A Not-so-funny Comedy of Errors

I have to begin this with a confession that at least the beginning of this chain of events was probably my own fault. I’m sure that on my receipt, that I lost, or my bottle, that I threw away, there was some indication or warning or number that I overlooked. My apologies to Walgreen’s for not being an aware customer, but my excuse is that I was spoiled by fifteen years of superior service at an old fashioned pharmacy where people actually knew my name and cared about me!!

Okay…so December 30 I called Walgreen’s to renew my blood pressure medication. No can do. It has to be approved because I’ve already had my last refill. Surprise to me because at my old pharmacy someone filling the last one would have said, “Hey, Mary did you realize this is the last refill? Better get a new script.” And I would have had ninety days to do so. But not a big deal. I just called the doctor and his receptionist said to have Walgreen’s fax the request and they’d take care of it. Called Walgreen’s and they assured me they would do that.

I stopped by Walgreen’s Friday, January 1, to see if my prescription was ready. No. Seems that they hadn’t gotten a reply from the doctor. And of course the clinic was closed for the holiday. Could I check back Monday? Well, sure, except for the fact that I only had enough medication for Saturday. (Rather than skip a dose Sunday I took a lower dose tablet that I thankfully had kept since June when my dosage was changed. Same medication, just the next lower dose. I thought that was more sensible than skipping.)

Monday, right after work, I’m standing in line at Walgreen’s. Ten minutes to the counter and they tell me again that they haven’t heard from the doctor. I agree to just drive over and handle the problem.

Go to the clinic and they tell me they never got a fax from Walgreen’s. Okay, this is when I start to get a little irritated, but I can be mature and just get the problem resolved. T agrees to send back a note to the doctor and tells me to wait a few minutes. After ten minutes she says he has called the prescription in and also suggests that if there is any further problem I can just come back and get a few samples for the interim.  Great.

Back to Walgreen’s.

It takes twenty minutes in line and another thirty minutes in the waiting area to get my prescription.

I have to stop here and tell you about my name. The sweet young girl at the counter just can’t spell my name to save her life. I always spell out my name because clerks assume it is spelled with an “o”, which is exactly what she does, only she isn’t listening to me.

So I tell her, “M-A-U-R-E-R”.

“M-O-A-“

“No, M-A-U-R-E-R.”

“M-A-O-“

“NO, M--A--U--“

“Oh, there isn’t an O.”

“Exactly.”

And here is where it starts to get so interesting. Because of the holiday their truck didn’t arrive and they only have five tablets. I’ll have to take those and return on Tuesday for the rest. I’m gritting my teeth by then and wondering if anyone realizes this medicine is for my blood pressure, which they are not helping to lower! Okay, I'll see you Wednesday because I have other things to do Tuesday.

Yesterday I waited in line for fifteen minutes and got the same young lady from Monday's fiasco, who remembered “having trouble with my name”. Once again she needed two spellings to get it into the computer correctly. I swear I’m going to start wearing my name tag! Then I was told by my lovely young lady that they would “fill” my prescription in a few minutes. Now, I would think that if you gave someone a partial prescription on Monday and told them to return for the remaining tablets, you would have those ready to go when they returned!! Apparently that is just too logical for Walgreen’s.

After fifteen minutes a young man came to me and asked, “Are you being helped?” I smiled and replied, “It’s hard to tell, since this is my third trip over here to get my medicine, but yes, I’ve been assured that they are working on it.”

He went in the back and in a few minutes I heard him say loudly, “She’s been here three times and we don’t have it?”

I can’t tell you all the thoughts that went through my head at that point, but they weren’t all nice. Thankfully, God put his hand on my shoulder and I turned my head and the next person in line behind me was my cousin. Now, his mother thinks I’m a pretty nice person, so I took that as my cue to be gracious no matter what! :)

After another minute the pharmacist himself came out and apologized because they only had 77 of the 85 tablets they owed me!! Could I return sometime during the month and get them? “Of course there won’t be a charge”, because they have to charge me full price for the 77 or my insurance won’t approve it.

At that point my smile was hurting and my blood pressure was getting ugly. I just thanked him, said goodbye to my cousin, and left!

Next month when my other prescription is due I think I’ll take a witness with me… and I’ll wear my name tag!

Have a great day!

Comments

[Sue Kincheloe]

Too funny--but sad that we have lost the whole idea of customer service today.

I have to share my Walgreen's story dealing with my last name--I laugh even when I think about it today and it happened several years ago.

I stopped at the drive-thru at the Walgreen's that I've gone to for probably 30 years. My prescription had been dropped off earlier and I was feeling really poorly when I went back to pick it up. The girl asked me over the drive-thru speaker for my last name. I pronounced it for her very slowly "KINCH-A-LOW, SUE KINCH-A=LOW". Now there are not a lot of Kincheloe's around and that usually does the trick. She looked in the bins and came back and asked again. I repeated the same thing and then proceeded to spell it for her. "K-I-N" and she interrupted me with "A-I-N". I said, "No, it's K-I-N" and she interrupted me again with "A-I-N". My throat was killing me and I, too, was becoming very frustrated. Being the teacher, I then told her, "It's not A, it's K as in" at this point I went totally blank for any word in my vocabulary that even began with a K let alone made the K sound. I eventually told her "K as in knife". Of course, as soon as I said that I felt like a total idiot. She turned around and got my prescription, I paid, and left laughing all the way home.

After all, laughter is the best medicine, you know.

[Linda Hillin]

I can certainly identify with your situation. I'm not quite sure where the problem lies. Is it the doctor's office that's too busy for the number of employees they have (our problem)? Is it Walgreen employees that don't give a rip (that's chronic everywhere these days)? I miss the days when pharmacists personally interacted with patients and cared about them.

[Megan]

I can't believe the pharmacy didn't offer you five or six pills until they could contact your doctor and get a refill. I've filled (historically speaking) at 4 pharmacies and every single one did that. None of the four, however, were Walgreens.