McDonalds outage live: Customers complain as UK restaurants forced to close

Kate Ng
·Trending Lifestyle Reporter
Updated
SEDGEMOOR, UNITED KINGDOM - FEBRUARY 25: The Golden Arches and Drive Thru logo of the fast food restaurant McDonald's at the Sedgemoor Services on the M5 motorway, on February 25, 2024 in Bristol, England. Founded in 1940, American multinational fast food chain McDonald's Corporation, best known for its Big Mac hamburgers, cheeseburgers and French fries, is the world's largest fast food restaurant chain. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
McDonald's fans are not lovin' the international outage faced by the chain. (Getty Images)

McDonald's customers are not lovin' it as the fast food giant is facing major technical problems all over the world, leaving food fans unable to order and branches forced to close their doors.

The outage has affected restaurants in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, and Japan so far.

Unhappy customers who have been unable to order their Happy Meals, Big Macs, or any other popular McDonald's items on Friday morning (15 March) took to social media to talk about the problem - with some hilarious posts making light of it all.

A McDonald's spokeswoman said in a statement: "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."

While the chain's tech woes may be sorted in the UK and Ireland, customers are still heading to social media to talk about what a hash it's been.

Follow our liveblog for the latest on the McDonald's outages.

LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER12 updates

  • More suspicions on the Hamburglar

    It appears there are serious suspicions surrounding the Hamburglar...

  • Burger King pokes fun at McDonald's IT woes

    Unsurprisingly, some rival fast food chains have taken the outage suffered by McDonald's as an opportunity to poke fun at it.

    First up, Burger King:

  • Best McDonald's memes so far

    Some of the funniest memes we've spotted about McDonald's being closed so far:

  • McDonald's Japan taking cash only

    McDonald's staff in Japan are reportedly sticking to a very limited menu of nuggets and chips and accepting cash only while the online systems are still down:

  • News of the outage leads to cravings

    For some people who haven't even thought about McDonald's for some time, news of the international outage has sparked some cravings. This customer is dreaming of a Filet O'Fish, while we're really feeling a Double Cheeseburger right now...

  • McDonald's Australia issues statement

    McDonald's Australia has addressed the impact the outage has had on customers and confirmed that the issue is now resolved, with "most" restaurants now re-opened.

    Their full statement below:

  • Is the Hamburglar to blame?

    We're rounding up a list of suspects for who's to blame for the outage... Could it be the Hamburglar?

  • Customer fumes after IT issues lead to wrong order

    As McDonald's branches in the UK are back up and running, customers are getting their orders in - but not everybody is getting what they asked for.

    One customer said he received a flatbread that was 'dry as Gandhi's flip-flop' after it appears the system messed up his order:

  • Long queues in Invermay

    McDonald's customers in Invermay are reporting long queues, as restaurants catch up with the influx of orders that have come in after the system issues were resolved in the UK and Ireland:

  • BBC's breaking news notification dubbed 'peak UK culture'

    The BBC sent out a Breaking News notification via its app to alert users about the McDonald's outage - which some readers have found rather amusing:

  • 'The end is near'

    The idea of McDonald's going down worldwide is too much for some to bear:

  • McDonald's statement on UK outage

    A McDonald's spokeswoman has issued a statement on the problem and 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."

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