Law Company That Makes McDonald's Constantly Broken Ice Cream Machines Hit With Restraining Order

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Company That Makes McDonald's Constantly Broken Ice Cream Machines Hit With Restraining Order​

Izzy Casey
08/11/2021
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Revenge is a dish best served cold — and in a crispy cone.

At least that's what two companies embroiled in a battle over McDonald's ice-cream machines seem to think as, one has just hit the other with a restraining order.

The only thing crazier than the fact that McDonald's ice-cream machines are always broken — to the extent that a website called McBroken was created soley for the purpose of allowing you to check whether your local McDonald's ice cream machine is working before you bother driving over —is the story behind why that's the case!

Why are McDonald's ice-cream machines always broken?​

The reason is surprisingly simple — albeit ridiculous. One company has a monopoly over repairing the machines, making it difficult for McDonald's workers to keep their machines alive without outside help.
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McFlurry machine manufacturing company Taylor was previously the only company with any clue about how to fix the machines — making McDonald's entirely reliant on their assistance.

However, when Kytch, an independent company, made a device that helps McDonald’s locations repair their ice cream machines, chaos ensued.

McDonald's ice-cream machines are notoriously difficult to repair.​

In order to repair the ice cream machine, you must understand a secret passcode. The complex passcode unlocks a secret menu, which allows you to fix the machine.

This process keeps all the power in the hands of Taylor.

It's a recipe for disaster, to the extent McDonald's themselves have joked about it social media.
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Kytch Solution Devices were developed in an effort to prevent McFlurry machines from breaking.​

Kytch's Solution Device acts as surveillance within Taylor machines and track breakages as they happen and prevent things from getting worse.

Unfortunately, McDonald's have allegedly been warning franchise owners not to purchase the device as Taylor wants to be in control of repairs.

Taylor has allegedly been trying to catch up with Kytch.​

According to Kytch's restraining order filing, Taylor got a McDonald's frachisee to acquire a Kytch device so the company could use it for "trade secret information."

Taylor admits they did get the device but say it was only to see whether a "Kytch device would drain the power source of our software and/or cause it malfunction.”

Kytch also say Taylor have been telling McDonald's workers and owners that the device could cause "serious human injury."

Kytch was granted a temporary restraining order against Taylor which says “Defendants must not use, copy, disclose, or otherwise make available in any way information, including formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process obtained by any of them.”

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McDonald’s soft serve machines are notorious for constantly breaking down.​

McFlurries and vanilla soft serve ice cream cones are obviously not the healthiest products on the McDonald's menu. However, they are arguably the most delicious.

But they're not easy to get, which is why software engineer Rashiq Zahid developed software to track which locations have working and non-working machines at all times.

Now, as the cold-war over the ice-cream machines continues, it remains to be seen if Kytch will change the reputation of the broken machines.

RELATED: An Open Letter To The Woman Who Waited On Me At McDonald’s This Morning
 
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Reactions: the fall of man
Also soooo much more expensive.

Buy a Frosty from Wendy's and choose your own mix-ins from your local supermarket. Same thing and now it comes in chocolate.

Also so many locations shuttered that many areas have no Dairy Queens anymore. :(

I can understand needing a pass code to start a maintenance cycle, but having to call an outside guy out with a super secret pass code just to make the machine work again when an internal shut down timer clicks over? Yeah, no.

Taylor never should have had a stranglehold on the machines to begin with. Money making scam that leaves unhappy customers.
 
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Tbh Both options sucks. I prefer the locally owned ice cream shoppe that serves in house made custard
Well yeah same here; I'm talking more in the context of store bought. There's a Handels I fucking adore but it's not exactly as easy as rolling into the local market to pick some up.
 
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Also soooo much more expensive.

Buy a Frosty from Wendy's and choose your own mix-ins from your local supermarket. Same thing and now it comes in chocolate.
We're talking about a Venn Diagram of deathfats and charity cases who worry about their fast food ice cream treat budget.

Dairy Queen has better food, too. Their "Dude" sandwich abides.
 
From what friends who worked at McDonald's have told me not wanting to clean the machine was the real reason it was always broken but what do they know.
Can confirm as a former McWagie. 90% of the time, it's not broken, it just hasn't been 'cleaned' in a week. It locks itself out if no cleaning has been done in that time.

And all it takes to reset the sensosrs is a couple buckets of hot water. You drain the mix out into some buckets, pour the hot water in, drain the hot water out, place back into service. Takes like 10 minutes.

That's because Mickey D' only normally allows certain employees to clean the machine; team leads and managers. Any other place will teach even a new employee how to do it because it's easy to do; just time consuming. That's why it's out half the day.
Nah, that's up to the franchisees. It's no more difficult than operating the grill.
 
It became a running joke around here how their machines would always be inspirational. We started going elsewhere and now seldom visit McDonalds. I know I am not alone in my fury over no flurry.
 
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Well yeah same here; I'm talking more in the context of store bought. There's a Handels I fucking adore but it's not exactly as easy as rolling into the local market to pick some up.
Store bought
Culver's
Blue bunny
Eddys rocky road
Rolled ice cream
Basken Robbins
Cold stone
 
The line isn't. I look forward to it easing up in October-ish though.
Where do you live? In Texas, every one horse town has a Dairy Queen. It's like a prize you get for having 500 residents.

As for store-bought, Blue Bell isn't as good since they removed the Listeria. HEB store brand ice cream is my top pick.
 
From what friends who worked at McDonald's have told me not wanting to clean the machine was the real reason it was always broken but what do they know.
This, 100%. I worked at a McDonald's in my teenage years and having to clean the damn machine was a long, messy job that no one wanted to do.

So whenever the machine needed cleaning and no one was willing to do it, it was "Broken".

It was also "Broken" when people didn't feel like putting up with customers' special-order icecream/McFlurry nonsense, "Broken" when the closing shift guys had cleaned it and didn't want to mess it up again, "Broken" when it's a dinner rush and no one has time to refill the machine, ect.

Basically any time using or cleaning the thing became a pain in the ass, it was broken.

I doubt that has changed over the years.
 
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