Not a Real Pharmacist
The whole kerfluffle over Walgreens and the professionalism of their pharmacy staff does not surprise me. I was a Walgreens customer for several years, having them fill my synthetic thyroid supplement (I don’t have a thyroid gland) as well as the hundreds of thousands of medications required to raise a child in modern America (including the occasional medication for the child.)
I never found any personally disparaging remarks on my own pharmacy paperwork, but I was less than impressed with Walgreens’ ability to competently fill a prescription. I cannot remember how many times I called in a refill, waiting about 48 hours, and then went in only to be told the item was out of stock or “on the way.”
I finally switched to Albertson’s pharmacy to reduce my “standing and arguing at the pharmacy” hours. What really iced the cake is that they saved me $10 a month. My thyroid hormone prescription is at an unusual level — .25 milligrams daily — and most pharmacies don’t stock this esoteric size. Walgreens filled this by giving me two bottles, one at .20 mg and one at .5 mg, charging me a separate insurance co-pay for each bottle. The Albertsons pharmacist took a look at my bottles and asked me, “Why didn’t they just give you a doubled amount of .125 pills? One bottle means only one copay.”
Why indeed? The only answers that come to mind involve the words unimaginative ripoff sons of so-and-so’s, but those are the kinds of comments that got Walgreens in trouble in the first place, so I’ll exercise some restraint. Like I have time for a class-action lawsuit.
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I use Walgreens all the time, and really have never had a problem. It’s mainly a convenience thing, since they are right down the street from me. Albertsons is actually closer, but no drive thru at that one. God forbid I get out of my car to walk in, get a little exercise in the process to help lower my blood pressure, and then walk to the counter to pick up my blood pressure medication.
I use one Walgreens only, but have found different levels of customer service at others when I was out of this area. The one here is very good, though, and will notify me immediately by phone if they are out of stock. I guess the main reason I like them is they have an incredible online refill service. It shows your prescription history, how many refills are left, and it is a simple click, order, and choose pickup time.
Maybe it’s just the particular Walgreens you use? There could be another reason why I get such good service. Between Me, Judy, and Anthony, we probably keep this particular Walgreens in business. All they have to do is see my face, and they know what prescription to grab. I’m a pharmacy idol.
Joe,
In my experience, service varies from salesperson to salesperson as much as from store to store. I have been using the same Walmart Pharmacy for 20 years, and I have learned who I want to deal with, and who I need to avoid.
In the case of Walgreen’s though, it seems to be a chain-wide phenomenon. All I can say is take your business elsewhere when you have problems they don’t want to remedy. Failing that, I suppose a person could beat them soundly about the head and shoulders with a rubber chicken. Well, that would be one of MY solutions, anyway, LOL.
So you are looking for a “quality” drug dealer. And you found one at the supermarket. Why am I not surprised? When I used to deal, a supermarket was ideal because of the wide variety of potential cust,,,never mind.
So Fred, does that mean I can get a discount on both milk and smack with my Albertsons Preferred Savings Card?
Please. In the lot we call it “SugarSmacks”
Actually, Fred, SugarSmacks went the way of Super Sugar Crisp, and Sugar Frosted Flakes. Using GoldenSmacks in the lot instead will go a longer way with the, ahem, Cracker Jacks.
Guys:
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! LOL