Complaint Review: Walgreens Pharmacies - Yuma Arizona

Greetings If you are unaware of what this acronym is, I strongly suggest you learn it. Each pharmacy has the duty under the law to safeguard your information from other people, entities, etc. As for the pharmacist, I believe you know where the issue lies with number of pharmacists. Pharmacy schools create artificially low admissions and graduating classes. I strongly question that its about quality control. Nearly every pharmacist magazine I've come acrossed within the last 3 months is about protecting their field. Regards,

I don't understand how you and your husband felt so incredibly embarrassed about "diabetes medication." (I assume you mean insulin?) I mean, considering the high percentage of the population who is diabetic, thanks to this obesity epidemic, I don't think anyone would even bat an eyelash at your need for "diabetes medication". It's not like you were in line to pick up your Viagra or something. That would be a bit more embarrassing, don't you think?

My family uses a lot of prescriptions as both our daughters have epilepsy. Just a few times, in all our travels in all the states that we have needed walgreens have there been problems. Most of the problems can be sorted out with a manager or just by taking a deep breath. Is walgreens perfect, I should say not, but do they overall, do a good job - I won't change pharmacies. Even though Wal-mart and sams are cheaper, I like that walgreens is everywhere I go. Just my 4 cents worth.

If your Walgreen's pharmacist blurted out your prescription or any private information in the company of other customers, that pharmacist was in violation of newly established HIPPA guidelines. In essence, that pharmicist is breaking the law. Report them pure and simple. That single act may not help you personally, but if the state regulators gather a pattern of HIPPA violations, they may pursue it. Good luck. I once had a KMart pharmacist announce very loudly that they were out of a particular medication that I needed...I have never visited a KMart pharmacy since...this was well before HIPPA guidelines. Best,

Always are never true. You can have 1 or 2 rude employees but that does not speak for the entire company. My family deals on a regular basis with our local Walgreens for all of our prescriptions and they have never been rude in the 5 years we have dealt with them.

I work at Walgreens in Kansas and I am sorry for the people who had bad experiences, but you cannot say everyone who works there is rude and thinks they are above you. Most of the people who work at my store (myself included) will go above & beyond what they are required to do and they do it with a smile. There is even a girl who works at the front register who carries change in her pocket in case anybody is short and needs some extra money to make their purchase. I have known a lot of rude people in my life, but several of my co-workers are among the most genuinely friendly people you could meet. I do everything I can to make sure the customer is satisfied b/c thats how I know I would like to be treated. Most of the customers are very appreciative and thank me for the time i spend helping them figure out what cosmetics item to buy, but some people get very upset/angry when the situation is beyond my control. I have been screamed and cursed at and called the most offensive names you can think of just b/c i wouldnt sell cigarettes to people b/c they did not have an ID (clearly states that you have to show ID if you look under 40 - these people all looked under 20.) I had someone get mad at me b/c they dyed their hair & didnt like it so they bought a dye remover kit and dyed their hair again and didnt like it & they wanted a refund on all 3 items. The manager wouldn't accept a return so the lady puts her anger out on me like i am in charge of walgreens policy - "i thought your company guaranteed 100% customer satisfaction, this is b.s." etc If you have the idea that everyone who works at Walgreens is rude, your self fulfilling prophecy will come true. If someone is giving me the cold shoulder b/c they expect that I will treat them badly I will be a bit more uncomfortible around them, which they might interpret as me being rude. Unfortunately, a lot of conflict (big and small) starts with misinterpretation of events and preconceived notions about others.

Anyone who says Walgreens is good is DEAD WRONG! They have the worse customer service in their store and the worse customer service in their pharmacy. The employees think their above you. Of course there are the occassional "nice and sweet and caring" employees. I have dealt with all rude employees. I use to have a friend who worked at a walgreens pharmacy in AZ and told me he is purposely rude to pharmacy customers. He is only nice to the good looking ones. He teases special needs people and anyone who comes in scared or worried about medical conditions or prescriptions. He makes fun of. I reported him and have filed more complaints against Walgreens on other stores. I even tried switching walgreen stores. Still rude. Walgreens Corp never responds to any complaints. I have made 3. I know they exist because I lived in Deerfield, IL for 9 years. Don't tell me RESPECT goes both ways. This is your health and your life. Who do you want handling it. Some rude person. I don't think so. I was raised to say to be respectful of other people and always say thank you. Thats how I treat each person. I also do not care that you are understaffed. That is no excuse! I worked in customer service most of my life and have had a few bad days in my life. I do not take it out on the customer. That is so unproffessional. When I can actually receive a response to my home or by email from Walgreens apologizing, then maybe I can take all this back.

I'm sorry you had such an unpleasant experience with Rachel at Walgreens. I live in Portland, OR, so I don't know the exact details of this particular store. However, to make such a generalized comment based on your experiences at ONE store, primarily with one lousy employee, is just plain ignorant on your part. Sorry to be "negative", but I take insult to that. I work in a photo lab myself and I am very patient and always make sure the customer is happy. The only time I am ever rude or unpleasant is if I am verbally assaulted by a customer for no valid reason. In EVERY business there are going to be lousy people, rude people, as well as funny people, friendly people. We live in a BIG world. Think outside the box. What does this have to do with pharmacy complaints anyway? You were just looking to rant.

I'm sorry, but some of these problems are just common sense or common courtesy. I remember living across the street from my pharmacy. If I walked in and they were swamped, I'd come back at another time to get my medicine. Sometimes I'd go to the pharmacy and the clerks would tell me that the pharmacist was doing some work at a nursing home, was at lunch, and would be back in an hour. Many pharmacies are short-staffed. I also try to order my medicine before I am completely out. I am sure a pharmacy appreciates it when you call in your Rx to be refilled to hear a customer say, "I don't need this medicine today." This frees up time for the customer who comes in from an emergency room, for the customer who has been sick all night, for the customer who needs patient couseling about their medicine because they are experiencing a reaction, for the person who was recently diagnosed, or who don't understand the directions. It is also a good idea to check your medicine before leaving the store to make sure you didn't get the generic when you wanted the name brand. Some manufacturers' generic version of a drug are not as effective for me, so I want to make sure I didn't get that drug. We are all human and since mistakes can happen (God forbid), it is also important that you check your own medication, too. If I want my medicine delivered or if a doctor has to be called for a refill, I will allow extra time. My clinic used to say that it could take up to a week for my doctors to okay my medicine when the pharmacist calls for a refill authorization. And then if my clinic refuses the medicine, I have to make a doctor's appointment. Yes, I think it is terrible that we do not have a drug plan which covers everyone's medicine, but we don't have that yet. An article in our newspaper recently stated that our state has people dying due to a $5.000 cap on outpatient care for persons who have MinnesotaCare insurance and more people in Minnesota are trying to get qualified for medical assistance when our state has had many financial cutbacks and is having difficulty balancing the budget. I think that most pharmacies will carry credit if not receiving a certain drug is a life-threatening situation (insulin, for example). Don't take your frustrations out on the pharmacy though; most employees are just following orders. I remember I had a large medication bill at Snyders Drug years ago and was unemployed. When they wrote to tell me how much I owed, I made arrangements with them to pay a little every month until the bill was paid. If we treat others with a little respect, then I believe they will make concessions for us. I'm afraid my family got a little upset with Snyders (when their employees just quoted the rules) because my family had to deal with years of my illness and not a whole lot of support even with the best insurance our state had to offer--Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Hope this information helps. Your pharmacist has had just about as much education as a physician and to waste their time with petty problems, I believe, is performing a dis-service. I'm sorry the pharmacist here was unable to explain that the prescription had expired even though they still had one refill left. Maybe you were dealing with a clerk or technician who didn't understand these rules.

I am a tech at a Walgreens in Arlington, Texas. My pharmacy does the highest volume in our district for a non-24 hour store. We have two pharmacists and six technicians daily during the week and one pharmacist and two technicians on weekends. I have been at this Walgreens location for a year and a half and believe the staff I work with is among the best in the company. We are required by law to be allowed a 30 minute lunch break and two 15 minute breaks, but as a pharmacist before mentioned, we are too understaffed to take these breaks. Sure, we could if we wanted. No one would say we couldn't. But that 30 minute break isn't worth the chaos we would return to and spend two hours catching up on. Please understand that we want to help you. We want you to leave happy. We don't want you to get upset, because that only adds more frustration to an already hectic environment. Technicians do so much for our customers, often with no thanks. Not that we expect it, it's our job. We do expect respect, though. On an average day, I will make six or seven calls to an insurance company (whose call center employees often are more rude to us than we could ever imagine being to you) to try to find a patient's eligibility. I will make two or three calls to doctors' offices to clarify a presciption (believe it or not, doctors make mistakes too, and their nurses often make us feel like we're completely wasting their time). I will fax and refax countless refill requests (as most doctors refuse to take refill requests over the phone). I will explain what an insurance deductible is (especially now at the beginning of the year) to practically every third customer, who is often venting their anger on me (as though the money is going into my account). I will be yelled at because I cannot break Texas State Law and dispense an expired medication or one with no refills (though, if the medication is live saving maintenance medicine and it is possible to dispens a few days' worth, we always will... birth control and viagra do NOT count). People who are addicted to prescription pain killers and anti-anxiety medications will call us every 15 minutes to see if their doctor has okayed their early refill on the medication that got stolen (again) or dropped down the toilet (again). on top of this, we are trying to fill your medication accurately. I cannot get your prescription ready in under 5 minutes on a monday evening at 6pm, even if all I have to do is slap a label on it. Why? Because first, I have to enter the six presciptions that are ahead of you. The tech filling has about twenty lables piling up. The pharmacist who has to verify that your presciption has been entered and filled correctly is explaining drug interactions to a patient, there's a doctor on hold waiting to give a new prescription, and she has to call another pharmacy to transfer someone else's prescription to our store. We understand that you or a loved one needs their medication as soon as possible. But it's a pharmacy, everyone needs theirs as soon as possible. And we try to deliver that, to our best ability. But We would rather have you wait an extra five minutes and take the correct medication than slap a label on a bottle of pills and send you home with something that could be fatal for you. Walgreens cares for its customers. They are constantly updating their internal computer systems to try to expedite the process and ensure accurate filling. We try to our best. I know I'm not always particularly pleasant, but I try to not be rude. It's not an easy job. People talk about what customer service was like in the "good 'ole days," but if you feel you've been the victim of rude service, consider what your attitude was. I'm not justifying rude behavior by a Walgreen's employee. You should never be treated with disrespect. But we're human. We have tempers too, and when we do our best to get our job done and we're told that we don't care or we don't know what we're doing, our defenses go up. We genuinely do all we can, at least at my store, to make sure you come back. But remember, you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar. We try to show our understanding of your situation (we've probably already had one like it that day). Try to show some understanding of ours. I know that with the customers that are always pleasant, we bend over backwards to help them with any issue they may be having. But with those that make us hate what we do, we're not so willing, because deep down, we wish they would go somewhere else. Maybe that's not the best customer service attitude, but it's true. Think about your job. What if you constantly had phones ringing, you didn't have time to eat, you're on your feet constantly, people get mad about their doctor, their insurance, and the fact that you can't hear them from the passenger side of a car in the drive thru with phones ringing, babies crying, and planes flying overhead. You have ten people who want thirty prescriptions NOW. You wouldn't miss someone who adds stress to your life, either. I apologize on behalf of all techs who have treated anyone rudely. Like I said, we want you to be happy. It makes our lives a lot easier, too.

I am employed at a Walgreens Pharmacy I work in the Pharmacy as a technician. I have to agree that almost every technician I have worked with have been very rude and insulting to patients. I am so thoughly disgusted by the technicians I have had to work with. I have worked with a young technician who proceeded to cuss me out for no apparent reason, other then she is very rude to her fellow employees, and I am suspose to meet with the manager of the store as well as the district manager to resolve this problem. Well guess what? This little tech who started this apparently will get to keep her job and I will resign, because there is no resolving the fact that this girl is a disrepectful monster and that seems to be the type of employee that Walgreens likes to employ. I knew something was up when I noticed that none of the employees ever smile, almost robotic movements. Very strange how Walgreens hires everyone of the same personality type. None smiling, rude, short tempered people, who seem to have stepped right out of The Stepford Wives movie, very creepy. I quit!

I have recently become a Walgreens customer the pharmacy where I used to go didn't except the new insurance from my new employer however Walgreens was on the list. The pharmacy tech called my prior drug store had all of my meds transferred to there there store. I had not received my drug cards at the time of the refill, they called my insurance company got all my information then called me to let me know some of the meds were not on the new drug plan then told me what meds were comprable to those. I was then able to call my Dr. and get new scripts on the meds that were not in the "network" I'm sorry in all the years I have been taking my medicines no other company has gone above and beyond the way Walgreens has. They also gave me a $10.00 gift card for switching to there pharmacy so hats of to the Walgreens in Anderson SC

As an employee of Walgreens, I know how hectic and stressful it can be in the pharmacy.The person who worked the register in the 1st complaint really should not be allowed back there. Of all the state laws and strict internal policies that Walgreens implements, you would think that she would know better than to scream out a customers personal information. I feel really bad for that customer; and to tell you the truth, I feel bad for all of the customers who have had bad experiences at the store, because it reflects all Walgreens employees. After reading all of the views from the "complainers", and all of the rebutals from other people, I noticed that no one has actually said "I'm sorry", or "What would you like for me to do to make your situation better". All I know is, I am very good at what I do, and the people that I work with and have worked with have all have pleasant attitudes at work, and if you were to come into the pharmacy that I work in, you would not leave complaining. I always tell my customers to have a nice day, even when the situation doesn't work out the way they would have wanted it to. Have a Good Day

I went to the Walgreens on Hwy 69 in Prescott Valley. A young lady named Rachelle who worked in the Photo department was acting like she was helping customers with the Photo Scanner machine. Instead as I stood waiting to pay for some items, I overheard this young lady giving customers the 3rd degree, her tone of voice and mannerisms were very quick so no one could follow what she was doing on the machine and she was scolding them on how they were not using the machine correctly and was overbearing and pushy and treated the elderly customers with no respect at all as if they were children. I was going to make some copies of some wallets I had, but when I heard how she was treating people, I decided to leave. She was rude, obnoxious, disrespectful and outright snotty to customers. I am sure alot of people have complained about this person. Watch out, these Walgreens employees are very negative people. I have not met 1 friendly employee yet especially in the Prescott Valley location. The pharmacy is bad also. They are too busy and there is a woman there with grey hair seems like she just started there recently and she is very, very rude to patients needed prescriptions. I don't know why people are this way, I guess this is just the way the world is now. Message left from a concerned senior citizen wishing there was "True Customer Service" again.

As both a pt and someone who works in a pharmacy, I can somewhat see both sides. There are a few things that could have been done on both the pharmacy's part and the costumers part. For example, if you are traveling please check your meds before you go, and if you are going to run out before you get back check and see if you could have gotten a vacation overide. Most insuance policies have them, and if they say get it at a store in the place you are going to, call and ask the pharmacist if you can get that med in that state or will you need to get a new prescription from your docotor. Now the pharmacy staff should never be that rude and loud. As new laws come into effect it is very hard to ignore that the employee loudly shouted that information out. The staff should repremand the employee. To the pt (costumer) when things are not going as you wanted them too, please be patient. We are doing the best we can with the laws and regulations that the board of pharmacy expects us to abide. You are right in the fact that we can not refuse your husband his medication, however depending on what meds he has if he is going to faint at that point which med would have worked? If he is taking two types of insulin we would not have known which one to give him, as I am sure you know one is for too high and one is for too low, if they would have given him the wrong one it could have been fatal. As well as there are multitudes of urgent care facilites and you could have easily gone to one and they would have given you a new prescription for a month. The pharmacy needs to work on their costumer service skills. I know of a pharmacist that works down there, if that is how that place is ran than I would recomend to fire the employee and or demote them to front end service. If it was a clerk that was just there to check the costumer out than they need to be informed about the act knownn as HIPPA. It may become hectic and frustrating at times but when it comes to costumer service it needs to be good. The company's logo is walgreens is as close to perfect as you can get and with that you need to try a bit harder. If you think that the company's logo is just something to bring you people in the door than prehaps you are in the wrong chain. I know that the pharmacy can get busy and costumer service is usually the first thing to go, but someday you will be in the costumers position and someone will do to you as you did to the costumer. Put yourself in their shoes and see how it can be frustrating and nerve racking to know that a love one is not doing well. And to the costumer please try and understand that pharmacies are very hectic and almost always understaffed. There is a huge shortage of Pharmacist and I know the reason I will not become a pharmacist is because of the amount of costumers who want them to do every little thing regarding their health care for them. We are asked to call the doc, asked to pages the costumers doctor, we are asked to call insurance when we know the reason for why it is not working, we are asked to call and get the prescription verified ect. Pharmacy's no more than twenty years ago, didn't file insurance claims, didn't call to switch the medication to a cheeper one, didn't ask for refills, all they did was fill the prescription as was. Be thankfull that in the past twenty some odd years that we now do all of that. Like the pharmacist said in the first rebuttal take control of your health care, do not assume that the doctor and pharmacist will do it for you. Lastly I would like to say, the problem could have been avoided if both sides would have taken a deep breath and started over. It does not help any sistuation to get hot headed and stubborn. I hope with this information that both sides can start to see what it is like to be the other. What goes on in the pharmacy is not known by many and those who do know tend to let the "general public" know how it works and why certian things happen. It is not easy being a pt that has no control of the sistuation and can see her husband about to faint. It was a bad experiance but let it be a learning one so that everyone can just let it go.

Be glad your husband wasn't waiting for Viagra.

When I was in the military, I had a very smart supervisor tell me one time that "Where you stand (your view of a situation) depends on where you sit". Now, as a pharmacist for Walgreens, I know exactly where the other pharmacist who responded to this report is coming from, and I can also see where the other reports misunderstand what goes on in the pharmacy. In reading the previous responses, it seems odvious to me that the first person's prescription had expired. The second person who had the complaint that she couldn't pick up her prescription even though it was filled could be explained too. When our system is down, we can FILL the prescription...we just can't process it through the insurance company. In this situation, the customer can either pay the cash price and be reimbursed when our system gets back on line, or if the prescription is a refill and the pharmacist agrees, the customer can be charged the last price she paid for the same prescription. Likewise, when you need a refill, we don't CALL the doctor's office. Our computer automatically sends a fax to the doctor's office. If you ask your doctor if she received a call, she didn't. Her nurse received the fax and she will give it to the doctor. This adds another link where the fax can get misplaced, etc. It is not always the pharmacy's fault. Most problems can be avoided if only an experienced technician or the pharmacist could talk to the patient and explain the situation. The problem with this is that we don't have time to do this with every patient, because we are so busy doing all the things the first pharmacist who wrote in talked about. This usually leaves a clerk, who is sometimes inexperienced, to handle patient affairs at the cash register. While this may not seem like the best situation, just remember that the most experienced people are the ones working hard in the back of the pharmacy to fill your prescription and to make sure that it is correct before you take it. Just because we may have a drive thru at Walgreens doesn't mean that you get your medications as quickly as you get hamburgers at a fast food resteraunt. Give us some time and be patient and understand that it takes time to get prescriptions filled. Insurance problems, laws, and doctors not returning patient refill requests are out of our hands. We all do the very best we can to have things run smoothly and for everyone to get what they want. Most of us got into this business because we like helping people, and it disappoints me that those of you who wrote in had bad experineces with Walgreens. Maybe if we took the time to understand where each other is coming from, life would be easier for all of us! :-)

Iv'e had similar problems with a Walgreens in Tempe, AZ. Iv'e been going to this store on McClintock and Southern for about 10 years, but recently, within the last 3 years, i've experienced perscription mixups, rude and inexperienced employees as well as lost prescription refills. About 1 year ago, I recall asking for a refill on asthma medication, the pharmacyst said they would need to call the doctor, but, they never did. I asked my doctor if they had called, and of course they had not. Walgreens did not call me back, So, I called them and asked them why they haven't called me or refilled the prescription, but they diddn't know what I was talking about. Just recently, I tried again to have a prescription refilled, of which I know I have four refills remaining, they told me I did not have any and again they would need to call my doctor. However, it appears what happened, is that they somehow added my presceiptions to my fathers prescription history, and listed a doctor for me that I had never heard of. Last month, however, all the records were correct, and I had no problem getting my refill. I have had bad experiences in person with these people also. About 6 months ago, I went again to have an asthma medication refill, and the "Systems" were down. But, my prescription was already filled and waiting for me to pick up, I could see it sitting on the counter in the bag. They wouldn't give it to me, then the manager, some jack a*s with blond frosts in his hair, yelled at me and said the computers were down so I cannot have my prescription. I yelled back and called him an ignorant a*s, or something of the sort. But the point is these people are serious asses, and if you aren't carefull they will make you really pissed off.

I have an ex-employee of Walgreens. I am a pharmacist and have the advantage of seeing both sides to this story. In the state of Arizona, prescriptions are only good for 1 year regardless of how many refills you have left. So this lady said she had 1 refill left and the employee still would not fill the prescription. Well I am sure the Walgreen's employee told her prescriptions are only good for 1 year. The law is the law. She failed to mention that part in her complaint, though. As far as Walgreens in general. They are extremely rude to their customers. I will agree with that one. I worked there for a short time as a pharmacist and quit because the working environment was so negative. Pharmaists in general don't have the best working conditions, though. Very few retail settings allow us a lunch break or even a 15 minute break during the day. Federal law requires us to shut down the pharmacy completely if we want to take a break. Most companies frown upon that so we are required to eat on our feet while doing the job. I work several 11 hour days in 1 week without so much as a 5 minute break. There is currently a shortage of pharmacists so that doesn't help our working conditions. We are overworked and stressed out. The public is not always easy to work with nor is the person who wants 3 prescriptions in 10 minutes. You are not the only customer we are dealing with. Our job consists of insurance problems, refill call-ins, new prescriptions from doctors, patient questions, faxed prescriptions, counting pills, inventory control, scheduling, checking prescriptions, counseling patients on their meds, overseeing the pharmacy technicians, answering patient telephoned questions, counseling on over-the-counter products, etc. We are very busy and very stressed out. Remember ou are not the only person we are dealing with. Please be kind to your pharmacist we work hard and often don't get many thanks for it. We try to be kind and sympathetic to everyone, but you must also try and see our side of things as well. I am sorry this person had a difficult time at her pharmacy, but she acted like she was entitled to these pills without an active prescription. A pharmacist can't just go joe blow off the street a prescription because they are entilited to it. That is why we have doctor's and prescriptions. She needs to take responsiblity for her own prescriptions before blaming others. Walgreens can't be responsible for making your doctor's appointments, driving you to the appointment, getting your prescription in hand and bringing it to the pharmacy. That is your job and your responsibility! Don't blame the pharmacy when you are the irresponsible one!