well, a double stack doesnt come with mayo, tomato, or lettuce. it's ketchup, pickle, onion, mustard. asking for it plain is no big deal. ask for it plain, no cheese, and no bun, and you'll get it just as you asked lol

I'll tell all you American readers a secret, we have a burger place in Canada called "Harvey's". Simply the best. Freshly cooked burgers and fresh toppings. It takes a little longer, and it is a little bit more expensive, BUT, worth every penny. Recently they have added onions grilled in Franks Red Hot. Awesome! Makes Wendy's, McDonalds, BK etc look like (and sometimes taste like) dog food!

@P_Smith:

Upon further reflection, I realized that you probably mean Wendy's pulling of advertising from the Ellen show as evidence of Thomas being an open gay-hater. If so, it's a bit of a stretch to go from a company's choice not to pour advertising dollars into a show that became hugely controversial in the news, and assuming the company founder, who incidentally was barely involved the company at the time due to illness, was a bigot. Wendy's erred big time in its judgment and paid a price for it, as they should have. I was someone who wrote them to complain, as did many other members of my church - the MCC. What the media failed to report was that Wendy's reinstated its advertising on Ellen a short while later. Ellen was a favorite show of mine, and I *did* notice when the ads came back.

And giving money to cults? So Dave Thomas twice appeared on Pat Robertson's 700 Club to talk about the important of adoption. While I absolutely abhor the Christian Coalition's anti-gay agenda (which, in contrast to the one attributed to Wendy's and Thomas, is very clear), I wouldn't fault someone with a strong adoption cause for being interviewed on their show, especially considering his foundation refuses to provide grants to organizations which support discrimination, such as the Christian Coalition and its related groups.

Correcting myself: I wrote that the DTF supports couples looking to adopt, but -- as Thomas himself said -- they will help single parents as well.

@P_Smith: Care to back that up? Such rumors have been falsely attached to nearly every fast food founder's name, including Dave Thomas'. Next are you going to tell me that Jack in the Box / KFC / Popeye's / Insert Name Here puts something in their chicken to make black men sterile?

Thomas certainly didn't have any problem with the manager I wrote about above, who has been openly gay (openly black, too!) and managing a Wendy's for years. Heck, the doors of the store have even had rainbow stickers on them for ages, since long before Thomas died. Considering he visited the store personally each year (I met him during one such visit when I was there for lunch), I would have to wonder that he didn't order the stickers removed if he was openly gay-hating, or why he didn't find some way to get the manager out of Wendy's employ?

Are you familiar with the Dave Thomas Foundation, which aids couples looking to adopt children out of foster care? An excerpt from a People magazine article from 1993 ([www.people.com]):

"Wendy's corporate adoption program, which Thomas started in 1990, helps Wendy's employees adopt children by paying some of their medical, legal and counseling costs. Says Thomas: "People ask me, 'What about gay adoptions? Interracial? Single parent?' I say, 'Hey, fine, as long as it works for the child and the family is responsible.' My big stand is this: Every child deserves a home and love. Period." [emphasis mine, of course]

But eat at Wendy's? No thanks. The thankfully dead Dave Thomas was openly gay-hating and gave money to cults which promoted hate. I would never put money in their coffers any more than I would a business owned by a KKK member.

Instead of using fresco stickers, one burrito had a "chicken" label on it to note it as the fresco one. However, the tacos were different - the steak one was labeled "chicken" and the chicken one was unlabeled. The order was correct, it just confused me why they didn't label the chicken taco as chicken.

$2 a cup x 1000 cups is one hell of a turnaround for a $50 investment.

Much better than $2 - $3 on a sandwich.

Why do you think they offer free refills?

And.. what's wrong with ketchup on hotdogs? Don't they ALWAYS come that way? (Though I'm a huge fan of the Chicago dog now that I've discovered it.. I still enjoy just ketchup on my dogs now and then)

My brother had a simlar experience a few years ago with a McDonald's flatbread sandwich. No matter how many times he requested it, even to the manager, they insisted that the flatbread sandwiches can only be made exactly as they were formulated. He watched them making them, so it wasn't like there were a bunch already made. For some reason they would NOT produce one without the tomato. He even said "Well, when you reach in to the tomato bin to get some to put on the sandwich, can you just NOT pick any up?"
He ended up ordering something else, as I recall.

I hate this logic. You're actually saving the employee time by requesting that they not do something, plus saving the toppings, rather than scraping them off your burger. I personally don't like lettuce on my hamburgers, because lettuce is disgusting when it gets warm.

I have had this particular problem for years when ordering my food from various fast-food restaurants: I like my hamburgers with mayo and pickle only. PERIOD. I don't like cheese on them, but the cashier seems so taken aback that I don't want cheese, as if it's some sort of million-dollar prize that only a moron would refuse. I also feel that it's a waste of my time and theirs to ask them to remove 3 or 4 things rather than order my hamburger with only 2 toppings. Apparently, this concept is way too difficult to understand because there have been many occasions that I receive my burger with everything BUT mayo and pickles, even when I stress the qualifier "only"! How hard is it to actually think about what you are doing, rather than becoming some sort of human assembly line that melts down with the mere mention of modifiers?

Brandon, that person was obviously just f-ing with you. They get paid minimum wage, the customers never stop coming and there is zero entertainment for hours. She probably learned that if she says "we can't do that" to any request that makes her job harder, 99% of customers don't question or argue, even if they do get steamed.

I probably would have done like others suggested and emptied the sandwhich on the counter or table and made them clean it up. I did that once with a room temp cup of chili that they refused to reheat... I flipped it upsidedown on the table without spilling a drop. Too bad I wasn't there when someone picked it up lol.

Nothing about this article shocks me. That's just how fast food is.

@PiNPOiNT: I encountered a burger like this once, while I was working the Wendy's drive-thru. During a lull, one of our sandwhich makers was on lunch. He ordered a junior bacon cheeseburger "with everything." His buddy made the burger with, literally, everything he could find... including a spare Spicy Chicken patty. Dunno if he ever ate that monster...

1) less product used
2) less time to assemble

I eat at Wendy's often and have never heard of a a double-stack. Is it a regional burger?

@coan_net:

sounds like you're much better then those peons that work at mcdonalds.

I salute you

@vastrightwing: I've had that problem. Lied and said another couple was joining us then asked if I could just get ours order in now. They did it and brought the food. Asked for the bill and told him they cancelled and no other problems.

I used to work at McDonald's when I was in high school. Back then they used to have 49 cents/59 cents hamburgers/cheeseburgers on one particular day of the week. Becasue that item was so popular on that day, they wouldn't let people special order them becasue it would take too much time to "mass produce" them. People would order the maximum (10) at a time. Even if you wanted just one, I still couldn't give the discounted price for a special made one. Can't do for one and not the other because people will start whining. I'd gotten yelled at plenty of times by customers because I was told not to give them the discounted price if they wanted it made special. Isn't the double stack like 99 cents? Maybe they don't do it for the same reasons Mickey Dees didn't do it.

For thos saying to just take the toppings off.

Some of us can't stand mayo. Once that vile, nasty crap is added to a double stack, there is no option to just "remove the toppings". Condaments like mayo, and the likes of, can't be easily removed.

I do just "remove the toppings", but that is after I ask for no mayo or special sauce of any kind.

Last time I was in a Wendys a guy said that his order was wrong. "Can I have a cup of Manderan oranges and some crackers instead?" he said. They gave him crackers, two cups of oranges and his money back. That is service.

If it is easier to tell a customer no, than to tell the sandwich dude "plain, only cheese meat and bread" then this one restaurant is messed up royally.

My former roomie is a Wendy's GM and a few years ago they rolled out a customer service module called "Give Them The Pickle". Basically shut the fuck up and get this guy out of your face. Is it really worth causing a scene over taking off a condiment or giving a guy a Coke without the ice? Doesn't customer service mean anything to people anymore? I'm not saying that a guy who make $8 an hour is going to bend over backwards to kiss your ass, but if the request isn't completely insane why not just do it?

So after reading this I wanted some wendy's. Went to a near by store and ordered 2 jr bacon cheese burgers. Well didn't realize until I got back to work that my sandwiches were like doublecheese burgers or something. So I call to complain and they tell me to bring them back, said I can't now and ask if I can come by later for them. He tells me that I have to bring the sandwiches in and it has to be today. So I was like since I missed my lunch because I won't have time to run back there and give them to you now and you expect me to not eat and just keep some burgers with me all day. guy said yes. dick. I just ate them and just won't go to that one anymore either.

sounds like an on the spot made up rule so that they wouldnt have to take the time to make a new burger instead of grabbing a premade one (with toppings) off the line.

I need to show this to my wife because she likes her burgers the same way. It bewilders the person taking the order no matter what the restaurant is too. Most of the time they get it right,but occasionally she will get a burger with mustard and/or mayo on it.

I can't take a burger plain and dry. Gotta have some mustard or mayo on there.

The "Personalize It" section of the Wendy's website seems to suggest that, even post-Dave Thomas, you are still quite welcome to customize your order:

[www.wendys.com]

At my local Wendy's the manager regularly makes rounds of the dining area to make sure people are satisfied with their orders. If anyone has a complaint, he'll do whatever he needs to in order to make things right and ensure the customer leaves the store happy. One time I remarked to a friend that my Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger seemed to be missing the bacon, and moments later the manager, who had overheard me, showed up at my table with a new sandwich and a whole plate of bacon, and gave us each a coupon for a free frosty. In some stores at least, Dave's spirit still lives on...

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter,(begin sarcasm) but I had one bad experience at Wendy's, and boycotted them. Therefore, I can never enjoy this concoction.(end sarcasm)

My 6 year old cousin has a form of autism. He is pretty much like any other kid, with some exceptions. Sometimes he gets upset because his pancakes aren't perfectly circular. All this shenanigans about not getting the burger exactly the way you want it makes my 6 year old autistic cousin look like he's not that picky of an eater.

Definitely...gotta have my maple syrup...Definitely

I think it has something to do with their training. The "double stack" is Wendy's $0.99 Value Menu double cheeseburger, so adding to it for the same price could be what Wendy's doesn't want. Maybe the training may have stated, "Must be served as is." Meaning that nothing could be added to it, but maybe this guy thought that meant taking items off too. That surely doesn't excuse the employee's lack of logic.

I'm allergic to cheese, have been all my life, and I have the hardest time getting any sandwich from just about any fast-food joint without the requisite cheese. Of course, imagine my dismay when my friends or family invite my wife and I (who's also allergic to cheese) out to eat...at a Mexican restaurant!

Reading this earlier in the day gave me a burning desire for some Wendy's, and man it was delicious. Thanks.

I once decided to be stupid and order a chicken burger with a extra "beef" patty. Extra beef patties are only a buck, and technically you can add as many as you want. Yum... Chicken beef burger :P. When i ordered the lady was confused, but she decided to try entering it anyways. The cash register accepted it as a valid order, but immediately afterwards, a manager came over and asked me "Are you serious?" I said yes.... he paused for a minute and said...."well what toppings should i put on it?" I asked for the chicken toppings. He went ahead and made it for me, and i pretty much made everyone's day at the restaurant, by ordering the strangest thing they've ever heard of.

Btw, it could have used 2 patties of beef, One was still being over powered by the spicy chicken patty. And i suggest you have them stack it "Beef/Chicken/Beef"

He was really nice and ordered a couple of burgers at a restaurant. He specifically said NO PICKLES. They happily piled extra ones on his burgers. He unwrapped each one at the table and finger flicked them off. Where they ended up was totally random. I had never seen him act like that and he explained his reaction.

Im glad he didnt wing them at the cook.

This is very odd. I have always had good experiences at Wendy's.
My boys eat bacon cheeseburgers plain. One time at BK I ordered bacon cheesburgers "with nothing on them" and received empty buns. That was the strangest. Luckily we didn't get drive-through. Someone's idea of a joke, I suppose. I didn't think it was funny at the time.

I would insist that Wendy's make it right with some GCs for free burgers.

Wendy's has definitely gone down hill since Dave Thomas died. Their fries are terrible, at least around here. It all tastes the same a McD's and BK, where it used to taste like a burger you made at home, meat hot, cold stuff cold.

I'd like to share with you a sour experience that occurred this past weekend, when I stopped into my local Wendy's restaurant, which I visit at least once a week.

I attempted to order a double-stack sandwich, "plain," but was told by the cashier that the double-stack could not be ordered to my preference, as it was against corporate policy. She refused to place my preferred order, despite my having encountered no such prohibitions when ordering a plain double-stack on previous visits, so my companions and I left your restaurant without placing any orders.

I hope this was an isolated incident of a mistaken employee and not a policy change that could affect my decision the next time I am in the mood for a hot, juicy burger.

Getting to the point, clearly and concisely, is much more important than "big, important-sounding words" and hyperbolic threats.

@HFC: I wouldn't say he's entitled to get something free, but when he's gone to wendy's before and was able to get his order modified without any trouble, then there's no reason why he shouldn't have been able to get it then.

@Jubilance22:

Hey! You stole my comment, almost verbatim!

I was going to add that the most interesting part of this story will be the follow-up: does he ever here from Wendy's in response to his complaint? I love Wendy's, but their lack of response to complaints is extraordinarily frustrating.

I wonder if yelling "escalation!" in the middle of a face to face conversation works or not...hmm. I'll have to try it : )

They usually get it right but give credits sometimes when they don't.

Personally I love mayo but a lot of people hate it, and a lot of sandwiches and wraps seem to come with "surprise" emulsion-sauce. It probably should be optional.

How does this one instance of an employee's wrongness all of a sudden make every other Wendy's experience negligible?He even wrote that before, Wendy's was awesome, but because ONE employee is wrong, now Wendy's together is awful?
The guy who wrote this is should calm down, in my opinion.

In my area, the larger problem is that the cashiers don't even speak English. I stormed out of a Burger King, after waiting in line for 20 minutes while a customer tried to order a simple combo meal from the single cashier who couldn't speak or read English. Even the manager was having problems because he wasn't fluent in Spanish. On my way out, I told a large group of people coming in that unless they could speak Spanish, and had an hour to wait for their food, they'd be better off going some place else.

I went to an Arby's where the entire staff was Indian, and also not very good with English. However, the owner (also Indian) had been smart and installed a touch-screen ordering system. This way you could simply punch in your order, get a #, then hand your cash to the cashier when the food arrived. The system worked great - you could even do special orders and the owner made sure his staff got it right. The extra money he spent on the screens was worth it as his Arby's started winning awards for customer service.

We gave up on Wendy's because they could never make my wife's burgers the way she asked for them. Before they actually offered the current double stacks, they had the 1/4lb Deluxe Double Stack that came with lettuce and tomato and 1000 Island special sauce stuff on it. She just wanted the thing made without the special sauce and with ketchup and mustard in its place. 9 of 10 times they would get it wrong. We got burgers with nothing at all on them, burgers made the way they normally make them, once we got it with mayo, no cheese and lots of lettuce, once with no sauce and no cheese, any combo you can think of except the way it was ordered. This was not just one franchise either...it was all over...we began to wonder if they had a pic of her at every store with a note to screw up the order. Needless to say...no more Wendy's for us. Screw 'em.

Mustard, relish, onions...nasty stuff.

Although if you are allergic to any ingredient in a fast food restaurant, keep in mind that the sandwich makers have all of it on their hands and touch the bun. My hands smelled like pickle and onion for an entire summer.

Also, at least back when I was there, Wendy's does use heat lamps on chicken nuggets and freid fish patties. Nuggets sell very fast so they don't stay there long, but the fish sells maybe two a day, so NEVER ORDER FISH SANDWICHES. They are supposed to throw them out after an hour but odds are that fish sandwich was cooked three hours ago.

I had a similar situation at a McDonalds. I always order a happy meal and then a large sweet tea to drink instead of the inky dinky little kid cup they give you. ALWAYS. The one day, I'm at the drive thru, and after I ordered, the lady on the other end of the speaker says that she cannot do that "ma'am". I said, "you've done it before". Again, "i cannot do that ma'am." So I ordered a water, and then drove around the car in front of me and went to the McDonalds down the street, and ordered the same thing, paid my $3.24 and was happy again.

I once had a Dairy Queen tell me they could not sell me a burger without the meat--that the health department REQUIRED them to put the meat on the bun. I was only a kid (maybe 12) and I couldn't argue very effectively with them, but I was raised vegetarian and had never, ever had meat or meat grease on my food before. It was a fairly traumatic experience, and I still won't go to Dairy Queen because of it.

What is up with fast food places being unable to meet their customers' very simple requests?

a piece of meat from the supermarket costs $0.50?... a bun costs $0.30, vegetables and other stuff costs $0.30

the actual raw materials is very cheap... its just that making a hamburger costs more than filling up a soda because of the different amount of human involvement... i guess paying wages is more expensive than having a machine...

Yeah, that works for the pickles and tomatoes and stuff, but what about the ketchup and mayo? No matter how much you try and scrape it off, some is going to remain either on the bun or on the patty.

Cheers!

@GrandizerGo: Oh man I'm glad I'm not the only one. If my burger does not come plain, I cannot just scrape off the ingredients. I have an insanely high aversion to onions and can taste where the flavor has soaked into the bun and/or meat. Scraping them off does NOTHING.

First of all, the Wendy's employees were rather dickish to Brandon.

However, I've found life to be much easier to deal with if you stop being 5 and just take the sandwich as is. The exception being of course if you have food allergies, that I understand. If you dont, lettuce, mayo, mustard, ketchup, tomato, onion, and pickles aren't going to kill you.

One burger please, hold the wuss.

j/k Brandon, order your sandwich however you'd like, and curses to the Wendy's employees for being such douches.

I think I just broke a rib laughing. That is seriously funny.

Where I live, the only fast-food place that doesn't routinely mess up the orders is Taco Bell. I gave up on Wendy's, though, when they cancelled the Spicy Baconator. It wasn't even the fact that it was gone that was the problem. All three employees I'd talked to gave me an attitude. The real kicker, though? There was a billboard not a mile away that advertised that sandwich. Way to be consistent, Wendy's...

Weird. My boyfriend orders a double stack with no ketchup only (not even cheese) when he goes and I don't think he's ever had a problem.

LOL, EPIC!

Some of the things my brother and I ordered made it on the menu.
Steak and hot pastrami subs...
Sadly the quality of the products have gone down in the last few years...

@tobashadow: I thought Wendy's didn't do the heat lamp thing.

@semanticantics:
I order them as "veggie sandwiches". They have a special button on the register where I live (Michigan) just for this. When I was in high school, we used to go to Wendy's and get veggie sandwiches. They didn't used to have a button, so they would ring it up as a bun + misc. food. It was the best $.25 sandwich ever!

I eat my Wendy's burgers with ketchup only.. and low and behold ran into an experience with the cashier just last week. Conversation went something like this:
"I'll take a double cheeseburger, ketchup only"
"So only ketchup"
"Yes ketchup only"
"So just ketchup"
"Yes, ketchup only"
"Ok.." long pause...."You sure, just ketchup?"

At least she didn't tell you to Simma down now!

The reason is becasue they make them in large batchs and throw them under a heat lamp for you to buy something made hours before.

When I worked at McDonald's, it used to mess with the grill people's mind when people ordered hamburgers without meat. For the longest time there was no button on the cash register to mark "no meat" so I would have to put something like "EXTRA NO NO" or something. They invariably asked what that meant. Good times.

I agree that it seems that they had a non-plain one that they were trying to get rid of. I would have waited a little while (the dinner shift or something) and tried it again, just to see what would have happened.

Cheers!

Well I will wish you the best of luck if you ever visit Australia. I went to McDonnalds there multiple times on my first visit in 2003 and tried to order a plain cheeseburger, and they would look at me like I had horns growing out of my head.. Then I would explain to them it just means I want a burger with just bread, meat and cheese.. nothing else.. And then they would ask again and I would explain it again and they would seem to understand.. then my burger would come out and it would still be wrong with all the toppings.

Then I'd have to send my (now) husband, a native Australian, to fix it.. And they looked at him all crazy too but they would eventually get it right.. I don't order my own food there anymore.. You would think that we're all speaking the same language but I guess my Texan accent was too weird for them.

Ah, thanks. I've never heard of the double stack. They don't have these at all at any Wendy's I've been to in Alberta. I have heard of the grand slam though (4 1/4lb patties). It's never on the menu, but they know what it is.

@ung: Aren't all the sandwiches loss leaders? I thought fast food made its money on the 800% markup on soda and fries.

@Cliff_Donner: I second that!

I don't understand why the employees claimed that not only can they not alter the double stack but that it's the only burger they can't alter. That makes zero sense. I'd have understood 'we don't change how the burgers are done' if they'd applied that across the board. It'd still be dumb but understandable.

I don't understand "We can't not put the toppings on the double stack but we'll leave them off the single."

I once went to a Wendy's in Hawaii. They asked if I wanted "everything" on my burger.

I was like "Yeah."

Apparently, "everything" in Hawaii means mayo, ketchup, mustard, salt, peppper, pickle, onion, lettuce, cucumber, peppers... everything.

Baton Rouge Wendy's are owned by tight-fisted monkey morons. Go to the Sonic on Highland Rd. by Blue Bayou, one of the best in the US.

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: Paint with a broad brush and you'll eventually get paint on yourself.

@firestarsolo: " this was just a bad case of the Mondays for that employee."

Dude, you're liable to get your ass kicked around here for saying something like that. :P

Looks like you found yourself in a backwater Wendy's with a backwater store policy.

My fiance and I swear by Wendy's and have never had issues like this which is a regular thing for us as she despises pickles.

Further, ever since the Baconator replaced the Big Bacon Classic we've never had an issue ADDING toppings to convert the Baconator to the aforementioned BBC.

So to let this one minor toppings incident sour you on the whole chain is just pretty damn silly as you'll be depriving yourself of your choice burger at pretty much any other Wendy's (or whichever ones you frequented before this one).

dammit...now Im hungry

If they offer you compensation, hold out one of the wigs.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected:
x2. Only savages put ketchup on a hotdog.

. . . so he and his friends eventually gave up and left empty handed.

Bravo. I have so much more respect for this than I do for the other stories where the OP is saying, "But I was in a hurry, so I just went ahead and gave the store my money as a reward for their lousy service."

Good luck getting those coupons from Wendy's. There is a Wendy's around the corner from my house that is notoriously slow and inept. I called the number listed on the door for consumer complaints, and talked to a very nice woman who took down all my information and promised some coupons in the mail. Its been over a year and I never received any coupons.

I love Wendys, but it's the only fast food restaurant that will fight me on ketchup packets. They treat them like gold. When you ask for ketchup, they try to give you 1 or 2 packets. And then they argue with them if you ask for more.

Ahhh.. Say no more. There's your problem.

Currently the Jack in the Box $3.99 meal deals are where I'm spending my lunch money.

Wendy's is hit-or-miss. My husband and I refuse to go to the one down the street from us, yet we're willing to go to the one that's two towns away.

I don't think the OP's problem is a cost issue, as employees don't give a crap about that. They were probably not wanting to make a fresh burger, opting to argue with you to take a pre-made one instead.

@Roudi:
Absolutely. Over the past few years I've quit going to Wendys all together. It got to the point where I was pretty much guaranteed to have my order wrong of for the food to just plain suck. Every once in a while - sure. But not all the time.

@friendlynerd: Same here. I don't care where I'm at, I'm going to request no mayo.

If they put mayo on it anyway, they are making my sandwich over without it.

Mayo and I do not get along.

I'm thinking the manager of the store was trying to prevent people from ordering the double stack add everything instead of the single with cheese. Unfortunately, the employees didn't understand this and took it as no special orders for the double stack. I know Wendy's loves it when you order something plain especially if it comes with tomato.

Weird. Unless that Wendy's has stopped making their sandwiches as they are ordered, this should have been no problem.

I worked 1.5 years at Wendy's in all positions. I left well before the Double Stacker (which is a two-patty Junior burger, not to be confused with the Classic Double [which itself is now called the "1/2 Pound Double"]). Out here in Canada, the Double Stacker is topped with just Ketchup and Mayonaise, and like the OP, I routinely order it plain with no fuss.

Wendy's has undergone an enormous decline since the death of Dave Thomas, starting with the introduction of the Grill Press. I can taste the difference between burgers cooked on the old grill (taking 5 mins) and those cooked on a grill press (taking 45 seconds). I've noticed that the Grilled Chicken has become smaller and more water-filled (they never used to shrink as much), and their prices seem to go up at least three times a year. If we could run some wires into Dave Thomas' grave, we could harness the kinetic energy from his constant rolling to power most of the continental United States.

Sorry for the rant.

I have a "discount card" which is basically by any sandwich & medium drink - get a 2nd sandwich of equal or less value for free.

Here are a few things which will "freak" some of the cashiers out.

1. Try to buy a large drink instead of a medium. "Sorry sir, you have to buy a medium drink to use the discount" - Um... Why don't you ask you manager if it would be OK for me to spend more money on a drink where you will make more money

2. Try to buy a burrito or wrap. "Sorry sir, that is not a sandwich"

3. I will usually get 1 Big Mac & Large drink - and a Quarter Pounder as the free sandwich. For a friend, I had also ordered 2 of the $1 chicken sandwiches..... Of course you can guess what happened next, they took off the $1 sandwich as the free sandwich instead of one of the $2.50 sandwiches.

My reply - OK, cancel the 2 $1 chicken sandwiches. Oh, and I want to make a second order. How about 2 $1 chick sandwiches and a large coke (when all drinks were also $.99) - the manager was giving me darts through the window - now making her do "extra" work in doing the obvious of giving the $2.50 sandwich for free - along with now getting one of the chick sandwiches for free also. I said "Well I tried to make it easy, I'm surprised you wanted to do it the hard way" in which she finished and walked away.

.... of course when I order my breakfast sausage-egg-cheese bagel which is no longer "on the menu", but there is a hidden button on the register for it - it funny when there is a new person on the register doesn't know how to ring it up - I once had a sandwich cost over $5 because they "built" it by adding a bagel... then adding a sausage... then adding egg..... etc... When I get up to the window, I'm all ready and say can you get your manager and ask them how to correctly ring this order up.

Can they make it without mayo?

If yes, I would think that everything else would be easily removed.

If no, like you said, you have other options. Whether or not those options will be any different remains to be seen.

It's the bad attitude that kills me. Wife and I went to a full service restaurant recently and we sat at a booth. The waiter told us he would not serve us because the booth is for 3-4 people not 2. Wife and I looked around the restaurant and saw only 2 occupied tables at 8:30 pm on a Monday night. I guess the restaurant owner told the staff never ever to allow guests to get what they ask for. We got the same treatment one other time before from a different waiter (same restaurant). We will make sure they have at least 2 less patrons taking up valuable space at their booth.

@Black Bellamy: Nice!

Going to [www.wendys.com] you can see their slogan is "Fresh and delicious? Made the way you want? Served the way you deserve?"

Maybe Brandon is a bad, bad boy, and was just getting what he deserved? ;)

Lets try to stay on topic.

Moral of the story: Franchisees make the restaurant and corporate needs to smack down the bad ones.

I love wendy's. The one nearest to me though is horrible. Newburgh, IN. I've waited 30 minutes for a special order (only ketchup)before and my sandwiches look like they were made by monkeys. I've refrained from eating there anymore but anytime I am in a different town I usually stop buy another and get great service.

I'd like to see more hotdog joints refuse to serve catsup on dogs.

Franchise mentality and the blind leading the stupid. Try ordering a Whopper with no bun - something someone with Ceoliac disease do - no button for it on the BK register.

I used to order Taco Bell chili-cheese burritos with plain ground beef instead of the chili sauce, and the cashier freaked out. Said I was trying to scam Taco Bell out of more meat than I was paying for. No, actually I just didn't like the spices in the new (recently reformulated) sauce. I'd done it dozens of times before, no issues, but this girl was having none of it. I eventually "won" after asking her to use the exact same ammount of beef that would normally be found in the chili sauce to construct my chilito.

I would have expected a little more out of Wendy's - they seemed to have put a bit more effort in training their employees on customer service in the past than the other chains, but I guess it's all the same now.

As I see it you've got 3 choices:
1. Complain. Possibly get spit in your food.
2. Accept it.
3. Drop out and don't eat fast food.

I wonder if the original customer would have been satisfied with a double cheeseburger instead? Maybe he just assumed that the double stack was their regular cheeseburger, and that was the source of confusion. Not that it's Brandon's fault entirely, if so; the employees should know their own menu and should have suggested the alternative.

If they didn't want to give you you're burger the way you wanted it, order something else or go to another restaurant. Of course, having one bed experience (especially something this minor) shouldn't keep you from returning to your favorite burger chain, that's just ridiculous.

Whatever, though, it's not really a big deal. Of course then there's Greasy Thumb Guzik with his bigoted stereotyping. Nice one, ass.

This reminds me of a policy we had for the King Supreme sandwich when I worked at Burger King. We could not sell the sandwhich without the Supreme sauce. The reasoning was that the sauce was essential to the build of the sandwich, upon which the price was geared to promote. Without the sauce, it became more like other sandwiches which different prices, and thus had to rung up differently. Customers could still get the sandwich build that they requested, but it would be no longer be considered a Supreme and coupons for the Supreme could not be used for it.

If the promotion is a similar issue in this case, perhaps the cashier didn't realize that the sandwich could be rung up differently to avoid the restrictions.

Where did you think you were, Burger King? :-)

ung: as for the loss-leader argument, you know what costs money? Toppings.

I bet they were trying to sell you one from a recently canceled order? You called them out on it and they felt the need to stand their ground.

I detest mayo and I order everything without it. Granted sometimes they put it on anyway, but they don't argue with me about it and always correct the error if I point it out.

This is bizarre...

As a matter of fact, Wendy's is the ONE place that I go to because I know that I can get a burger with no ketchup, just for the asking.

This has got to be a one-time thing... I've never had any trouble. But that being said, I think it's pretty clear that the staff at that particular Wendy's needs to be spanked and/or trained and/or fired.

I think if there isn't a button for it on the pictoral map on the register, the burger jockeys believe it doesn't exist.

I'm saving them money when I don't get the cheese, so just how stupid are the people running that Wendy's in Baton Rouge?

Oh, I answered my own question, it's Louisiana!