McDonalds outage 15 March 2024

Forums › Off topic › McDonalds outage 15 March 2024

DjShadow

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#312090 15-Mar-2024 21:21

Thought this is worthy of a mention as the media is starting to pick this up

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/reports-mcdonalds-stores-nationwide-cant-take-any-orders-serve-food/OUGOYINTHJCCZN5A3R6FE77SXU/

TL:DR it appears McDonalds in NZ, Australia, Japan, UK and likely other countries are all unable to take orders.

I was under the assumption each country had systems so surprised at the scale of this

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#3206857 15-Mar-2024 21:30

You were not joking. Epic.

djtOtago

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#3206859 15-Mar-2024 21:49

The list of countries is growing. Some news sites have now added China and Sweden to countries affected.

funnyfela

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#3206862 15-Mar-2024 22:32

Have to be careful what I say due to Media clause

But my group of stores is now trading normally again. And from the news appears to be global issue alright.

3 hours of no order screens behind the counter, they reprinted the receipt twice and ran off that. They did so well considering.

I don't think they'll take the KVS's for granted ever again lol (KVS Kitchen Video Screen, Maccas runs on abbreviations)

And I really hope we find out whats happened. To affect it globally must be something decent :/

If you have to run heating in winter, you don’t own enough computers.

cruxis

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#3206867 15-Mar-2024 23:01

wait can't they just revert to writing down the order on paper, yes it would be slower and limited but surely a few limited sales be better than having the staff standing around doing nothing.

Ge0rge

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#3206868 15-Mar-2024 23:02

Post above yours doesn't sound like they were standing around doing nothing.

John19612

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#3206880 16-Mar-2024 07:04

Ge0rge: Post above yours doesn't sound like they were standing around doing nothing.

Let's hope Burger King and KFC workers pick up on some of that work ethic.

Ge0rge

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#3206881 16-Mar-2024 07:13

John19612:
Ge0rge: Post above yours doesn't sound like they were standing around doing nothing.

Let's hope Burger King and KFC workers pick up on some of that work ethic.

I'm confused - did Burger King / KFC have IT issues as well?

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Goosey

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#3206888 16-Mar-2024 08:20

Sensational headlines.

maccas could have done better to advise there was a “problem with the kitchen IT,however are able to manually process orders so your patience and understanding would be most appreciated as orders will take a little bit longer to be served”.

of course unless it was so monumental that whatever the issue was, wiped out everything.

im only guessing…. But for it to be global….perhaps an issue with whatever they have as a solution for “live” stats and monitoring would be the first place I’d be checking.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3206891 16-Mar-2024 08:31

Goosey:

im only guessing…. But for it to be global….perhaps an issue with whatever they have as a solution for “live” stats and monitoring would be the first place I’d be checking.

My first thought was how stupid could they be to not build offline capabilities into their system. EFTPOS is the exception, because customers want it, but the option to fall back to cash should always exist.

They must have thought of that, so it's probably more likely that this was caused by a software or configuration update that went wrong.

gzt

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#3206897 16-Mar-2024 08:45

My reading is EFTPOS remained available in some form. It looks like stores implemented a variety of workarounds to take and total orders and process payments. I'd guess there are standalone EFTPOS terminals at the counters providing more flexibility.

Behodar

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#3206914 16-Mar-2024 09:40

SirHumphreyAppleby:

My first thought was how stupid could they be to not build offline capabilities into their system.

Well, it might be from the same people who made the kiosk software. The ones where, if the printer runs out of paper, tells you that your order number is "printer error".

(I also can't get over how slow they are, but that's not the point)

k1w1k1d

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#3206920 16-Mar-2024 09:59

Why would every outlet be linked into a single system?

funnyfela

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#3206940 16-Mar-2024 11:08

SirHumphreyAppleby:

Goosey:

im only guessing…. But for it to be global….perhaps an issue with whatever they have as a solution for “live” stats and monitoring would be the first place I’d be checking.

My first thought was how stupid could they be to not build offline capabilities into their system. EFTPOS is the exception, because customers want it, but the option to fall back to cash should always exist.

They must have thought of that, so it's probably more likely that this was caused by a software or configuration update that went wrong.

I can say that there is offline eftpos, and a mobile unit too.

The issue is that there was none of the KVS were running (displays for staff in prep areas), so eg. My local was taking pos orders, not Kiosk, and reprinting the reciept twice, giving one to kitchen and other to drinks/desserts. Very manual process not designed for the usual throughput. And also not as tidy for Drive Thru. The pos were working (at mine at least) and Eftpos. Some sort of big networking error I'd say from previous knowledge of how it works.

If you have to run heating in winter, you don’t own enough computers.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3206949 16-Mar-2024 11:57

SirHumphreyAppleby:

They must have thought of that, so it's probably more likely that this was caused by a software or configuration update that went wrong.

McDonald's has confirmed the outage was caused by a "...third-party provider during a configuration change."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mcdonalds-stores-went-offline-in-new-zealand-and-across-the-world-couldnt-serve-food/OCJM2EUUT5GCJCG62JU7E6MAMM/

clinty

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#3206963 16-Mar-2024 14:33

Full statement from McDonalds on their website

https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/global-tech-outage.html

Clint

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