McDonald’s Customers’ Biggest Complaints in 2026, and What the Chain Says

McDonald’s is putting more emphasis on value, but some customers are still questioning whether their usual order is worth the money. Others have complained about fewer app deals, inconsistent value-menu pricing, slower service, and noticeable price differences between nearby restaurants.

Those concerns do not represent a formal nationwide ranking of customer complaints. They come from documented customer comments, company admissions, pricing reporting, and independent customer-satisfaction research covering McDonald’s in the U.S. through November 2, 2026.

Here are the biggest issues that have surfaced and how McDonald’s has responded.

The meal does not always feel worth the price

Price and perceived value have become a major source of frustration for some McDonald’s customers. Business Insider interviewed customers who said they were reconsidering visits because of prices and what they felt they were getting in return.

One customer, Christoph Winarski, summed up the concern this way: “When you can get a meal from a sit-down restaurant for the same price that you get from a fast-food meal, I think that’s kind of where the tipping point is.”

Business Insider also received 227 responses to a nonscientific reader survey, with 130 respondents, or about 57%, rating McDonald’s value as poor or very poor. Some respondents, however, praised the chain’s newer value meals, so the results should not be treated as representative of all McDonald’s customers.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski acknowledged in August that base-menu pricing in many places had previously moved ahead of competitors. He said the company had worked to bring prices back into line and that its internal measures of value and affordability had improved.

The app deals some customers relied on disappeared

For customers who regularly used McDonald’s digital offers, the reduction in app promotions became another frustration.

Business Insider quoted one customer saying, “I am not going to McDonald’s as much since the in-app deals were cut back.”

McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden acknowledged that the company had reduced digital offers and removed its Buy One, Add One for $1 promotion while investing in its broader value program. Executives said the change negatively affected visits from some loyal customers.

The company responded by announcing additional national digital flash offers and more personalized offers for frequent customers. Kempczinski described removing valued offers while the replacement program underperformed as a “bad trade.” Those announcements came in August, so they do not establish that every customer now has better offers.

The value menu can feel different from one restaurant to another

A value promotion only feels useful if customers can actually find the advertised prices at their local restaurant. McDonald’s acknowledged that its ten-items-under-$3 program was not being executed uniformly across the system.

Kempczinski estimated that approximately 60% to 65% of the system was following the recommended pricing structure. He also said the flexible approach allowed different price points and that some operators used the rollout to increase prices.

That does not mean every restaurant outside that percentage was charging more than $3. The bigger issue is consistency. McDonald’s said it was discussing pricing execution with franchisees and using business reviews to address differences in performance.

For customers, that can mean a value offer may look different depending on the restaurant they choose.

Service got slower during some major changes

McDonald’s also acknowledged an operational problem during the second quarter. Kempczinski said too many deployments had overwhelmed restaurant teams, increasing service times and reducing satisfaction scores.

That is different from saying every McDonald’s became slower or that there is one nationwide average wait time. The company’s own comments point to the burden created by multiple changes being introduced at restaurants.

McDonald’s said it began removing activities that did not directly face customers so crews could spend more time on service. Management also discussed reducing the burden placed on restaurant teams.

Those are announced corrective steps, not proof that every restaurant has already improved.

Why can the same item cost more at a nearby restaurant?

Another frustration is the difference customers can see between McDonald’s locations.

A September Reuters investigation found a Big Mac listed at $5.69 at one company-operated Fresno restaurant and $6.89 at another location two miles away. Reuters used documents, screenshots, and interviews with people familiar with the system, but the reporting did not establish exactly what caused that particular price difference.

McDonald’s says its pricing tool provides restaurant-specific recommendations and that franchisees make the actual pricing decisions. The company also says artificial intelligence does not set or change menu prices.

In an October 1 statement, McDonald’s put it plainly: “AI does not set the price of a Big Mac or any other menu item.”

So different prices between restaurants should not automatically be interpreted as personalized or surge pricing.

The McRib has its own legal dispute

The McRib has become a separate point of controversy involving its marketing and ingredients. A proposed class action alleges that the sandwich’s name, shape, and marketing could lead customers to expect rib meat.

On October 30, a federal judge rejected McDonald’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit in full while dismissing some claims. The decision allows allegations to continue, but it does not establish that McDonald’s committed fraud, certify a class, or prove the disputed ingredient claims.

McDonald’s has denied using hearts, tripe, or stomach in the product and said it has been transparent about its ingredients. The company called the lawsuit’s claims meritless.

McDonald’s customer satisfaction is not a simple decline story

There is another piece of the picture worth keeping in view. The American Customer Satisfaction Index gave McDonald’s a score of 72 out of 100 in its 2026 study, up from 70 in 2025. McDonald’s was tied with Dairy Queen at the bottom among individually named quick-service brands, while the industry score was 79.

The study covered April 2025 through March 2026, so it overlaps only partly with the later second-quarter service problems discussed by McDonald’s executives.

That helps put the complaints in perspective. Some problems have been acknowledged by the company, while others remain customer perceptions or disputed claims. The promised fixes may address some frustrations, but they do not automatically mean every restaurant has produced the same experience.