The Corner Penthouse

Ever since McDonald's restaurants ended their $1 Any Size Soft Drink promotion in late March/early April 2023, I have been using the official McDonald's Android app (by McDonalds USA, LLC). As for my experience with the app, let's just say that I'm not lovin' it.

Things got off to a rocky start. Instead of using a standard username/password system, the McDonald's app sends a login code every time to an e-mail address, and I only keep one of my e-mail accounts accessible on my phone for security reasons. The only sensible option was to log in to the app via Facebook, and thankfully I have an alternate account for such purposes. By using Facebook for login, the app stays logged in and I don't have to have login codes sent to an e-mail account every time. Still, I prefer to keep accounts with different companies separate from each other and not have them "know" each other.


At first, the McDonald's app was the only way to continue getting the $1 Any Size Soft Drink deal. After a month or two, McDonald's stopped offering that deal in the app and have rarely brought it back in the past seven months. So, not long after I got started with the damn thing, it became nearly useless to me, as there are usually no other cheap deals available. Most of the time, the measly deals seen in the screenshot below are all that is available to me, and I have no use for any of them.


There have been only two benefits to using the McDonald's app since ending the drink deal. The first is the earning of 100 points for every $1.00 spent. For a typical $5 to $6 meal, I will earn 500 to 600 points. After three meals, I will have over 1,500 points, which is enough to get a free vanilla cone.


The other benefit, and the only consistently-available useful (to me) deal, is "Free Fry Friday". Every Friday, the app will allow customers to get free medium-size french fries with a $1+ purchase. (This same offer is occasionally available on other days when tied into the performance of sports teams in games that took place the night before.) Because of this deal, I have made it a point to visit McDonald's restaurants on Fridays.


Unfortunately, the app is a badly-designed mess that more often than not will fail to function properly, which has prevented me from obtaining the free fries on nearly a dozen occasions. I'll start up the app, click through all of the screens, and all of the unnecessary waiting while it searches for the restaurant that it knows I'm already standing inside of (because the address is on the main page). When it works, and the deal loads up, after I select "Use at Restaurant"...


..I am then asked to confirm that I want to use the deal.


Once I do that, and it loads some more, then I am presented with a four-digit "Drive Thru Code".


I then have the unnecessary step of clicking on "Use Restaurant Code" so it can show a QR code that can be scanned in at the front counter. If the app was designed better, it would automatically show this QR code instead of presenting the four-digit "Drive Thru" code in a HUGE font. There is enough room on the screen for both the numbers and the QR code to be shown together without making the user click again. (The employee can enter the four digits into the register, as they do at Burger King with their app, which makes the QR code and the scanner for it entirely unnecessary; but most McDonald's employees still want me to use the QR code.)


That's how the app is supposed to work, but usually that will not be the case. What will actually happen is this: I power on my phone after I walk in the restaurant. After the phone boots up and the interface loads, I run the McDonald's app. After it loads, I click through the various screens to get to the free fries deal. I go to use the deal, but instead I am shown a message informing me that I had already used a deal within the past 15 minutes, and will have to wait until I can use a deal again.


I don't see how it's possible that I used a deal when I, literally, powered on the phone less than 60 seconds earlier! Further attempts to use the deal before Old McDonald gives me permission just brings up messages that get more and more condescending.


Back on June 11, 2023, I posted a 2-star review of the app in the Google Play store (which I updated on October 13, 2023):

POS app frequently says I used a deal and have to wait 10-15 minutes, even though the phone has been powered OFF for several days! I have no idea why the app thinks I used a deal when I never did. The problem probably wouldn't exist if the app counted a deal as "used" when the sale is completed, instead of when the deal is selected in the app.

McDonalds USA, LLC replied back (on June 11th):

Paul, most app issues can be fixed by a simple uninstall and reinstall, if that doesn't get it working for you, tell us more about it here: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/feedback.html

Yes, rather than fixing the app, McDonald's advice was simply to uninstall and reinstall the app. I did that once. While it did fix the problem that one single time, I had to waste five minutes waiting for the app to re-download and re-install, and then I had to re-login and re-grant permissions. Given how often the Mcdonald's app screws up, I would have wasted an hour (in total) of my life had I done that every single time.

As I told McDonald's in my Google Play store review, as well as through their website's feedback form, I think the problem would be solved if they changed the way in which the app registers a deal as being "used". The Burger King app, which presents a six-digit code (no QR code) for the cashier to manually enter, counts a deal as "used" when the sale is completed at the register. (Presumably it would do the same at mobile order checkout.) If the McDonald's app worked this way, as well, instead of counting a deal as "used" when it is selected in the app, I don't think this problem would exist.

The last time the McDonald's app pulled this "you already used a deal" crap was on Friday October 13, 2023. I did not go back until today, Friday October 27, 2023. This time, the crap app didn't even try to let me use the free fries deal. It just kept putting up a "Hmmm...that didn't work" message, but didn't explain why.


For several months now, McDonald's has known about the problems with its app, and none of the updates have changed anything. The past six times that the app has prevented me from getting the deal that I wanted, I chose to walk out of the store without buying anything. I gave my money to a local eatery rather than rewarding the McDonald's Corporation. Maybe if they fix their app, they'll get my money again.


Thanks for the advice, McDonald's. My absence from your restaurant was greatly appreciated by local restaurants.

[UPDATE - 6/1/2024]
I checked to see if McDonald's ever fixed their app. The interface hasn't changed, and going to use a deal still presents a confirmation with a warning that deals will only be available every 15-minutes, but the deal did go through. In fact, once it was entered into the register, I noticed something that I hadn't seen when I was using the app last year: a "We Got Your Code" confirmation that the code went through.


Despite this "We Got Your Code" confirmation, the app still considers a deal as having been "used" when you click on the confirmation to use it, and not when it has been confirmed by the system to have been used. As such, there has still been a couple of instances where the app falsely claims that I used a deal when I haven't. So, I guess they haven't fixed a thing.