Wendy's District Manager Blames Bad Service On Massachusetts Town

A Wendy’s district manager in Massachusetts is under fire after he blamed a restaurant’s bad customer service on the town where it is located.

It all started on Sunday when Matthew Rose contacted Wendy’s corporate office to gripe about two terrible experiences he had at a Wendy’s in Wareham, according to Boston station WCVB.

Rose was shocked by an email he received on Monday from district manager Keith Edward Helger, who blamed the poor service on the town’s limited “talent pool”:

Not an excuse but the town of Wareham has little to no talent pool to hire from. This is an ongoing issue in that area.

We are constantly interviewing and hiring any and all qualified candidates. Unfortunately, those candidates are hard to come by, as most are recovering addicts, and we cannot hire them.

Rose told WCVB the response was not only “completely cruel,” but ”(it) didn’t even touch on the problems I told him.”

Rose wants an apology on behalf of Wareham.

“Saying that the town of Wareham is full of junkies and people that have no viable talent to work in a fast food restaurant ― that is more than heartless,” Rose said.

HuffPost reached out to Helger and to Wendy’s corporate offices for comment, neither of whom immediately responded.

However, Wendy’s did release this statement to reporters:

These comments are inconsistent with our company’s values and do not reflect Wendy’s hiring practices. We work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive environment in our restaurants and will address this appropriately.

Rose, who has lived in Wareham for two decades, told the Boston Globe the fast food chain has lost his business.

“Unless I know that the store has changed for the better, I will never step foot in it again,” he said.

But Helger’s beef with Wareham is longstanding, according to the paper.

Last year, he appeared before the Wareham Board of Health to address multiple complaints “regarding the cleanliness of the establishment.”

According to minutes from the meeting he ”stated it is difficult to obtain help at the food chain.”