[Anonymous]

#1158049

Bad service at almost any business is rampant today, unfortunately.
(Then businesses wonder why their customers change to competitors at
the drop of a hat.)

Other factors that I would guess could affect whether a pharmacist
will be helpful (other than a simple lack of courtesy) may be the
attitude and/or temperament of the individual pharmacist (some may
even be Dilbert-style induhviduals), whether the pharmacy happens to
be very busy when you go, and how paranoid that particular business
is about lawsuits. I can imagine a situation where an employer tells
the pharmacist only to discuss prescription drugs and prescription
drug interactions because they are afraid that if the pharmacist tells
the customer to take calcium supplements and the customer later gets
gallstones that the pharmacy could be sued and so on.

I’m not saying customers would actually sue, but I do know that many
businesses are very paranoid about lawsuits.

My suggestion would be to call the pharmacy at different times of the
day to see if you can get the name of a pharmacist who doesn’t mind
helping then go when they are working, if possible, during a less
busy period. If you feel strongly that you need help from a pharmacist
and it isn’t forthcoming at all, then I would suggest calling other
pharmacies, telling them you are thinking of moving several
prescriptions to them, and asking them if they can offer the type of
help you want. You may be surprised; in today’s competitive business
environment there are often businesses who will go out of their way to
gain a customer but you still may end up having to insist on good
service as time goes by.

Personally, I am almost always willing to take my business elsewhere if
I feel that I am not being treated appropriately or fairly.

The real problem comes if you live in a very rural area where there is
only one choice of where to go and you’re not getting good service.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a solution for that one other than
complaining to the management. Wait a minute, I just thought of a
possibility. It could be that there may be a mail-order prescription
service that you could deal with, where you call an 800 number to
order the meds and have them mailed to you. I’ve read about these but
don’t remember specifics; Consumer Reports may have done an article
about them a while back.

[Anonymous]

#1054166

Good Morning Warriors,
Well I decided to make up a list of my current meds and bring it to the local pharmacy for review by the pharmacist as I had to get some new prescriptions filled yesterday. Well the response I received
from the pharmacist was- “All your medications are put onto your profile in our computer system and would show up as we filled your current or new medications.” Other than that they did not want to take the time and explain about vitamins or other OTC meds such as calcium supplements. BTW, this was a mass chain pharmacy ;argest in the northeast. So I am sure smaller more personalized would take the time and help you. So the bottom line is probaly read the book that Jeannette had suggested or pay a little more at smaller localized pharmacies and develop a repor with the pharmacist!

Hope everybody has a nice weekend and try to stay cool!

Dee

[Anonymous]

#1158050

Like you, I get my prescriptions filled at a large chain drugstore. The pharmacist has occasionally talked to me when I picked meds up, and I have asked questions over the years, especially when there is a change in dosage or new ones. I try to go later in the evening, not right after work when they are really busy or on Monday or Friday at all. Most large chains have a customer service in their company headquarters. I did not know this, but was so angry with a pharmacy one time, I called the company. Found out there was a whole customer service department for the pharmacies, and the person who got to deal with me was very pleasant and got results quickly. The pharmacist is your last line of defense against med errors..

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