Actual reason why McDonald’s ice cream machines are always broken

Summer may be drawing to a close, but there’s still time to enjoy an ice cream cone or four before we’re too cold to even touch the frozen treat in a couple of months’ time.

While some swear by Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food, and others love getting their chops around a Mr. Whippy, many of us dream of the discontinued McDonald’s sundae or a McFlurry gilded with every topping under the sun.

The fast food giant has been using soft-serve machines since the late 1950s, but did you know that the sweet treat heroes are prone to breaking down?

The apparatus is so temperamental that there’s actually a dedicated website that tells you whether the ice cream apparatus at your local McDonald’s is in operation.

Some people swear by a McDonald's soft serve ice cream to get them through the day (McDonald's)

According to the site, known as McBroken, 9.92 percent of the ice cream machines are currently out of action across the world.

A whopping 47.62 percent are out of service in Honolulu at the time of writing, while 35.65 percent aren’t working in New York.

There are also quite a few red spots in major UK cities, like London and Manchester.

So, what is it with the McDonald’s ice cream machines? How come whenever you want an Oreo McFlurry, staff are unable to cater to your request?

Well, it’s because of the contract the food and beverage chain signed with Taylor Company in 1956.

A specific company was exclusively supplying McDonald's with their ice cream machines up until 2017 (Paul Thomas/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

According to Food & Wine, it’s illegal for any McDonald’s that has a Taylor Company ice cream machine to get a regular tradesperson in to fix it - only Taylor employees are authorised to come fix it.

The embargo on outside repairs is because the machines are copyright-protected, the outlet explained.

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) states that repairing your own device can sometimes be ruled a copyright violation

This means, when a Taylor Company machine breaks, it’s up to the company to fix it. So, there’s absolutely nothing your local restaurant can do about it!

Moreover, repairs aren’t cheap, with Taylor’s repairmen reportedly charging up to $300 every 15 minutes to make that repair in the United States.

Therefore, depending on the diagnostics, it could cost the franchise owner a hefty buck.

Use McBroken to discover whether your local McDonald's is serving (Getty Stock Images)

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) finally got involved.

The agencies filed a comment to the US Copyright Office, asking for changes to be made to the DMCA.

If their requests are added, then McDonald’s soft serve ice cream machines supplied to them by Taylor Company will be able to be fixed by people who don’t work for the company, too.

This would therefore lower the time that the contraptions are broken for and probably work out cheaper for the franchise owners, too.

In 2017, McDonald’s finally expanded its ice cream machine options to include machines from other manufacturers, but Taylor remains the standard.

Go easy on the staff next time you can’t get your dessert, huh, guys?

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