Some restaurants, including Melbourne’s airport location, have resorted to cash-only payments in order to still serve customers
The IT outage appears to be impacting restaurants around the globe, including in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (pictured)
The official McDonald’s Japan twitter account asked confirmed to ‘wait for a while’ until the systems get back online
A shift manager at an Australian McDonald’s wrote on Reddit that they were keeping track of sales via pen and paper as a workaround.
‘We’re now having to take orders via paper, and then paying by cash. Already been yelled at by seven people, so I’m loving this,’ they wrote.
Other stores that did not begin taking cash orders have instead opted to close the restaurant until the issue is resolved.
Frustrated customers from around the globe vented their frustrations online about the abrupt outage.
‘So, 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,’ one angry UK customer wrote.
An Aussie customer seized the moment to promote McDonald’s rival Hungry Jacks.
‘Go to Hungry Jack’s. The burgers are better at Hungry Jack’s,’ they wrote.
More to come.
Workers at a German McDonald’s left a handwritten note on the entrance door to let customers know they were about to be disappointed
Ornate signs were hung in a Japanese store delicately letting hungry customers down on their way in