• krayj@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    There’s already a link to the vid talking about the utter bullshit and corruption surrounding the McD’s ice cream machines posted in this thread, but here’s a resource I haven’t seen posted yet: an online tracker to find out if your local McD’s ice cream machine is working or broken right now.

    https://mcbroken.com/

    (love the domain name)

    • Aatube@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I swear that site makes green dots smaller until they disappear when you zoom out. Still pretty cool though, our nearest McDonalds has a broken ice cream machine

      • krayj@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        What I don’t know is whether the UK has to comply with the same BS exclusive service contracts for their ice cream machines as the US does, or if it’s a similar arrangement only with different companies and manufacturers.

        The McD closest to my house is almost always unable to sell ice cream products - it’s down more often that it’s working.

      • krayj@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        They reverse engineered the ordering API (that the app uses) and try to add a McSundae to an online order. If the ice cream machine is broken, it won’t let you add that item to an order for the specific location. If the McSundae machine is working, it will let you add that item to the order for the designated location.

        It updates each location every 30 minutes, so is very up to date.

        More details about it here: https://hypebeast.com/2020/10/mcbroken-site-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-working-tracker-info

      • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        If its the one I know, it sends an online ice cream request through the API, and then cancels the successful ones before they reach the stores. The unsuccessful ones are broken machines, essentially.

      • nathanielcwm@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        iirc it used to get it through a reverse engineering of the McDonald’s app api. Not sure about now tho