McDonald's NZ EFTPOS outage could cost thousands per hour

EFTPOS is down for all McDonald's restaurants throughout New Zealand and is impacting business.

Kim Bartlett, McDonald's New Zealand communications manager, says the team is currently working on a fix and don't know how long it will take to be back up and running.

However, she says, "I can say it will be back up and running within the day, if not within the hour.

So far the EFTPOS machines have been down for nearly three hours and the longer it's down the more impact it has.

With McDonald's annual turn over in New Zealand being $216 million, three hours of outage could have cost tens of thousands of dollars of lost revenue.

Customers who don't have cash are walking away and not coming back, says Bartlett.

However, she says the McDonald's restaurant crew are communicating with customers as they come in, informing them of the issue.

Bartlett was working onsite at a McDonald's restaurant and says there was conveniently a cash machine around the corner which the crew could direct customers to, but not every restaurant will be this lucky.

She says while this has happened before it's not a regular occurrence and is 'pretty out of the blue'.

No comment could be provided on who the technology provider for McDonald's is, or if it was their fault or the network's.