My boyfriend and I have a Friday night tradition of going to see a late movie and then occasionally afterwards, grabbing some ice cream. The only place really open is McDonald's and a few other fast food places, so we usually just stop at McD's. It's usually about 1am, but for the past maybe, 2 months, they have said the credit card machines are down. We rarely have cash on us, and don't want to drive to the ATM to get some, so we just go home. We have even gone to the other McD's on the opposite side of town, and they say the same thing. The funny thing is, there is a Taco Bell right across the street from the McD's. And last Friday night, after the movie and after we tried going to get some ice cream again, we met up with some friends. They had been at the bars and grabbed some food from Taco Bell, and their credit card machines worked fine. So basically what my question is, how are these machines ran? Are there different "vendors" who provide different service ran on different lines? Or are they just feeding us some BS to get out of doing extra work? I've tried googling this and have only came up with rumors about other companies whose employees say their credit card machines are down to get out doing any extra work. I just don't see why McD's would turn off or use a company that loses service every night, especially when bars get out at that time and every place open is packed. It's funny to watch while waiting in the drive-thru line all the cars that get to the order speaker, hear that the machines are down, and drive across the street to Taco Bell. I know this can be resolved by us getting some cash before we go out, but I'm just wondering if the credit card machines are really down, and if not does McD realize how much money they are losing?

There are several different vendors of credit cards. The compay I work for uses 2 (in case one goes down).

It is possible that the McD's you are visiting belong to the same franchise and are doing their daily reporting at the time you are visiting. Our fiscal day closes out sometime in the early am and trying to process while that is going on can create problems for their accounting.

But, we are talking about McD's. It is very possible they are just lazy. Most McD's have the franchise owner posted somewhere in the order taking area. Give them a call and ask why you can't make an order at that time with your cc. If they give you the same answer, then you'll know they aren't being lazy.