Stupid Wendys. Stupid cheese. Stupid burger. A week or so ago, Harborwolf, Harborkid, and I went to Wendy’s for lunch. I ordered a double burger with no cheese at the drive-thru, and when we got home, I discovered they had put cheese on it. Damn. Totally inedible for me.
Today, I decide to get back on the horse and go back to Wendy’s. This time, I went into the restaurant, and ordered my food to go. When I orderd, I very clearly and very specifically said, “no cheese.” Silly me. I should have checked the order before leaving, but I thought that since I’d been so clear about it, I’d just go home. When I got home, guess what? There was cheese on the burger again! Inedible. Worthless to me.
Wendy’s isn’t that far from where I live, but it is far enough that I don’t want to waste the gas and the time to drive over there and ask for a new burger. Also, I don’t want to be that bitchy customer who checks the food in front of the employee, or re-states over and over that I have a special order. Is there any way I can get what I want without becoming a hated customer? 
Also, why do they want to put cheese on my burger so badly?
Terrorist.
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Nothing bitchy about checking it in front of them that I can see, especially since you’ve been screwed in the past, and then if it’s wrong taking it back saying, “I ordered this without cheese; would you please get me a new one without cheese?” If they ask why you can’t just pick it off (or do so themselves), just politely explain that you have an allergy or whatever, WHICH IS WHY YOU ORDERED IT THAT WAY.
On the other hand, if you won’t actually be harmed by cheese molecules, just pick the darned cheese off already.
Just out of curiosity, why no cheese? Lactose intolerant? Allergic? Just hate the stuff?
And if I were you, I’d check it right in front of the register jockey.
One assumes the part they didn’t understand was the “no” part. For practical purposes, is there some way you could take the cheese off? Or if you’re lactose intolerant, they have those pills you can take.
I would try asking for a burger and saying, “And is there any cheese on that?” When they say yes, say, “Could you actually do mine without the cheese? I’m allergic to dairy.” Phrase it like a favor, and make it memorable to them and unambiguous.
Daniel
I have the same problem–I’m lactose intolerant, and even if I weren’t, I don’t like the taste of cheese and don’t need the extra calories. You can’t make fast food places believe that you don’t want cheese on your burger. I try, I try so hard to check every burger before I leave the register, or especially before I leave the drive-through. But og help me, I forget once in a while. What is their fetish for cheese? Why does every fast food restaurant default every hamburger to cheeseburger? I don’t want their fucking cheese!
No cheese? I don’t understand you at all.
There’s a Taco Bell by my house that always asks what kind of sauce I want. I always say “Hot sauce please.” Regardless of this meaningful exchange of ideas, I always find all 3 types of sauce tossed in the sack. I think they throw the sauce in the sack before they even ask you what kind you want.
A possible factor is that the Wendy’s double comes standard with cheese. Or at least it did when I worked there many many moons ago. 
Not to excuse their messing up your order, but that could be part of it.
I’d imagine it’s because 99% of their customers are perfectly to content to either have cheese or, failing that, are willing to peel it off the burger before eating.
I’m not going to downplay anyone’s bad food experiences, but I will ask you to have some perspective. That’s a $2 burger you’re eating. If you want it done just right, you can always spend a few dollars more for a real hamburger. As I have said in the past, fast food has really 2 requirements to work for me: fast and consistent. That’s it. Anything else is gravy.
I’d say they’re just barely listening to you. Instead of “no cheese”, which gives them the opportunity to gloss over the “no” and just hear the “cheese” part, try “without cheese”. Much clearer, much less chance for confusion there.
You can’t peel it off. They fry it along with the patty. After cooking, patty and cheese are inseparable. They are “embryonically coupled”.
See, that’s the dilemma. Do I order just a “hamburger”, or a “hamburger without cheese”? The second one is more explicit. But you have to say the c-word, which gives them a chance to think, “Dude wants cheese.” You can’t win.
Gee, they must hire geniuses at In-N-Out. I’ve been going to them for years and ordering “just a plain hamburger, no cheese”, and not once have they flubbed it.
Could be Jewish. Anyway, why does it matter?
As far as being too far to drive back, this happened to me when I lived in L.A. I went to the Jack-In-The-Box on Santa Monica and Lincoln in Santa Monica. They forgot my tacos. I phoned JITB (I don’t remember if it was the store or Corporate) and told them that they’d forgotten my tacos and it was a 20-mile round trip to get them. (I don’t think it was actually that far.) They sent me a cheque for $10.
I’ve even given up on Steak & Shake; they offer a complete menu of toppings for their damn steak burger and the one closest to my house has blown it the last three times—they won’t get another chance, and the manager of the facility has been told why. Vote with your money; don’t go back, but tell the boss why.
I have to say I’m surprised at the number of people who are sympathetic to the Wendy’s folk—why should the customer have to quality control check their own order?
I’m quite the gourmand of fast food burgers. There is no simple answer to your query. I, too, am anti-cheese. It ruins the burger. What’s even more baffling in my case is that I order the Single, which by default, has no cheese. And yet, still sometimes they put cheese on it.
This is why that, unless I observe them make the burger myself, I always check before I leave. Sometimes they mishear you. Sometimes they grab the wrong customer’s burger for you. Sometimes, they just don’t care.
Hardee’s, bless them, has only ‘Cheeseburgers’ - meaning, even their simplest burger is called ‘Cheeseburger’. So when I say ‘Cheeseburger, no cheese’ - they can rarely misinterpret that.
Ain’t should, does. You can launch a crusade to improve the hearing of minimum wage workers, or you can lift the bun on your burger.
Daniel
I don’t like cheese, and I especially don’t like it on a burger. I know there are a ton of people out there who can’t have a burger without cheese, but I’m not one of them. In my opinion, it ruins it. Yuck. Also, you can’t peel it off. It’s stuck on there like friggin’ napalm.
Two incidents now at Wendy’s. I’m getting close to writing them off forever. I get especially angry when I see that commercial where they go on and on about how you have so many choices, and can get your burger any damn way you want, blah blah blah. LIARS!!!
Also, Harborwolf went there awhile back, and ordered a spicy chicken sandwich. THERE WAS AMERICAN CHEESE ON IT!!! That’s not even right. It’s not even on the menu. He never said a word about cheese. I’m beginning to wonder if the Wendy’s in my town is staffed by morons.
Jim and I have figured out that as boomers age and disappear from the work force, leaving a void behind them, service jobs like Wendy’s cashier are going to be staffed very minimally - you’ll be lucky that there’s a warm body behind the register at all. I think we are all going to have to set our customer service sights down a little (or a lot), so we don’t drive ourselves crazy expecting things that just aren’t going to happen.
But we can still come here and vent away. 
Of course. That’s what holds the green chile in place.
Next time order it with ‘no fucking cheese’. Less chance they’ll screw that order up. If they do, throw it (and I do mean fling that sucker) right back at them and yell “There’s fucking cheese on it!”.
It’s not like you’ll be back.