Sydney, Australia – Multiple McDonald’s locations in various countries worldwide experienced a widespread technological issue, leading to temporary closures in Australia and difficulties in processing customer payments across other branches. Internal systems at Australian restaurants went offline around 3:10 p.m. local time, affecting operations extensively.
Reports of IT issues also surfaced in several other countries, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, and Germany. The disruptions caused inconvenience for customers, as they were unable to pay for their orders due to the ongoing technological problems.
In response to the situation, a McDonald’s spokesperson in the U.S. acknowledged the technology outage and assured customers that the issue was being addressed promptly. The company expressed gratitude for customers’ patience and apologized for any inconvenience caused, emphasizing that the problem was unrelated to a cybersecurity incident.
Amid the widespread disruption, some McDonald’s stores in Australia had to close entirely, while others resorted to accepting cash orders only. Similar challenges were reported in Japan, where McDonald’s acknowledged a system failure and urged customers to wait patiently for service restoration without specifying the cause of the outage.
In New Zealand, an employee highlighted the impact of a computer server crash on order processing, attributing the inability to serve food to malfunctioning order screens. The incident drew attention from social media users, including individuals in Hong Kong, where customers faced limitations in using mobile and self-ordering kiosks due to a computer system failure.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s Taiwan temporarily suspended its “24hr Happy Delivery” and telephone ordering services for maintenance purposes, reflecting the global scale of the technological challenges encountered by the fast-food chain. Reports of service disruptions also emerged in the U.K., U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany, prompting widespread discussion among affected customers and observers.
As the company works to address the technical issues affecting its operations worldwide, customers remain vigilant about the status of McDonald’s services in their respective regions. The incident underscores the interconnected nature of modern technological systems and the potential impact of disruptions on multinational corporations and their global customer base.