Wendy’s is a fast-food restaurant but is known for more than just that. It also has a wonderful Twitter account where people come to get a good laugh at their savage roasts, and its name is used in a meme started by the iconic TV series The Office.
The saying that originated in the series “Sir, this is a Wendy’s” most often means that something a person said is irrelevant to that place and time. Retail employees experience such moments quite often and they shared their funniest and most confusing experiences on Reddit when user darodori brought up the question.
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Not me, my daughter. She answered the phone, appropriately, "Radiology." Guy on the phone was looking for some test results, but she couldn’t find his name, or his wife’s name anywhere. Long confusing call. Finally she asks for the name of the animal.
"What animal? I’m asking about my wife’s test!"
"Sir, this is a veterinary hospital."
When I worked in the tutoring center at my college, a guy called asking for help logging his son into our system to make an appointment. After about 10 minutes back-and-forth, I finally ask where he's located. He was in Columbus, Ohio and I was in Columbus, GA and the colleges had similar names
I used to work at a drive through coffee stand. Two guys came through, clearly high af, asking for cheeseburgers. We explained that this is a coffee stand, we have breakfast sandwiches, but if they want cheeseburgers they’ll have to go down the street to jack in the box. It took them a solid 5 minutes if us re-explaining this to them before they understood.
Another time it was super early in the morning, working at the same coffee stand. A woman rolls up and it legit looks like she’s sleeping. She orders her coffee and hands me a punch card for a different local coffee stand. I said oh wrong card (happens all the time). She looks at the card, looks at me, looks around, and says “what, where am I?”
And I’ve just realized neither of these people probably should have been driving, yikes
I use to work drive through at a Starbucks and I shall never forget Karen Target:
Me: “Hello! Welcome to Starbucks, your total is $6.66.”
Karen: “WHAT?! Target should not be giving out devil numbers to people! I thought this was a family store!”
Me: “…ma’am, it’s your drink plus tax.”
Karen: “well it goes against my Christian beliefs! I need to speak to target about this!”
Me: “Ma’am, this Starbucks is not associated with—.”
I tried. But she kept yelling at me. My shift supervisor was amazing.
I work at a nuclear power plant.
A few years ago, the control room emergency phone number got out.
We get a call on the emergency line. One of the reactor operators picks it up “xxx power station emergency line”
He hears a click. Then some dude is asking if we want to upgrade our home security system.
The reactor operator is like “do you have like, microwave or infrared detectors? Oh no, we do. Do you have an option for hand geometry scanners”. This goes on for a few minutes and he’s finally like “dude you called the control room for a nuclear reactor. You don’t have anything that could upgrade what we already have. Never call this number again” and hangs up.
I was dying laughing.
I love getting calls on a military base from folks trying to sell security systems. I told one of them "we have Apache gunships and dudes with machine guns, I think we'll be OK. " On a related note, the extended warranty guy wanted to know how many miles we had on our aircraft. He would not take "it's measured in flight hours, not miles" for an answer.
Worked at a CA famous burger chain with very few menu items. Guy rolls thru the drive and starts ordering like it's MacD's. Amused, I just let him go on until he stops mid sentence "-oh s**t..." At this point I basically suggested an order that was similar to the one he requested. He said "Oh... Well sure! Thank you!" We had a good laugh at the window and it pretty much made my day. Customer service can be great sometimes.
Not Wendy’s, but Lowes. A guy called the pro desk and asked if he could order a pizza. I told him we’re a home improvement store and he said, “but I’m hungry”.
Well in that case, I’ll contact the CEO and ask him to change the company because Bob wants a pizza.
Had a guy scream at me over the phone because I told him I can't transfer money from his savings to checking. Why? I work at a gas station.
Had a very entitled husband of the CEO of the hospital I was contracted at as one of my patients once. He rambled off a list food/drinks he wanted brought to his room.
I looked him in the eye and said "I just introduced myself as a Respiratory Therapist, unfortunately I don't have the time to help you with that. I'll relay what you need to the STNA."
Douchebag.
One time this older dude rushes up to order and slams a coupon on the counter saying” I want this!”.
I pick it up It has menu items for KFC. I ask him “What exactly would you like to order?” He instantly gets disgruntled with me for not reading his god damn mind and shakes his finger at the coupon and said “Well Whatever is on the coupon, obviously!?” in a condescending tone.
I just look at him for a minute an say word for word “Sir, this is McDonald’s. I don’t know what you want me to do with this KFC coupon.” He looks at me dumbfounded. Then looks behind me at the menu and around the store, yells “Awh, S**t!” (Like this isn’t his first time walking into the wrong establishment), grabs the coupon and storms off.
I worked in the tech department of my university’s library. Some guy called and asked who he needed to contact to donate his body to the medical school when he died. I was like 20, and I had no idea how to respond especially since the medical school is another campus. I explained to him that he needed to contact the medical school, and he told me he already had. I was like… okay… I can’t really help you. This is the tech service department of the library. I was on the phone with him for like 35 minutes.
But he already knows who to contact. He should donate the rest of his body to the same place he donated his brain.
I use to work for a politician. We had an ice cream shop next door.
Every day, especially in good weather, people would March into my office and get annoyed I wasn't serving ice cream.
The doors were right next to each other.
Some people came in and pretended they did it on purpose.
I gave all the nice people pens or pins or things.
The question is did they really mix it up? Ice cream shops give away free samples trying to get your business. Politicians give away handouts trying to get elected. Doesn't seem like too much of a stretch..
Former police/emergency dispatcher.
People would call for all sorts of things, like settling an argument over the rules of Monopoly or other board games, answers to crossword puzzles, complaints about the weather, etc.
My favorite over the years:
"The power's out, can you have the fire department come over and hook up a generator? I need to watch the ballgame."
I worked at a screen printing shop. We usually did the local baseball league uniforms. A team mom came to our office and complained for several minutes about how bad the uniforms had turned out. When I finally got a chance to speak, I told her that we had been outbid that year and where she could find the company that did her uniforms.
I’m a massage therapist. Most people don’t talk during their sessions, but every now and then, I get a client who starts telling me their life story, including their trauma.
Sometimes, I think they overlook the word massage, and just see the “therapist” part.
Worked at a resort where the nearby mountain was so large that it had an issue with almost having its own weather system going on. It would be a clear day but the mountain wouldn't be visible and it would be surrounded by clouds. People would ask the staff when the mountain would come out.
I just work here dude. I wouldn't be working here if I could control the weather surrounding a mountain.
I actually work at a wendys, and someone tried to use an Arby's coupon
Before AutoShack was forced to rename themselves Autozone, I worked at RadioShack and somebody tried to exchange spark plugs. He was upset and was more upset when I told him we don't sell spark plugs. He got a little nasty until I told him to look around.
Now you know why RadioShack had to make AutoShack to change their name. They even used the same colors and font on their signs.
Guy comes to the seafood counter at work about a year ago. I’m masked, he isn’t. Instantly says “You believe in Covid? You think masks would help even if it were real? Go look up Dr.blah blah on YouTube and learn the truth!”
“So uh, cod is on sale today.”
A woman came in our shop demanding to help her fix her car because it was our job to do so.
I worked in a pawn shop. I told her that the car repair store was at the corner of the street and she got the address mixed up.
She looked ashamed and I never saw her again
Happened today, just a few hours ago.
I work at a bank and I take a lot of calls (we are open on Saturdays with it mostly being calls). This girl called in and she was younger. She asked for her balance and I gave it to her, no big deal.
Then she asked "I got a question, its not about banking or anything but... are you gay?"
Honestly nothing could have prepaired me for this question. I stayed silent for a bit before chuckling and for some reason I said "Yeah, sure. Now is there anything else I can help you with?"
Ma'am this is a bank. I dont know what to say to that.
Overheard a dude at a bank drive-thru telling the teller all his info and getting irate that the teller couldn't find his account. About five more minutes went by and I heard him say, "uh... I think I'm actually at the wrong bank..." And the teller just says "well that would make sense why I can't find your account..."
I miss the drive-thru bank. I loved the vacuum tubes and just remember sitting with my mom or grandma being fascinated by ‘commerce’. I never go to the bank now, never carry cash. Honestly, if there was a drive through atm in the country I’m in then I would probably carry cash. This isnt lazy, just don’t generally get cash back at the store (self checkout, card only lane generally), to pass by the atm when a cart of purchases and a kid feels like too much risk divert my focus before just get back to the car or train.
They now have the vacuum tubes inside the banks as well. The tellers show up on a screen. I also don't carry cash. Most things can be bought with a card nowadays.
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at least he realized it was his mistake. It's crazy when people are shown proof they messed up and then still try to treat you badly because you can't just apologize.
I used to work in a CD store in the mall. One day a customer walked in and asked where the guitar strings were, I let them know we didn't sell guitar strings, but the music store at the other end of town did. The customer then said, "wait, isn't this *insert local music store name*?" to which I responded, "no, this is *insert local cd store name*" the customer then walked out of the store, looked up at the sign, walked back in and said "huh, I guess you are right" and left.
I was so confused. Did they think I was lying to them about the name of my place of employment or that I had no idea where I was?
Retail is weird.
To be honest, I can see why he thought a Music store would sell items related to musical instruments too
When I worked in daycare during drop off one morning. This Mom decided to rant about how she’s a lesbian and is leaving her husband for another woman.
I was very confused by that conversation.
If this changes who drops off or picks up the child, It's wise to keep the day care people in the loop well in advance. Ranting is another matter, but divorces with children weaken emotional control.
One time after I finished my meal at a Wendy's I of course wanted some ice cream. I walk up the counter and ask and the counter lady says sorry what is it you want? We have this back and forth a few times before I realized I was asking for a Mcflurry and not a Frosty
Worked at a video game store in the late PS2/early 360 era;
Older lady comes, looking kind of like a hippy/home school mom.
She asks for...
A good game for kids?
I offer Lego Star wars.
No, something with more reading?
Before I could answer she followed up with,
How about something educational?
I explained that I don't think there were many educational titles on PS2 and that would be more of a PC situation.
How about something that will teach them old world skills, like shoemaking?
Working at Gamestation in the UK. Had a customer argue with me and all my similarly geeky colleagues that a Mario game for the Xbox 360 existed and we were all wrong/hiding it from her.
Worked at gamestop's and same thing happened to me so many times it wasnt even funny, I had to explain that nintendo makes their 1st party games exclusively for their consoles so many times to so many sad kids
A customer came up to me and asked for some haddock. I was like “sure how much?” She was like “enough for 2, so like half pound would you say?” I was like “for two people you probably want a pound” then she talked about how her boyfriend was abusive and she hated him and living for herself now and she’s found god and peace and she won’t let another man ruin her and that she has friends she could ask out who will treat her better, and I’m like “cool here’s your haddock.”
Was checking in for a flight from Dallas (Love Field) dude in line in front of me was going berserk yelling at the gal behind the counter because she couldn’t find his reservation. His ticket was for a flight at DFW and on another airline....
Worked at GameStop for a couple years. One day I answer the phone and the guy on the other end goes "Hi, do y'all have video gaming?"
I pause for a moment, baffled, and reply "Y-yes...we're GameStop. We sell video games." The dude goes "No, I mean video gaming." I pause again and hesitantly tell him yes again. I can then hear the excitement in his voice as he goes "Really?! Like slots?!"
I finally realize he's talking about freaking gambling and say "Oh! Sorry, no...we're a video game store. Like games you play on your TV" and he angrily goes "Oh. Well that's misleading" and hangs up. Man actually thought GameStop was some sort of casino.
It kinda makes sense now since all the tiny slot shops popping up have neon signs saying VIDEO GAMING. I can see some old heads getting that confused.
Had a pissed off customer go "I am being forced to use the services of <insert my company name> and I don't want to."
I told him that he is in fact talking to that company and he doesn't need to use us if he doesn't want to.
Could have been the "preferred" vendor for his company. I "wasn't allowed" to call Best Buy for computer related issues, but instead had to call an IT company who charged triple the price for the same service. Owner's brother's company.
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When I worked at the gas company I was asked the following two questions back to back by totally different callers: "Why doesn't the water board accept cheques at the post office?" And "How do I get a lamppost moved so I can concrete my drive" A few weeks later someone yelled at me for a solid ten minutes before realising she was mean to be yelling at the phone company, then she renewed her yelling that I didn't pick up that she'd called the wrong people after she said "one of your men came and went up a pole". I just assumed she was bonkers, frankly.
I used to work for an ISP that had a name very similar to a popular medical insurance in the area. Outside the constant stream of calls from people trying to reach ATT or spectrum (not sure if they are international but they are two of the biggest internet providers in the states) we also got a lot of calls from people trying to check coverage or status of a claim. The worst part is the way the conversation could go for a while before either of us figured out it was the wrong company
I used to own a repair shop for woodwind and brass instruments, the name of the shop was "(name) Wind Repair," and we got a number of calls about getting windows fixed.
I worked at a retail store that got a lot of calls for a La Pizza Loco, we checked and their number was totally different than ours, and they weren't nearby...so who knows.
I work in local government. We get the wildest complaints, some people will call and yell at us because the wind is blowing their neighbors leaves in their yard. One family wanted us to move a sand bar in the lake and/ or reduce their taxes because they weren’t able to use their boat as much as they thought (there’s quite a few inland lakes in this community) I have learned that a lot of people don’t know where they live and/or pay taxes to, I often have to google their address to figure out where they need to actually call.
I work for loca government. We sometimes get complaints about the wind blowing leaves around and one family wanted us to move a sandbar in a lake and/ or change their tax bill because they weren’t getting to use their boat how they wanted. Among other insane requests, I’ve learned people often don’t even know where they live/pay taxes to and often have to google their address to figure out who they really need to call.
When I worked at a coffee shop has a customer really worked up cause we didn't have neither vodka, not beetroot juice. She yelled at me that we have no choices on our menu and stormed off. She was my first client, so she really freaked me out. Now I work at a university admissions office. We don't have medical education, which seems to be something many applicants can't get through their skull. My town has a medical university that is nearby, that has medicine in the title... still want their dentist diploma from our uni...
I work for a small insurance brokerage that only services municipalities and school districts in our state. We get phone calls every single day from all over the country calling about policies from a huge insurance company that happen to have a similar name as our company name. I have been trying for years to get the big insurance company to update their freaking website so Google can tell the difference.
The funniest story is when someone misdialed the local cinema number and ended up asking my manager for cinema times he was like uh wrong number. The other one being I used to work in a discount store and someone asked if we sold products relating to sex I was like uhh no :/
I work as a case worker for an insurance company. I've had to explain to someone that, just because they googled that the German DHL (think UPS or FedEx in America) has their cars insured at our firm, I won't be able to file a claim against one specific DHL delivery driver who bonked that caller's car during delivery, especially not without the licence of the delivery car. It's not like a national delivery service has hundreds of cars, and I couldn't even check through the company name, because that'd spew out hundreds of results that I couldn't check against any other data. The caller was very disappointed that I advised him to call the local DHL office and ask them for info on the guilty driver or their insurance information. That seemed to be too complicated. Better argue for 10min how I'm supposed to magic something together.
My husband and his then roommates got a number one digit away from the Social Security office. College kids, old people halarity ensued. I worked at a place well call Greenacres that was a membership place that required dues. One woman would call up every year 6 months late to pay her dues that she'd already paid. Turned out she lived in a HOA called Green Acres. While working there my bosses som called and I answered the phone, "sir, this is a Wendy's." He ordered a bacon double cheeseburger, biggie fries and a frosty without missing a beat.
Y'all should try working for the relay service. We got at least twice as many people thinking they were calling something else as we did legitimate customers.
I work for a makeup store and one time a customer got the name of the store wrong, so my manager was like "oh I think they have this product at the other (store name)" and the customer "corrected" her on the name of the store. We've also been asked if we carry batteries and lube (not by the same person). One time a woman asked if we carried "moon cycle" products and, when we said no, she asked if it was because our CEO is a man. Our CEO was a woman.
When I worked at the gas company I was asked the following two questions back to back by totally different callers: "Why doesn't the water board accept cheques at the post office?" And "How do I get a lamppost moved so I can concrete my drive" A few weeks later someone yelled at me for a solid ten minutes before realising she was mean to be yelling at the phone company, then she renewed her yelling that I didn't pick up that she'd called the wrong people after she said "one of your men came and went up a pole". I just assumed she was bonkers, frankly.
I used to work for an ISP that had a name very similar to a popular medical insurance in the area. Outside the constant stream of calls from people trying to reach ATT or spectrum (not sure if they are international but they are two of the biggest internet providers in the states) we also got a lot of calls from people trying to check coverage or status of a claim. The worst part is the way the conversation could go for a while before either of us figured out it was the wrong company
I used to own a repair shop for woodwind and brass instruments, the name of the shop was "(name) Wind Repair," and we got a number of calls about getting windows fixed.
I worked at a retail store that got a lot of calls for a La Pizza Loco, we checked and their number was totally different than ours, and they weren't nearby...so who knows.
I work in local government. We get the wildest complaints, some people will call and yell at us because the wind is blowing their neighbors leaves in their yard. One family wanted us to move a sand bar in the lake and/ or reduce their taxes because they weren’t able to use their boat as much as they thought (there’s quite a few inland lakes in this community) I have learned that a lot of people don’t know where they live and/or pay taxes to, I often have to google their address to figure out where they need to actually call.
I work for loca government. We sometimes get complaints about the wind blowing leaves around and one family wanted us to move a sandbar in a lake and/ or change their tax bill because they weren’t getting to use their boat how they wanted. Among other insane requests, I’ve learned people often don’t even know where they live/pay taxes to and often have to google their address to figure out who they really need to call.
When I worked at a coffee shop has a customer really worked up cause we didn't have neither vodka, not beetroot juice. She yelled at me that we have no choices on our menu and stormed off. She was my first client, so she really freaked me out. Now I work at a university admissions office. We don't have medical education, which seems to be something many applicants can't get through their skull. My town has a medical university that is nearby, that has medicine in the title... still want their dentist diploma from our uni...
I work for a small insurance brokerage that only services municipalities and school districts in our state. We get phone calls every single day from all over the country calling about policies from a huge insurance company that happen to have a similar name as our company name. I have been trying for years to get the big insurance company to update their freaking website so Google can tell the difference.
The funniest story is when someone misdialed the local cinema number and ended up asking my manager for cinema times he was like uh wrong number. The other one being I used to work in a discount store and someone asked if we sold products relating to sex I was like uhh no :/
I work as a case worker for an insurance company. I've had to explain to someone that, just because they googled that the German DHL (think UPS or FedEx in America) has their cars insured at our firm, I won't be able to file a claim against one specific DHL delivery driver who bonked that caller's car during delivery, especially not without the licence of the delivery car. It's not like a national delivery service has hundreds of cars, and I couldn't even check through the company name, because that'd spew out hundreds of results that I couldn't check against any other data. The caller was very disappointed that I advised him to call the local DHL office and ask them for info on the guilty driver or their insurance information. That seemed to be too complicated. Better argue for 10min how I'm supposed to magic something together.
My husband and his then roommates got a number one digit away from the Social Security office. College kids, old people halarity ensued. I worked at a place well call Greenacres that was a membership place that required dues. One woman would call up every year 6 months late to pay her dues that she'd already paid. Turned out she lived in a HOA called Green Acres. While working there my bosses som called and I answered the phone, "sir, this is a Wendy's." He ordered a bacon double cheeseburger, biggie fries and a frosty without missing a beat.
Y'all should try working for the relay service. We got at least twice as many people thinking they were calling something else as we did legitimate customers.
I work for a makeup store and one time a customer got the name of the store wrong, so my manager was like "oh I think they have this product at the other (store name)" and the customer "corrected" her on the name of the store. We've also been asked if we carry batteries and lube (not by the same person). One time a woman asked if we carried "moon cycle" products and, when we said no, she asked if it was because our CEO is a man. Our CEO was a woman.
