Aggravating day, i'm totally switching pharmacies! (VENTING)
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So this morning I took dd to the doctor and found out she had strep throat. I told the doctor to call the prescription in to the Giant Eagle Pharmacy in my city. This was around 9 a.m.
I figured I'd pick it up after working at the school, at 1 p.m. I went to the drive thru and told them her name. She came back and said that she had looked it up, didn't see anything on her. Looked in the drawer, etc. etc. but didn't find a thing. She told me the doctor had never called it in then says "i'm sorry...but really i shouldn't be because it's the doctor's fault!" o.k. I'm livid at this point because this happens EVERY TIME WE NEED A PRESCRIPTION, whether I call in a refill or the doctor calls in a prescription. So I say "fine, i'll call the doctor". I get home, call the dr. office and tell her the story and the lady looks it up and goes "Oooooh, good old Giant Eagle" meaning, they have trouble with them too. She says that they did call in the Rx, that they do have it and to tell GE to look in their Queue and if they don't find it to have the pharmacy call the dr. office. She was friendly enough.
So instead of going back to GE I call them and ask them to check on a prescription. I'm put on hold for like 5 minutes. There is no music or any noise, so i'm not sure if I was hung up on or what. So I hang up and call back a few minutes later and just spew out everything that had happened so far. And ask the tech to look in the queue. She says she'd have the pharmacist look. Puts me on hold (complete silence again, i was hoping had not been hung up on again) she finally comes back and says that she doesn't see anything in the "queue" at all. So I told her that the pharmacist needs to call the dr. office. Then the girl goes "it's right here, it's in the drawer."
i said "are you SURE?"
"yes"
"it's in your HAND?"
"yes"
"are you sure it's Isabella's"?
"yes"
Ahhh! Finally!
So I go pick it up. And there is a line of 3 people in front of me, plus a bunch of cars in the drive-thru.
The ladies behind the counter (especially 1 of them) were all shaken up because right before I got there there was a guy in the drive thru who was screaming at the woman. Probably because they are idiots. Last time I was there, there was a older man who was yelling at the people in the pharmacy because he didn't get his medication yet. I mean seriously. I don't blame the customers because I know how aggravating this place is.
Anyway, it is finally my turn and I tell the woman my dd's name. She turns, opens the little drawer where they keep the prescriptions and then someone calls her away. Her coworker needed help with the cash register so she goes and stands there and chats with her and helps her, and keeps chatting. Then she walks away!!! Toward the pharmacist and is standing there talking to her! OMG that did not just happen. I'm about to BLOW! Then they girls behind the counter are acting as if i'm not there. No other customers at this point. I spoke up and said "UM EXCUSE me but that woman just asked my name and then disappeared" they got her back and I finally got my poor daughters medication at 3:30 p.m. But WOW. I am SO glad my girlfriends and I are going out tonight! Makers Mark and Coke here I COME!!
If you are still reading this, thanks for listening!
and like I said in the title, i'm never getting prescriptions there again!
Patti, I think they are all just as bad now. I only fill my Rx's @ CVS - and more often than not, they either only have a partial fill, or don't have the med and have to order it. Rarely, if ever, do they ever have all of our Rx's. DH and I are on a number of them regularly every month. They KNOW this.
They also have given us someone else's Rx, lost ours, and had the wrong doctor's name on more than one of ours so when a refill authorization was necessary, I couldn't make the dim girl I was speaking with understand that they had to call the CORRECT doctor for the refill! It ended up being easier to just call the doctor myslef and ask THEM to call in a new Rx.
The major problem I have with them is I am on several meds that I CANNOT skip for a few days *if* they don't happen to have them. We have filed complaints. I had a long conversation with our pharmacist there and told her that I KNOW that *I* am not the only person out here that is on these particular meds and if they KNOW they have *X* number of persons who are on them, then why don't they keep them in stock?
As for the drive through-I NEVER bother with that.
In store, the lines are always ridiculously long. The employees send a lot of time B.S.'ing among themselves.
Calling the pharmacy is a joke.
But sadly, the other pharmacies in this area are just as bad, if not worse! WalMart - advertised for the $4 Rx - well, they had ONE of the ones we take - hardly worth the extra miles and hassle to go there. Then, every single person I know whose used WalMart's pharmacy says that they call 2 and 3 days in advance of picking up their Rx's and when they go to get them, they STILL do not have them, they are not ready, they haven't called the doctor, whatever reasons. I will NEVER go to WalMart for an Rx.
There should be a person's name and number *somewhere* in the store - a district or regional pharmacy manager. Find it. Place an official complaint. *Our* service has improved since then.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. 
I use Walmart pharmacy and so far that hasn't happened to me, it is just the wait when trying to get one filled because they are so busy.
I would have asked if they were going to pay your gas to go back to the store.
What a big pain!!!!!!!! I would be so ticked!!!
We mostly use the Walmart or Walgreens pharmacy and haven't had any trouble. Ditto on the $4 Rx at Walmart - none of ours have ever been on the list either, so that's a wasted advertisement for us. We've also had luck with CVS, but haven't used it for a while just due to convenience.
I have learned to not have the doctor call it in. I'm going to tell them to hand me the prescription so I KNOW the pharmacist gets it.
Patti, some of my doctors electronically send scrips now - it's GREAT!
We usually don't have a problem with Walgreens. Our docs can fax scripts to the pharmacy, electronically, but it seems the pharmacies don't check their fax machines, or it takes a long time to send, because often the people show up at the pharmacy to pick up their meds, before the fax gets to the pharmacy, so they have to call us and we end up giving them the information over the phone. I wish the system worked faster, but it just doesn't seem to. Of the 5 doctors I work with, some fax, and some give them a piece of paper. I know I've run into it, too.
I went to the doctor. He prescribed something. The kids and I went to the library and THEN went to Walgreen's. It still wasn't there, and I had to wait and make some phone calls.
One time, August 2007, I had a UTI. I went to Walgreens to drop off the prescription. They said it would take about 35 minutes. I was having to pee very often, at that point and I'm mere minutes from the store, so I went home. I think I waited 45 minutes, before I went back. At the time I got back, I still had to wait another 20 minutes. I was miserable and sure wished that Gary could have been home to go pick up my med, instead of me, so I could have just stayed home.
Usually picking up meds, though, is uneventful. I'm sorry you had so much trouble.
My blood pressure and cholesterol meds, come from Caremark, so we get those mail-order. I haven't had any problems with them. I just need to stay on top of my med supply and order my meds, before I'm close to running out. I really get my meds pretty fast. The problem is forgetting to get them ordered.
I think that's the problem Karen. They either e mail it or call it in. The problem was that they are so busy thay can't keep up. When I was picking it up, they were telling someone that it was an hour wait for the prescriiption to be filled. That's justcrazy.
Friends and family have told me other places to go that don't have that long a wait.
I meant that they do it electronically but the pharmacy screws it up...
Funny, that's always the way it is at Walmart for me... I could take the same paper script in another store like Dillon's and it would be ready in 15-20 minutes, but taking it in Walmart was MINIMUM 30. I asked one time why no matter what it was at least 45 minutes, and the tech told me that it's 30 minutes just for them to fill it when there is no one else waiting. I asked why, and she said it takes that long for the pharmacist to look at the script, count the pills, the techs to label and process it, etc. How is that possible when Dillon's could do it in 10? I was post-op one time, and waited over an hour for my pain pills, I was in agony by the time I left. Another time I dropped a script off an hour before closing, and said I would wait, only to be told I couldn't pick it up until the next day. I ended up having to drive 20 minutes to Walgreens, since there were no other pharmacies open. I stopped going to Walmart after that. Kroger/Dillon, Walgreens, and CVS have $4 programs now, which I actually have a couple of scripts that qualify, so that took away my only reason to bother with Walmart.
Patti, I'm sorry you and your daughter went through that, it sucks to not have the meds for a sick child!!! And as for the electronic scripts, I had one doc in KS that sent them from his PDA, which I thought was cool. I never had any problems with that as far as the pharmacy checking, usually it was ready by the time I got there from the doctor's office.
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