Posted 8:11 PM by Bonnie

And how many stupid pills did you take this morning? Instead of rewriting my Walgreen pharmacy experience, I am just going to paste part of the letter I emailed off to corporate.

.....In April his doctor put him on a new drug called Lunesta. To make sure he could tolerate it, along with a prescription for 30 tablets and 2 refills, he gave him a coupon for a free trial of 4 tablets to try first.

We got the trial pack and then had the prescription filled. The pharmacy explained because the prescription was for 30 tablets and we had already received the four free ones, we would receive 26 to complete the first fill. That was fine. No problem with that reasoning.

Today, I went in for the first refill and the pharmacist gave us 4 tablets. This was not discovered until my husband came home, from work, and checked the prescriptions. I then called the pharmacy and this is where the problem begins…
(note: I picked up 6 prescriptions and then he checks to make sure they are right)
The person I spoke with was very short and nasty telling me we got the free ones because we didn’t have insurance and we could only get 4 in the refill. I tried to explain we had received a complete fill of 30 last time (the 4 trial + 26 to complete the fill) and that yes we did have insurance and the insurance covered the completion of the fill. She started yelling at me that I wasn’t listening to her and I should just be quiet and let her explain. I told her she WASN’T listening and finally got her to check and see there were 30 tablets on the original prescription. I asked to speak to a supervisor because by that point she had me very upset and my husband ready to switch pharmacies. She snapped there were no managers in the store. I then said I would be in tonight to pick them up and she said fine and slammed the phone on me.

I called back right away and got another department, asked to speak to a manager and Ms. McDaniel, the store manager, came on the line. I explained the situation and she apologized and said she would take care of it. Shortly after, Amanda, from the pharmacy dept. called back to apologize, so I presume she is the one who was so rude to me during the first call. As we were speaking she said this would be the last refill and there were no more. I told her there were two refills on the original prescription and since we just did one refill there should be another left.

When I got to the store she told me we already had two refills. She said we refilled it once for the four pills and now were getting the second refill for the 26. I asked her if she didn’t realize that made absolutely no sense. That the first fill was for 30 pills, So, because they made an error and only gave us four to match the trial and now had to complete the first refill with 26 more pills, that did not make two refills. She stared at me blankly and then said, well, the original refill was for 60 pills and you already got 60 with the first order and today’s. I sighed and explained the first fill was not a refill but filling the prescription and the 60 pills was for the two refills after the first fill. The one refill we got today and then we should have one remaining. It took awhile, but the light finally clicked and she had to go back in and fix it and put a prescription of Lunesta on hold for my husband. So, now when I call next month I can’t use the automated system but must speak to a pharmacist and tell them to check the records because there is a prescription on hold.

(The funny part is the bottle we got today said 1 refill remaining but she argued that was wrong since we were now getting the second refill - okay, can everyone say... DUH!)