Great Youtube mini documentary on this topic. It's fascinating that this happens and that even Australia uses these machines with cryptic UI and operations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4
Some further info:
Secret codes. Legal threats. Betrayal. How one couple built a device to fix McDonald’s notoriously broken soft-serve machines—and how the fast-food giant froze them out.
https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-…
I have never been to a Macca's with the ice cream machine broken, why is this such a supposedly popular occurrence?
Opposite experience here. Last two visits (visit about once a week) Milkshake/Ice Cream machine was broken along with a bunch of other times over my life history.
1/10 visits with broken machine holds about true for me.
Not saying I do or don't believe the video mind you just saying the 12-13% they are talking sounds about right for me.
You clearly didn't watch the video, did you?
19/20 times, the ice cream machines are working
mcbroken.com shows that 5-20% of machines are always broken across the entirety of the US. That is very high failure rate for McDonalds who serve a huge amount of customers and have a focus on automation.
Isn't this that media bias type things
Do you care to justify this? So far it seems you have called it bias without actually watching the video, right? It sounds like you are the one who is not open-minded or interested in data.
Your main argument is that 95% of the time YOU go to McDonalds the machines are working? Horrible sample size of ONE person and you probably only go to restaurants local to your little Australian neighbourhood at commonly repeated times of the day.
Also, the fact that is works when you go there is irrelevant. The point of this is that machines are systematically designed to require high maintenance due to economics and relationships between McDonald's and Taylor.
Same can be said of this video.
A lot of I said, I spoke to, etc etc interdispersed with a number of manuals and other documents, which we cant really verify.
So like your criticism of rambao9 it could just well be personal experiences that are being presented, and in this case, clickbait to boost clicks whick equals money for the presenter.
There are concerning comments, like Large Corporations working together to ignore customers. Really?
This isnt to say that its not possible, but really what advantage is there to a company to do this.
As others say. It could be staff at the close of their shift not wanting to refill and service the machine? Or they know at night time they dont sell much in Northern US states in winter, so rather than waste a large batch of ice cream mix, they shut it down much earlier, it could be sometimes the premix hasnt been delivered.
Shutting down earlier if there is slow demand, makes economic sense and remember the franchisee pays for the wastage.
So your argument that its two organisations working together to screw customers is a bit of a stretch.
Hah. I thought it was well presented and as he said, months of research went in to this.
which we cant really verify.
What information do you doubt that you would like verified?
The main thing is that Taylor's revenue is 25% sourced from Service fees etc. so they are incentivised to keep machines breaking and the quantitative data showing that 5-20% of machines across North America are commonly broken.
I think there are some common sense conclusions like how the machine UI is designed in a horrible and confusing way. Just look at the buttons on that machine. And look at the instructional videos on how to clean them every 14 days; very complicated.
Also some more "verification" from a better source:
https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-…
You are actually agreeing with each other aren't you?
Rambao9 is saying that in his/her experience the machines are working 95% of the time = they are broken 5% of the time.
watwatwat is also saying that the machines are broken 5-20% of the time.
Doesn't this mean that Rambao9's experience of broken machines is within the expected range as reported by watwatwat?
Correct, we are in agreement here.
My point was more towards 5-20% != ALWAYS Broken
My point was more towards 5-20% != ALWAYS Broken
It depends on how you look at it. Either it is that a large quantity of machines are always broken across the US, which they are.
Or it is hyperbole that any single machine is 'always' broken meaning that is broken for a large percentage of time.
From this whole video, if your only point to make is that you do not like hyperbole, then cool story and thanks for your input.
@watwatwat: And he also says that most of the rest of the fast food industry uses the same machines, so if Taylor are building in massive service costs, then why are we not seeing other companies having the same service issues.
If you look at one of the slides they show, companies like Wendys, KFC, ChickFila, Burger King, In an Out. (see slide at 9.27mins) and even more on a later on slide, so are you saying that McDonalds would be using faulty machines and continue to use these faulty machines, whereas Taylors supply every other company with better machines?
This Youtube video has more ads that most videos, and the guy does further advertisments in the video itself, so really the more sensational his claims the more money he makes. Maybe even more than Taylors (Just jesting on the more than point).
And to be of any value to McDonalds they would either be getting a kick back from Taylors or the directors would own shares in both companies, otherwise it doesnt make sense
so are you saying that McDonalds would be using faulty machines and continue to use these faulty machines, whereas Taylors supply every other company with better machines?
Yep. Didn't it say they made a model specifically for McDonald's?
they would either be getting a kick back from Taylors or the directors would own shares in both companies
Yep, I think that is happening.
@watwatwat: Really.
Its the US
They have the largest tribe of litigation Lawyers in the world.
If an oily rag is found under the seat of a car just been serviced, they are into class actions right away.
Here there are thousands of franchisees just ripe for the picking if there is any chance there might be some truth here.
But hey even they aren't to be seen. That tells you something.
Conspiracy theories are never able to be disproven, as like all these there are too many hangers on like this youtube producer, who will find some so called evidence for a conspiracy.
But as you believe it, nothing anyone else can say will change that.
Enjoy.
Thanks Buzzfeed
Oh wait
Something in the water at the moment?
Here is the Too Long, Didn't Watch summary (copied and pasted from Reddit)
TLDW:
All Mcdonalds franchises use one particular ice cream machine model made by Taylor - a company Mcdonalds has been partnered with a long time. This model has a 4 hour cleaning cycle which involves heating the ice cream liquid up hot enough to kill the bacteria inside and then freezing it back down to ice cream.
However, this cleaning cycle seems to have a high probability of failure for a multitude of reasons but lacks to software to inform the employees the actual reason. (debatable IMO, sounds like it gives easy to lookup error codes. But average employees wouldn't look it up) This leads to Mcdonalds franchises being forced to call a certified Taylor technician which costs hundreds of dollars each time they come out.
Mcdonalds seems to not care about trying to fix the issue due to its long partnership. Taylor doesn't seem to care about updating their product since they are making a lot of money through technician repair revenue.
And from another perspective, there's also a comment by a Mcdonalds maintenance worker who actually repairs the machines.
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/mww0a1/the_real_rea…
This doesn't really make sense to me. Sounds like bullshit.
McDonalds is all about cutting down costs/making things as efficient as possible. Having some machine that takes hours to clean, breaks all the time and costs hundreds to repair sounds exactly the opposite of that. Any new management would easily point to that as something to fix and change to improve the company's bottom line.
Any new management would easily point to that as something to fix and change to improve the company's bottom line.
Not really.
The franchisees are the ones who need to pay to fix the machines, not McDonalds's corporate. McDonald's corporate contractually require franchisees to purchase this particular type of this machine from this manufacturer.
If the franchisee noticed that there was a problem and wants to improve their own bottom line (which is completely separate to McDonald's corporate cut of the profits) then they would need to convince a huge corporate division to change the policy to allow them to use different manufacturer or somehow else offer an alternate solution.
So the franchisee takes the hit and McDonald's corporate continues to rake in profits.
Having some machine that takes hours to clean, breaks all the time and costs hundreds to repair sounds exactly the opposite of that.
So why are machines commonly offline for so many hours of the day?
So they use Taylor made ice cream machines?
What the video suggests Maccas is doing isn't that much different to how car services were working before. The threat of the warranty being voided used to scare most people into taking their vehicles back for an overpriced dealer service instead of a cheaper third party centre (until the regulators stepped in not that long ago to clarify a few things).
Sometimes machine is on Cleaning cycle,
Other times the staff cant be bothered taking ordered e.g. at store cleaning times especially when one person in store only.
Other times Machine itself is broken
Finally last possibility is that staff just doesn't want to serve that customer or dont know how to use machine
Actually in my experience, it's 50-50… but not on ice cream machine but frozen drinks.
That popped up in your Recommended Feed too huh?
Can we go back to talking about our overvalued assets and how we can't manage an overflowing bank account?
Nup, too woke
I figured they got Chocolate Soft Serve from Brown Cows that produced Chocolate Milk.
(I didn't spend a lot of time on the thinking part of this post).
The question should be: wtf is wrong with anybody obsessing about anything Maccas?
There are some real idiots on this topic. They would argue that the earth was flat. bobbified made a really good point. If companies can get away with it, they will, until it is regulated. This is what is happening. McDonalds doesn't bear the cost, the heavily controlled franchisee does.
are all exposed here
Care to elaborate on what was exposed? It looks like a garbage article containing no information.
It does admit "compared to last year, McDonald’s buyers have become 75 percent more likely to complain about the machines. Broken ice cream machines are now the most common complaint in McDonald’s buyer conversations".
So many complaints would actually support the notion that there is widespread problems with the machines.
Crazy clickbait title.
Isn't this that media bias type things, kinda planting the idea that "McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken"?
From my experience, 19/20 times, the ice cream machines are working… there are times during summer where they over serve it and the ice cream is crap or they can't serve it but honestly, this statement is way over.