12 Things Customers Hate About McDonald's In 2026

While McDonald's is one of the largest fast food chains on the planet (with a staggering 45,356 worldwide stores as of 2025!), that doesn't mean it's not constantly changing. And since 2025, it's kickstarted a global revamp of its stores with new technology and methods that change the food, decor and how the customers order.

Unfortunately, many of those customers aren't too happy about it and have voiced their numerous complaints on social media. Now sure, there are positive changes, too. But for some reason, people don't seem to be yelling as loudly about those. Go figure! So here's our guide to the biggest McDonald's complaints we're seeing on social media these days. (And don't worry, we'll take any angry quotes out of "all caps," so it won't be like you're reading constant shouts. You're welcome.)

As a brand, McDonald's is best known for its affordable food. But that image may be starting to slide, as McDonald's prices have surged since 2019. Back then, the average Big Mac would've run you $4.39. Today, an à la carte Big Mac will cost you $8.59 at a restaurant in Sacramento, California, $6.29 in Columbus, Ohio, and $6.49 in Raleigh, North Carolina. That's as much as a 96% increase — more than triple the U.S. inflation rate for the same period (30%), as calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.

The chain has admitted that 2026 sales growth was lower than expected, and you can definitely feel consumer frustration over high prices on social media. Plenty of posts and threads see customers complain about the cost of McDonald's food. On one Reddit post about price increases, the poster wrote, "It's priced beyond the point of a quick treat that you don't really have to think about the money to handing over a $20 bill? Used to be scavenge a few dollars and quarters out of the car and [you're] good."

Others have agreed, highlighting a decline in quality that doesn't exactly justify radical price increases and noting that they visit less frequently than they once did. Another commenter agreed, writing, "Yep, my meal went from $5 to over $10. I used to go there once or twice a month cause it was a cheap meal. I haven't been since the last price increase."

As part of a push towards digital sales (including touchscreen kiosks, which we'll get to later), McDonald's has recently started emphasizing purchasing or pre-ordering meals on its app. That might be acceptable to customers — if the app didn't frequently suffer from problems. Those problems range from glitches that lose the code needed for pickup orders to simply crashing completely. Or, as one Reddit user commented, "They want me to open it every time to give them my rewards code but it's so slow I can never get it open in time. And I'm not risking a crash for rewards points." 

Now, it's not the worst app out there. (In fact, it ended up with bronze in our list of 13 popular fast food loyalty apps, ranked worst to best.) But according to another Reddit user, the app has gone downhill since it was released. "The app used to be quick and reliable. Now, it stays on the McDonald's logo for 30 seconds before slowly loading an ad that takes another 30 seconds to close." And when the company is putting so much of its resources into pushing customers to order through the app, that's a real problem.

Back in 2021, McDonald's introduced its MyMcDonald's loyalty program. This allows customers to earn 100 points per dollar spent, which they can redeem for free food and discounts. In 2025, program members placed nearly $37 billion in orders, with 210 million active users across 70 markets. 

But in May 2026, some fans were furious when the chain decided to revamp their points system, raising the prices of reward items by around 500 points, in turn lowering the value of everyone's accumulated points. That meant splashing out 1,500 points for small items like hash browns or apple pies, and as much as 7,000 points for a Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets.

Customers voiced their displeasure on Reddit, where one poster complained, "It'll be a cold day in Hell before I pay [7,000] points to get a bacon egg and cheese biscuit. You're basically paying $70 to get the regular McGriddle sausage only, to $4.19. It was $2.99 about a year and a half ago." Others shared similar outrage over the devaluation of their existing points. As one Reddit user summed up, "'Doubling down on value' only means 'we found a new way to try to trick you' in McMarketing."

Even after tweaking the valuation of its points, the MyMcDonald's rewards system still delivered rewards, right? Well, one of the complaints about the updated rewards system is that the number of deals dramatically decreased not long after the revamp. As one Reddit poster put it, "Anyone notice how BAD the deals are nowadays in the app? Used to get 2 can dine for $17.99. Now it's buy a Big Mac and get a pie for $1."

One Facebook poster summed up the complaint by writing, "McDonald's really hooked us with all those deals and rewards on the app and then yanked the carpet on us." One popular complaint was that the chain had started removing in-store deals in favor of ones for its McDelivery program that uses a combination of Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. As one Reddit poster put it, "I feel like McDonald's is pushing delivery on me. I have never used delivery on the app. The deals are trash." So, if you're looking to — hear us out here — actually eat inside a McDonald's, the deals you'll find on the app nowadays aren't much help to you at all.

If you're thinking of hanging around indefinitely at your local McDonald's, you should check the walls, as some stores are sporting signs informing customers that they need to leave after 30 minutes. Now, not all McDonald's restaurants have or enforce these limits. But these signs started getting more attention in 2024, when a Facebook poster shared a picture of a similar sign at their McDonald's. A later Reddit post showed a similar sign with the criticism, "What happened to McDonald's being a family friendly restaurant for kids to play at like in the 90s?"

More recently, in 2026, commenters have posted individual stories of different locations instituting hour-long and 30-minute time limits. We can't track down any official company-wide policy for this, so it appears to be a limit set by independent franchisees. Not all commenters appear to be bothered by it, as one Reddit commenter responded, "That is not infuriating in the slightest. An hour is more than reasonable for people to sit there and eat some fast food." However, others remain frustrated by another change to the McDonald's experience.

McDonald's customers aren't just frustrated by the lack of deals at the Golden Arches. They're also frustrated by their inability to use more than one deal or reward at a time — a restriction McDonald's specifically details in its FAQ. (Just to clear up its terminology: "Rewards" refer to the free food or discount earned through the app, while "deals" are the discounted meals and prices the app offers. You can use either on the app, but only one of each at a time.) 

For a long time, a popular workaround was the "kiosk hack," where customers would close the app on their phone before starting a new order at the kiosk, allowing them to make multiple orders (with multiple deals) in a row. However, the chain caught on to the trick by July, when customers reported that it had removed the hack and enforced a strict 15-minute time limit before placing another order. When you combine that with the 30-minute time limit in some restaurants, you can see just how hard it would be to get multiple discounts in one trip. Or as one Reddit poster put it, "They finally fixed the kiosk hack. RIP. This was the only way I was able to afford to eat here." Another commenter summed it up with just one word: "McGreed."

One of McDonald's latest technological advancements is a new all-AI drive-thru ordering system called ArchIQ. Added to five U.S. locations for testing in June 2026, this is intended to greet and take orders from customers, adapting to changes and requests in English and Spanish. The test is part of McDonald's NEXT strategy, which is designed to improve its quality, growth, and hospitality. In a corporate announcement, CEO Chris Kempczinski pitched the program as a way to improve the guest experience, writing, "As more of the customer journey becomes automated, there are fewer opportunities for guests to connect with crew. With fewer interactions, the bar for hospitality that makes people feel seen, welcomed, and valued only goes up." It's one example of how AI is reshaping the restaurant industry — for better and worse.

However, this new test has drawn criticism from customers who voiced concern about employees losing their jobs to automation, plus the poor quality of AI's customer service. After all, McDonald's doesn't have the best track record with AI drive-thrus. It previously canceled a similar 2024 test of an IBM-powered AI system. (At the time, CNBC cited two anonymous sources that partially blamed the cancellation on the AI's inability to understand accents and dialects.) This new test has drawn criticism from online customers, with one Reddit commenter writing, "It's like they are actively trying to get people not to go there anymore," while another wrote, "Just another reason not to go there."

One perk that McDonald's customers enjoyed for years is its self-serve soda machines, which allowed them to refill drinks while they ate with no extra charge. But the chain has started moving away from that model, so you can say goodbye to easy refills, as McDonald's vows to ditch this self-serve feature by 2032.

Fans on Reddit have documented the changes, as individual stores removed their soda fountains. One commenter complained that "kinda kills it as a road trip stop for me. I like to get out of my truck, wash my hands be [on] my phone etc for 15 mins while I eat."

Others complained that the workers now have to spend extra time filling drink orders, which slows down other orders. As one Redditor put it, "Definitely a money grab. If you want a refill, you have to be willing to wait at least five minutes at the front counter for an employee to appear and get you one."

Back in 2023, McDonald's received some unwelcome attention after a Reddit thread went viral for calling out a McDonald's in Darien, Connecticut, for charging $17.59 for a Big Mac combo meal. That eventually blew over, but it highlighted a complaint that still plagues McDonald's customers: inconsistent pricing. After all, it's hard to get excited about food when you're not sure how much it's going to cost. (Just ask anyone who's had to deal with "market price.")

But inconsistent prices really came to hurt the brand in 2026, when the company attributed some low sales to franchises that didn't adopt its Everyday Affordable Price program, which offered some items for $3 or less. As it gave franchisees the freedom to set their own prices, some opted not to, confusing customers who saw ads for the new offer but couldn't find stores offering it. A Reddit post complaining about the value meal prices pointed out that his local McDonald's was selling the McDouble — listed in the Under $3 section of the menu — for $5, which one commenter simply described as "highway robbery."

While some of McDonald's value offers didn't go over so well, one of the most popular was arguably its Buy One, Add One For $1 promotion. This allowed customers to buy the likes of 10-piece Chicken McNuggets or a McChicken at the regular price, and get a second one for just $1. However, the offer disappeared earlier this year. At the time, customers vented their anger on Reddit, with one writing, "That was pretty much the only way that I could afford to get McDonald's for me and my family and I really hope they bring it back."

The chain replaced the popular offer with its Under $3 menu, which customers quickly criticized as a price hike compared to the earlier offer. On one Reddit thread, a customer wrote, "I had been getting a double cheeseburger, McChicken, and medium fry for $4.29 with the buy one get one $1 deal and the free medium fry coupon ... I just won't be going unless they change things to give me a reason to return." On a quarterly earnings call, CEO Chris Kempczinski admitted that McDonald's may have made a mistake by updating the deal, saying, "That ended up being a bad trade" (via Seeking Alpha). Yeah, we'd have to agree with you there, Chris. 

Do you remember what dining at McDonald's was like in the '80s? Here's a refresh: it was colorful, fun, and typically featured some sort of playground for the kids. But these days, most McDonald's locations have devolved into a flat, generic corporate design that could be any modern fast casual restaurant. 

Why would the company jettison the fun McDonald's vibe that so many of us remember? Well, a 2021 Vox article blamed it on the rise of the fast casual trend following the anti-fast-food documentary "Super Size Me." Basically, fast food restaurants wanted to stop looking like fast food places to help avoid the reputation of, well, fast food places. But whatever the reason, the downside is that McDonald's restaurants aren't nearly as colorful or fun these days, and customers have noticed. 

One recent Reddit thread called out the corporate redesigners, writing, "Whoever was responsible for this should be imprisoned." Another Reddit thread criticized the soulless design by saying, "It's like something out of a post apocalyptic movie where there are no more humans left... " Really makes you miss the days of the ball pit, doesn't it?

Ordering at McDonald's used to be easy. You'd simply walk up to the counter, tell someone what you wanted, then pay. But that started to change way back in 2003, when McDonald's first started testing self-service kiosks. These days, they're everywhere — in fact, according to research firm Datos Insights, McDonald's has installed more than 143,000 kiosks worldwide, the highest number of any company. 

While digital fast food kiosks might look cool, they're often worse for your wallet, as the digital menus tend to upsell you on items you might not want (but secretly crave). Also, more automation leads to fewer employees working the counter, which can make it tough to get help if something goes wrong. As one Reddit poster put it, "If you go inside to order dine-in or to get your drive-thru order corrected, you're waiting at least five minutes before someone approaches the front counter to take your order or correct the mistake."

Another Reddit post echoed the same problem: "It's sooo hard to grab somebody's attention when there's a problem with my order, so I end up being stuck behind 30 DoorDash drivers waiting for their orders when all I need is to tell someone they forgot my cookie or sauce." While kiosks might be efficient, they're lousy with customer service. And sometimes that's all customers want, even at McDonald's.