Every McDonald’s across the country seems to suffer from the same ailment, broken ice cream machines.
No matter the time of day or night it seems as though the ice-cream machines at the fast-food giant are always out of order leaving hundreds of thousands of customers frustrated and without a refreshing treat.
The breakdowns happened so often that even McDonald’s acknowledged the problem in a 2020 tweet,
The issue of the malfunctioning machines has now led to more than unsatisfied consumers as McDonalds finds itself on the wrong end of a Federal Lawsuit after a tech companynmclaims McDonalds stood in the way of technology they developed to fix the problem.
According to a report, an app was created in 2018 by ‘Kytch’ that would make it easy for employees to fix any glitches in the machine instead of having to call in a professional technician. Kytch then sold their new technology to franchises across the nation.
However, three years later McDonalds sent notices to owners of each franchise claiming that the new technology could lead to their employees getting injured. Those notices sent out to all 13,000 franchises stopped the business for Kytch instantaneously, forcing the company to close.
Kytch is now suing McDonalds for libel accusing the fast food chain of working in cahoots with the manufacturer of its ice-cream machines – the Taylor Company.
The lawsuit states that McDonalds “fabricat(ed) bogus ‘safety’ claims saying Kytch’s tecnhology would cause ‘serious human injury’ employees. Something Kytch says McDonald’s and Taylor knew to be “demonstrably false” and that McDonalds and the Taylor company were attempting to copy its technology.
The lawsuit also accuses McDonald’s and Taylor of threatening to void the warranties on all ice cream machines if Kytch’s technology was used.
“McDonald’s conduct was intended to intimidate and scare Kytch’s customers and prospective customers into ceasing to do business with Kytch and to instead adopt Taylor’s forthcoming competing product or to continue using Taylor’s and TFG’s costly replacement parts and repair services at an astronomical and unnecessary rate,” attorneys for Kytch said.
In response, McDonald’s USA said,
“Kytch has spun a sensational story lacking basic facts. The truth is this all comes down to safety. We have high standards in place for all equipment in our restaurants, and we owe it to our customers, crew and franchisees to work with fully vetted suppliers who meet those standards.”
McDonalds has filed a motion to dismiss the case.
A website has been created showing listing all the broken ice cream machines in the U.S.
