Outraged customer boycotts Milton Keynes McDonald's for letting boy charge his electric scooter as he ate

The man submitted an article via the Citizen’s online portal, with the heading of ‘McDonald’s outrage’.

He wrote: “On Sunday 11th May at 19.07 we went into the McDonalds in McDonnell drive in Wolverton to eat, ordered, and whilst waiting a young boy with a high powered e-scooter came in and proceeded to plug it in to a socket used by the cleaning staff to charge it.”

The man promptly complained to the manager, saying it was a fire risk and made his family “feel uncomfortable”.

But he said the manager failed to make the lad unplug his scooter.

"We ate our food and 25 minutes later I attempted to speak to the manager again... he declined to come and speak to me. We waited a further seven minutes after this second request and left,” he wrote.

“The scooter was still on charge, a high powered one with a large charger from what we could see. The boy was purchasing small items from the screens to prolong his stay whilst it charged,” he claimed.

The diner afterwards contacted McDonald’s customer services to complain.

He points out that on the very same evening, several miles away in Olney, the Bucks Fire and Rescue Team were called out to extinguish an e-scooter charging fire.

He says: “We were absolutely put at risk .. McDonalds customer care team have apologised but that’s about all they will do, saying if I want a refund I will have to return to the restaurant... “

And he concludes: “We will never use McDonalds again.”

The diner’s outrage has caused mixed reactions, with some people saying that plugging in an electric scooter to a socket is no different to charging a phone or laptop in the restaurants.

McDonald’s policy is to allow customers to freely charge such devices and state on their website: “Many of our restaurants now include phone charging and free Wi-Fi.”

The company has also partnered with InstaVolt to install rapid charging stations for electric vehicles at its drive-thru locations.

The cost of a full charge on an e-scooter is very small, typically between 15p and 30p. However, the government’s Department for Transport website states: “While most e-scooters and their batteries are very safe in normal use, lithium battery packs can cause serious fires, particularly if of poor quality or when damaged or improperly used.”

A bigger issue is the law on e-scooter usage – mainly because they are still illegal to ride on public roads, cycle lanes or pavements.

An exception was made for the hired Lime scooters in MK and other trial areas but throughout the rest of the UK, privately-owned electric scooters are considered motor vehicles under the Road Traffic Act.

This means people can only use them on private land – providing they have the owner's permission.

Meanwhile, Bucks Fire and Rescue has released details of the electric scooter on fire in a home on Lavendon Road in Olney on Sunday evening.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze then removed the lithium battery pack submerged it in water and gave the owner safety advice.

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