CVS

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Have any of you had trouble with the CVS pharmacy in Davis? They seem really disorganized, and I wonder if it's just my bad luck to always go in at a bad time. They haven't given me the wrong medicine. I'm just concerned about how many times I phoned ahead to refill a prescription, and they didn't have it ready. They couldn't do anything at all because the computer is down. Or I needed to wait half an hour while they scrambled to fill the prescription (something like 27 hours after I called in the refill and 90 minutes after I said on the phone I'd pick it up.) Or my doctor's office had just sent over a prescription, and they couldn't figure out how to send it to the Porter Square CVS which has the medication they're out of.

It's not a problem for a pharmacy to be out of a particular medication and tell me I need to wait until the next day, or the next day after midafternoon. I don't expect any pharmacy to keep everything in stock. It's a problem when they tell me on Thursday they will have something on Friday, and on Friday when they tell me it will be there on Monday, and it's REALLY a problem when on Monday they tell me it will be there Tuesday. This problem, thank goodness, only happened once.

The pharmacists and their assistants aren't rude to me, and I don't think they are deliberately dishonest. I just can't tell if I've had a run of bad luck in dealing with them (aggravated by the fact that I use a bunch of different meds and refill the prescriptions at different times of month,) or if they are incompetent enough that I should take my business to another pharmacy.

I used to be fairly happy with the CVS at Porter, though since they built one at Davis, I resent that the one in Porter is so far away. (When the weather is reasonable, I can walk to Davis, but not to Porter.) I refuse to do business with the East Arlington CVS--the pharmacy staff there is narrowminded, dishonest, rude, and viciously selfish, as well as incompetent.

Comments

[chickflick1979.livejournal.com]

I agree. I don't like the CVS in Davis, I try to go to Porter if I can. I've found the staff in Davis to be rude, and they always look harried because they're so rushed, and also not very knowledgable. They once gave me a bottle and said my insurance would only cover half the amount. I had to ask them to expand on that so I could figure out what they were talking about it, and they just kept saying, "I don't know."

Anyway, I think the one in Porter is much more efficient.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

I've been a satisfied customer of the pharmacy at CVS Porter for many years, using the Rapid Refill for as long as they've had it. That pharmacy is busy most of the time, and the staff there is quite competent and courteous. (The recent CVS robocalls reminding me to refill a prescription kinda creep me out however.)

I've long had a sense of it being a stressful workplace; gingerkat thanks for giving us a pharmacist perspective of it.

Next step -- show this to the local store manager?

[ron_newman]

The logical next thing to do is to either e-mail this thread to the store manager (if I can find out his e-mail address), or print it out and bring it in to show him. I live 2 blocks from the CVS and am able to do this during the day, if the OP thinks it's a good idea. What say you?

DSLJ has in the past has gotten positive results from forwarding consumer complaints to local businesses -- most recently, Wainwright Bank.

Re: Next step -- show this to the local store manager?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I don't see much advantage to taking this to the store manager, because there isn't really a specific open problem I want them to correct. Every time I've had a problem, they've fixed it for me in a few hours or a few days, and sometimes the person at the counter has apologized for the inconvenience. I posted because I had seen so many problems I thought there might be others, and a general apology from the manager wouldn't change that. I doubt it would make much difference to other readers here, whether they've had bad experiences of their own, or just heard about them indirectly. (Gingerkat also pointed out that the store appears to be understaffed, and that CVS management tends to respond to glitches by yelling at their front-line staff. So there may be some risk of making matters worse.)

I'm not trying to get my money back, or get them to repair something. The problem is the reputation of the Davis Square CVS, and the only way they can fix that is by providing consistently good service in the future. I'd like to think they're working on that already. If they aren't, I don't particularly want to help them.

As I see it, my next step is to go fill my prescriptions in Porter Square. They were refreshingly efficient about the one I filled yesterday. They didn't argue with me about anything, they spelled my name right, and they had my meds ready on time. It was really pretty surprising.

Re: Next step -- show this to the local store manager?

[ron_newman]

If the store manager doesn't receive feedback such as found in this thread (and not just from you), he may not know that there is any reputation and service problem he needs to fix.

Re: Next step -- show this to the local store manager?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I don't mind if you show this to the store manager, if you think it would help the community. It was a public post. However, I'm not looking to talk to the store manager myself or sign any formal complaint.

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

I've only gotten my prescriptions filled at the One Davis Square CVS a few times so far, but I've never had a problem with them.