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Curiosity isn’t a sin. And knowledge is power. Often, having access to some insider information is the best way to ensure that a company isn’t treating you poorly. After all, you’re a paying customer, and you want the most bang for your buck—or, in this case, the most taste from your meal.

TikToker @motheraangel, aka Ashton, went viral nearly a year ago with a fantastic video about how to ‘hack’ McDonald’s. She spilled the tea about the interesting facts you should know the next time you pop in for a meal. Ashton also revealed that you can just be upfront and ask for a fresh batch of fries. Scroll down for the cool McDonald’s tips she shared, as well as to read how the internet reacted to them.

Bored Panda has reached out to Ashton via email, and we’ll update the article as soon as we hear back from her.

More info: TikTok | Instagram | YouTube | Linkr

TikToker Ashton spilled the tea about some juicy McDonald's secrets

You can watch her full viral video right over here

@motheraangel ur welcome #ArbysDiabloDare #mcdonalds ♬ original sound - ashton

#1

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know If your order gets f****d, never ask for a refund. Always ask for a free meal card. Literally such a good deal. You can get literally any meal on the menu. Add whatever you want to that meal. You can get a large bacon double quarter pounder meal with a large shake, which is literally the most expensive f*****g meal you can get for free. That's what you do. Never ask for a refund, sometimes they give you 2 free meals.

motheraangel , usualsquash0137 Report

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Kate Jones
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I worked for McD's for 14 years. Those cards are given out at the discretion of the manager. You can't really ask for them. They'll be offered based on the 'crime'. For instance, if you got a sandwich made wrong, you're not going to get a meal card. You'll get a card for a free sandwich or small fry. Meal cards are really if a lot of things went wrong. You had to wait a long time, you had to come in from the drive thru to fix an issue or if you call and state you were missing items/got the wrong order. I mean, you can ask, but chances are likely they won't give that to you.

Bernát Bonda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can confirm - Busy workers regularly forgot the seasoning for my salad, and I got a free meal when I complained :)

Scott Crosby
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Germany: A hair in your fries? Congratulations! You get a card for a free coke (small, I believe) on your NEXT visit. great way to lock in customers!

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#2

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know The secret menu doesn't exist. The only secret is that you can literally customize any item on the menu basically however you want, and we'll do it.

motheraangel , Adam Ness Report

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Fraxinus excelsior
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What gets me about Mac's is that people will spend ages at one of those new fandangled boards for 5- 10 minutes, ordering their food, not forgetting that those boards have probably not been sanitised since first thing, whilst I've gone up to the counter placed my order and am now walking to my seat/car with said order.

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American TikToker Ashton, who goes by the handle @motheraangel, has over 104.6k followers on the video sharing platform. Meanwhile, her videos have collectively gotten a whopping 5.7 million likes.

Ashton’s TikTok about McDonald’s facts alone got 1.7 million likes after it went viral in late January 2022.

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#3

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know 99.9% of the time the ice cream machine is not broken. There are three reasons why we usually do tell you the ice cream machine is broken. One, it's being cleaned. The ice cream machine is cleaned on the clock, no one comes in when we're closing and cleans it. Two, it's in heat mode, which is basically the ice cream in there is hot for whatever reason, so we can't use it. Three, if it's extremely busy and we're extremely understaffed. Like I'm saying, there's one person back here, a manager, one or two people in grill and one person up front, and we're backed up with cars, a lot of the time, we'll just not serve ice cream until the rush is over.

motheraangel , goldfishfox Report

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C. Wade
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Two, it's in heat mode, which is basically the ice cream in there is hot for whatever reason, so we can't use it" that just raises more questions than it answers.

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#4

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know The oil in the fryer gets changed once a week.

motheraangel , Ron Lach Report

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Mad Dragon
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's filtered every night though after closing through a special machine that catches all the tiny crumbs and food debris. The oil itself is swapped out completely for a brand new batch once a week.

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This isn’t the first time that Bored Panda has written about McDonald’s hacks. We’ve covered a whole bunch of them a while ago. During an earlier interview, we got in touch with the ‘Save the Student’ organization that helps students make their money go further. At the time, a representative shared a great hack that could help you create a cheaper version of a Big Mac.

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“All you need to do is go to the self-service kiosk and find the £1.49 Double Cheeseburger. Then customize it by adding shredded lettuce, onions, pickles, mustard, and mayonnaise. It isn't too far off the taste of a big mac. As an extra tip, make sure you save the receipt and follow the instructions to fill out a survey. This will give you a voucher for a big mac and fries for £1.99 the next time you eat at McDonald’s,” he explained all the way back in 2020.

Of course, that particular hack won’t work these days. But that’s something to keep in mind—there’s always a need for fresh tips and tricks when it comes to any topic. Things change quite a bit over time.

#5

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know The water bottle is literally such a waste of money. You can get a large cup of water for free. Just get that.

motheraangel , ethelexpress Report

#6

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know A cone is significantly less expensive than a plain sundae, so if you want a plain sundae, get a cone and ask for it in a cup. It's less money for the same amount of ice cream, and you get an ice cream cone.

motheraangel , Ricardo Ricote Rodríguez Report

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However, eating out at this point in time is a luxury for many people. Times are tough. Though inflation in the United States is down from 9.1% at its 2022 peak to 7.1% in November and 6.5% in December, prices are still incredibly high. Especially food costs, which are still increasing in many parts of America. For example, the price of eggs is up 60% when comparing 2022 to the year before. 

Chicken is nearly 11% more expensive than in 2021; bread is 15.9% more costly; milk is up 12.5%. Meanwhile, butter and margarine are 35.3% more expensive. As such, many Americans are cutting back on eating out in order to save on food costs.

#7

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know Quarter meat is fresh, it's in a fridge, it's not frozen, and we drop it fresh. It's cooked to order every time. So, if you want something fresh, order a quarter pounder. Also if you don't want a quarter pounder and you want something fresh after like 10:00 or 11:00 o'clock, everything is cooked to order, so if you want to eat fresh - come later.

motheraangel , Ernesto Andrade Report

#8

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know That "life hack: get a fry with no salt, ask for salt at the window and get a fry fresh" is bullshit. First of all, you can just ask for the fry made fresh and we'll make it fresh. Second of all, you know we can just take the fries out of the thing and just put it back in the fryer for like 5 seconds and it burns all the salt off?

motheraangel , Brett Jordan Report

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Fraxinus excelsior
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it should be my choice whether or not my fries are salted, I don't need a server to do it for me, plus after a few fryers full of fries have been salted, the next batch goes into the hotplate and get salted again if you're unlucky enough to have those bottom fries you get double the salt.

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We explained in an earlier article how you can still make your favorite take-away meals at home, as many recipes are available online. It’s cheaper and healthier because you can control exactly what goes into the dish. Buying in bulk and cooking together with friends can be a great way to save cash. Just don’t forget to add a bit of seasoning!

“The good news is that you can easily recreate your favorites at home for a fraction of the price. It's much healthier this way too. Google is definitely your friend here as you can find fakeaway recipes from a number of sites. During the lockdown, McDonald’s even released instructions on how to make their famous breakfast egg McMuffin at home,” a representative of Save the Student told Bored Panda during a previous interview.

#9

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know If you want cookies and you want them to taste good, ask them to make them fresh. They literally takes 2 minutes. And they're delicious when they're fresh and when they're not fresh, they're f*****g hard.

motheraangel , spencerlum Report

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Fluffy mommy panda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or order a dozen they aways have to make them fresh or yeah just ask for them fresh.

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#10

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know The points on the mobile app are stupid. They're dumb. They're a waste of time. If you're using the mobile app, just use the rewards they give you. It's a much better deal. You have to spend like $16 to get like one big mac.

motheraangel , fsse8info Report

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Rahul Pawa
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The dumbest part is they don't let you use one of the deals for one item and points for a different item on the same order.

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“The good news is that the ingredients for most of these recipes aren't too pricey and you can still hunt for bargains to make the dish cheaper. Buying in bulk is always a winner too when it comes to saving money so it's a great idea to get together with friends and maybe take it in turns to make your favorite fakeaways,” he told us earlier.

“Salt and pepper won't break the bank, but they can make or break a meal. Don't forget that sugar can take a dish to the next level too.”

#11

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know We're technically not allowed to accept tips, but genuinely tip your service workers. It will literally make our day. A fucking dollar makes our day, I swear to God, tip them, tip us.

motheraangel , Sam Dan Truong Report

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Fraxinus excelsior
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or, as a multi billion dollar company, pay your workers a fair feckin wage for putting up with the shite we give them on a daily basis.

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#12

"99.9% Of The Time The Ice Cream Machine Is Not Broken": McDonald's Employee Reveals 12 Secrets The Company Doesn't Want Customers To Know Don't ask for extra Oreos or M&M's in your McFlurry. It's such a f*****g waste of money. The reason there's no Oreos at the bottom is because b****s don't mix it enough. What you should do is be like, "can I have an employee? Can you mix it really well?" You're welcome.

motheraangel , ♪Alex♫Drew♥Michitaw Report

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Test Subject X
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Australian McDonalds gave up on mixing McFlurries. You get ice cream with oreo or whatever just dumped on top. It's a shame because you can't mix it with a spoon as well as the machine used to do.

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Which of these McDonald’s facts surprised you the most, dear Pandas? Were there any that you knew before? Do you have any other facts to share with the crowd? We’d love to hear from you, so drop by the comments and share your thoughts with everyone else!

Here's how some internet users reacted to the TikToker's video about McDonald's facts