Walgreens Pharmacy Consumer Reviews - Page 3

BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA -- Walgreens 9550 Hageman Drive Bakersfield, CA 93312. On 7/19/08 at 12:34pm I pulled up to the Walgreens Pharmacy drive through window (9550 Hageman) to pick up my refill that was ready the previous evening at 7:00pm. I gave the window clerk $33.99 cash for a refill of 60 pain pills. When she handed me the bottle, I immediately noticed that it only had a few pills in it. Before leaving I opened the bottle and counted the pills. There were only 23 pills in the bottle. I then looked at the label on the bottle and noticed it said there were 60 pills in the bottle and that they had been double counted..

In less than two minutes, I handed it back to the clerk and asked her why my prescription was not filled completely. She took the bottle and was gone for about five minutes. When she came back, she asked, "What happened?" I said, "That is what I am asking you. There are only 23 pills in the bottle and I just paid cash for 60 pills." She proceeded to argue with me, saying that I must have done something with the pills because she knows all the pills were in the bottle when she handed it to me. I asked, "Did you count them yourself?" She said "No, but we always double count this medication because it is a controlled substance."

By this time, I am extremely upset. I went inside to ask for a manager. I was told that there was not a manager available and that the store manager could not help with a pharmacy situation. I said, "Well, you better call your manager because I am not leaving until somebody either gives me my money back or the pills that have obviously been taken from my bottle." An employee got on the phone and soon a young girl came in and claimed to be the manager. (She obviously was not, as her badge indicated that she was a sales clerk.)

By then I had five Walgreens' employees all talking to me at the same time, going on and on about how I must have taken the pills out and now I am just trying to get more. OKAY! That makes a lot of sense. "I never even left the drive-through," I said "and you have security cameras right there that prove I did not do such a thing!"

Then another lady came, who walked up to the drive-through window and proceeded to talk to my sister about the situation (who was still parked in the drive-through lane) all the while her employees were telling her that I was the customer not the person she was talking to. It took her about five minutes before she stopped talking to my sister and finally turned around and addressed me. Again, she accused me of lying.

I asked her to count the pills herself. Three employees answered, almost in unison, "We are not going to do that, you already opened the bottle." I said, "Fine, write a note saying that at 12:35PM you counted the pills that were in my bottle and that I already opened it and counted it myself." They refused. I then opened the bottle and dumped it on their counter top. I counted the pills in front of all the customers behind me, and all five RUDE employees. I counted 23 pills. They said they would not acknowledge this if they were asked. I was handed a business card and referred to the district manager.

Then, the fake "manager" asked if I wanted to give the pills back. I said , "Yes. Are you going to refund my money?" She said "no," because I already had the pills in my possession. I left outraged. I called the number on the business card and they do not work weekends. I've left three messages. I also called the police department, who came to my house. They definitely believed me but said it was a civil matter.

I filed a complaint with the State Board of Pharmacy. And I called the DEA, who doesn't answer the phone. I tried calling back to ask the name of the employee who claimed to have "double counted" the medication. The lady on the phone, who claimed to be both the store manager and the pharmacy manager, hung up on me. I want my money back or the pills that were possibly stolen by a Walgreens employee.

PORTLAND, OREGON -- Consumer Complaint: For the past 10 years I WAS a completely satisfied Walgreen™s customer until a recent incident with Walgreen€™s pharmacy manager €”**. Originally my complaint began with the pharmacy replacing my specified prescription of €œAmbien€ for a generic brand, without my knowledge or approval. After discovering this, I brought my complaint to the pharmacy manager ”**. Upon doing so, she made the situation worse. The following will explain...

Before Discovery: Before I had discovered that my last three prescriptions for Ambien had been switched to a generic brand, I made several returned trips to my doctor'€™s office, concerned and upset that the prescription for Ambien was no longer working. Afterwards, my doctor increased the dosage from 10 mg to 12 mg of Ambien. Through the course of several months, I made several more trips back and forth to the doctor'€™s office; we were troubled and perplexed wondering why the Ambien was not effectively working for me as it once did, especially now that the dosage was increased. This continued to perplex the doctor and me.

At this time, it never occurred to me or was even made known to me that my original prescription for Ambien had been replaced by a generic brand.

After Discovery: It was not until my third refill, and after I left the Walgreens store when I discovered that the pharmacy had exchanged my specified ”prescription for Ambien with a generic brand, without informing me. I returned to Walgreens and approached the pharmacy manager **, about this matter; however, she made a bad situation worse by her uncaring, unprofessional behaviors. Throughout our discussion, she randomly made up new and contradicting stories to justify changing my prescription.

First she stated that my doctor did not specify any particular brand. This was proven not to be true, as I gave her a copy of the doctor'€™s prescription which clearly reveals the SPECIFIED prescription name. After viewing this copy, once again she changed her story, by stating that she did inform me when she switched my prescription to a generic brand. I asked her to repeat exactly what she said at the time when she claimed that she had informed me. Her answer was, "I asked you if you had any questions, and you said no€." Obviously her question had nothing to do with informing me that she had switched my prescription to a generic.

Secondly, she allowed me to leave Walgreens, thinking that I was walking away with Ambien. In addition to her constantly changing her stories, she then claimed that according to law, she was not required to inform me when replacing my prescription with a generic brand, unless the doctor specifically wrote the word €œ"ONLY"€ next to the specified prescription. When I asked her to provide me with proof of her claim, she stated that it was posted everywhere in the pharmacy. This too was not true. There were no visible posting of this, and I made this known to her.

She then searched and retrieved a wall poster at the opposite end of the pharmacy, far away from the customer'€™s check-out area, and from such an obscured location that no customer would be able to have view of this poster. She then stated that this poster had always been by the customer window for all to see. This too is false; Ms. ** was referring to an old customer drop off window that had not been used and closed off to customers for the past 10 years.

Additionally, she was attempting to use this poster as her lawful-proof that would allow her to switch my prescription to a generic brand without informing me of the switch; however, this poster clearly stated that when exchanging a drug for a generic brand it is contingent upon customer approval; an approval that I never gave. Instead of apologizing, she proceeded to look up the law/policy in the computer; but could not find it.

Afterwards, Ms. ** said that she would refill the prescription. I said, "€œBecause this medication was placed on a workerman'€™s comp insurance, they will not approve refilling the same medication twice for the same time period€." Ms. ** said she would call the workman'™s comp insurance and try to clear it. I approved. However, when the insurance agent asked Ms. ** why I was rejecting this generic medication, Ms. ** inaccurately told the agent it was because I did not like it, when the real truth is Ms. ** wrongfully switched my medication with a generic brand without my approval, and ignored my doctor'€™s prescription.

Because Ms. ** conveyed inaccurate information to my worker's comp insurance, they are now saying that I cannot receive my specified prescription for Ambien when a generic brand is available. Because of Ms. ** blunders and unprofessional mishandlings of a customer'€™s prescription, I will now have to return to my doctor, once again to restore my specified prescription to Ambien. All of the above could have been easily avoided if Ms. ** had only followed the simple, basic procedures by informing or asking me if I preferred the generic brand.

Instead, she took it upon herself to make that decision for me, totally disregarding my choice and my decision in the matter, creating lies and havoc in order to cover up her blunders, causing me months of unnecessary concern and confusion over a prescription that I thought I was receiving, when in fact I was not. Frankly, I was so shocked, irritated and annoyed by her deceitful, unscrupulous conduct that I found it necessary to take the time to inform and notify the Walgreen™s Corporate Office of a potentially high risk employee in a management position.

In all the past years, I was completely satisfied when conducting and taking my business to Walgreens, until the point when Ms. ** began handling my prescriptions. In the past 10 years, I have never had one problem what-so-ever when having my prescription for Ambien refilled until Ms. ** came into the picture. I will now have to do some back tracking in order to fix the damages that she has done.

I wrote to Walgreens Corporate Office with these complaints, requesting that they seriously consider my letter of complaint, and honor me as a loyal customer for all these years by: sternly reprimanding the pharmacy manager €”Ms. **. Bring about a resolution to the problems she created upon me, as a customer. To inform me of their actions to this matter.

However, to this day, I have never heard back from Walgreens. And after reading other reviews from this website (my3cents.com), I've discovered that Walgreens makes a higher profit from switching brand name drugs to generic drugs; a practice that is apparently encouraged by Walgreens. Additionally, I have read numerous reports discovering that reveals it is a common practice from the Walgreens Pharmacy to switch customers prescriptions from a brand name to a generic WITHOUT INFORMING THE CUSTOMER. I am now in the process of finding another pharmacy who places ethical treatment toward their customers as top priority.

YUCCA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA -- I switched to Walgreens approximately a 1 year ago because they are the only pharmacy in town with a drive-through. I only used the drive-through three times before I realized I would get faster, friendlier, more efficient service by going inside. I continued to use Walgreens, though, because they are in a convenient location, had communicated better than WalMart, had better hours, and were more efficient at filling prescriptions in a timely manner.

Until recently. I have had one previous miscarriage and am early in my second pregnancy. Following some routine blood work, my doctor's office called and told me they wanted me on Progesterone suppositories ASAP and would be calling in a prescription immediately. This was 10 am. I went by the Walgreens around 3 pm the same day, and was informed that they didn't have that medication in stock and wouldn't be able to get it before Monday. Which was fine; things like that happen... but I will admit that I was a little upset that they did not call me when they figured this out.

I left satisfied, though, because they went the extra mile to call all other pharmacies in the area and see if anyone else carried it (they didn't). My husband went to pick up the prescription the following Tuesday, since we hadn't heard anything, and they supposedly had the prescription in. When he brought it home, though, I took one look at it and knew it wasn't right. They had sent home the pharmacy compounding kit -- and hadn't bothered to read any of the accompanying literature.

In other words, they dispensed it without actually mixing/preparing it, in a form that was never intended to go to the consumer. I immediately called, and they asked me to bring it back in, which my husband did. No refund of the $45 we had spent on it; they said they would call me the next day and let me know whether or not they were even qualified to compound the suppositories. (if they aren't qualified, why are they able to order it from their warehouse?)

They called the next morning and left a message that the prescription was ready. My husband went to pick it up, and was told not to bother going to them for refills; they had spent over 3 hours on that one and refuse to do it again. They gave him a list of pharmacies 45 miles away for next time. I figured this was just a fluke weird prescription, and tried not to dwell on it too much.

Then, the following Sunday, I ended up in the ER for severe nausea and vomiting from morning sickness (hyperemesis gravidarum). I got a prescription for one week of Reglan until I could follow up with my regular doctor; no problem.

I went to my doctor's appointment on Tuesday to follow up and get a prescription to get me through the rest of my first trimester; my husband dropped off the prescription that afternoon and was told it would be ready by 6pm. He returned to the pharmacy at 7, and was told that that particular prescription had been discontinued, and they would have to call my doctor. Again, not a huge issue, doctor's fault, but why were we not called when they realized the problem??? Why did he have to waste the gas to return to the pharmacy?

With the Reglan prescribed by the ER, I was able to return to work, but was still pretty sick, so I left things in the pharmacy's hands. That is, until Saturday rolled around, and I realized I had only one pill left. That's when it struck me I had heard nothing from the pharmacy in 4 days.

I called, and they claimed that they had sent two faxes to my doctor's office, but had received no response. While this doesn't sound like my doctor's usual standards, it's possible. Again, sounds like it's my doctor's fault. But again, WHY WAS I NOT CALLED AND ALERTED TO THE FACT THAT THERE WAS A PROBLEM? The ball was in their court...the last we were told was that they would contact my doctor and get back to us. Fortunately, I was able to contact the on-call doctor for the weekend, and she is going to call in some refills on the Reglan to get me through until there is actually someone in the office on Monday.

My main beef, I suppose, is not the problems in getting the prescriptions filled. I understand that things happen, and that this isn't a perfect world. I am, however, highly frustrated at the lack of communication when there is a problem. How can I fix a problem when I am not informed that there is one until after the doctor's office closes? Oh, and I live in a small town where my choices are pretty much RiteAid, WalMart, or Walgreens. No other pharmacies are showing up on my insurance carrier's website.

ST.PETERSBURG, FLORIDA -- I went in to the Walgreens drive through at 9:43am on September 27, 2013, to have my pain medication filled. Now the month prior I had filled it here using this same pharmacy but with a different pharmacist. When I got to the window I handed my prescription over and as soon as his eyes met paper he came at me with a resounding "Now we don't have this and haven't for several months!" I told him well that curious cause I had just filled it here last month.

He then was caught off guard and being to stumble across his words and he then went to the computer and said, "Well I see if we have any available." At this moment I was so pissed off I felt like exploding however I wanted to get my prescription first and go home and do some research. I wanted to find out if a pharmacist can deny a legitimate prescription and if so on what grounds. He came back after a few moments and stated that, "okay I'll fill it but I need your ID," to add insult to injury and insisted that I tell him what I was being treated for. I told him back pain.

Now he came back asking me several more times the same question and I gave him the same answer. He said "can I have something more specific" and I told him back pain. After this difficult, not to mention, rudely invasive back and forth the pharmacist went about his business. As he handed me back my ID he told me to be here in an hour. I came back at 10:55am. I was prepared with some information I had found online whereby others have had this same issue. This fact made me a bit more heated but controlled. As soon as I walked in I politely but purposefully requested a store manager.

When ** responded to me I asked her to accompany me to get my medication and that we could talk about my problem back there. She hesitantly followed looking worried. I guess I came off as a man on a mission. Well once I got my meds in hand I began my explanation to the above. All that ** did was back up the pharmacist and tell me that the pharmacist has to make sure that I fit into some policy schedule that I was not privy to upon request and I was quoted DEA law which I also could not see with my own eyes.

I told them that this was unacceptable and a completely ridiculous hardship for the pharmacist to lie to me outright which would cause me to have to drive from one pharmacy to another unnecessarily when he had my medication all along. She looked at me with a deer in the head lights. At this point she was getting frustrated with me cause all she could do was spew this nonsensical data at me which meant nothing and was backed up with even less information.

I then asked for the name and phone number of the regional manager because my situation was not resolved and it seems that if myself or anyone else will be dealing with these issues over and over again at this Walgreens location. She gave me the 1800Walgreens phone number. I called and left a message we'll see how that turns out but I'm not hopeful that anything will change or that I will be taken seriously.

GAFFNEY, SOUTH CAROLINA -- My boyfriend whom has had cancer since 2005, who has been with Walgreens Pharmacy in Gaffney, SC pretty much through it all to receive his prescriptions was cut very short on his medication that he has to have. He has a 14 year old daughter, and therefore locks all his medicine in a combination safe 24/7. Today (10/21/2011) he realized that 60 pills of his were not in his bottle. No one but he touches his bottles or his medicine. Therefore, we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it had to be a mix up at the pharmacy.

I used to be a pharmacy tech for CVS pharmacy, and no one is perfect, and the pharmacist who counted the medicine obviously just wasn't thinking and assumed since most people get 120ct of this certain medication that he did. My boyfriend gets 180ct of the medicine. No big deal, like I said no one is perfect. Therefore my boyfriend called the pharmacy and explained what was going on. ** the pharmacist who filled his medication was the pharmacist working and had no problem with giving him the medicine that he knew he messed up and miss counted.

As we were at the pharmacy getting that straightened out, my boyfriend mentioned that he had not checked his other medicine. He then asked the pharmacist ** if he thought there was anyway that maybe his other prescriptions were off count. My boyfriend was just asking because he did not check any of his other medications because nothing like this has ever happened to him at Walgreens or any other pharmacy for that matter. When we got home he went and check his other medications and a whole bottle of one medication was missing. Now remember, like I said, he picks them up from the pharmacy, they go in a safe, and are not touched by anyone.

The bottle he did have said 1 of 2 on it. Therefore, that means there should be a second bottle correct? So he called back up to Walgreens and spoke with the pharmacist **, and just told him the situation and asked him if he could look and see if there was another bag with his name on it. **, the pharmacist, (who made the mistake of counting one of his prescriptions 60 pills short) had the nerve to say to my boyfriend, "Come on man yeah right, I already gave you 60 extra pills"???? NO!!! ** pharmacist, did not give my boyfriend anything, he gave him the medicine he owed him because he messed up.

** was very disrespectful, unprofessional, unethical, and stepped totally out of his boundaries of being a professional, a pharmacist. I will not write on here what he said because I am a Christian, but this was definitely consumerism at its worst!! He was discriminating, mistreating, insulting, impolite, harassing, disgraceful, and tried to harass my boyfriend. I understand young teenagers and many people abuse prescription drugs these days, but trust me my boyfriend do not abuse any of his medicine. He even tries his best not to take it unless he has to. The pharmacist **, is one of the worst nasty and rudest person I have ever encountered.

Some people truly do need medicine, and do not abuse it. I JUST WANT TO WARN ALL OF YOU NOT TO EVER USE ** AS YOUR PHARMACIST!!! He even admitted that they were not hand counted that they had machines that count the pills out for them. OK so if these machines were accurate 100% of the time (which I was a pharmacy tech before I went to school to become a teacher) and I know for 100% fact they miscount more than they count correctly. Why would we even have pharmacy techs? We wouldn't. Research these machines, they are crap!! After the pharmacist ** flipped out on my boyfriend, he had the nerve to hang up on him!

Therefore I called the store manager who is going to check into this issue (which was very helpful) and inventory the medicine so that he can prove that the pharmacist did make a mistake AGAIN!!! Which my boyfriend still would not have had a problem with if he would not have treated him that way. I am not complaining about Walgreens, or any of their other pharmacists, because I do not know them, but ** needs to have his license removed and learn how to talk to people before he is even able to work at any pharmacy!!! Thanks for your time.

TEMPE, ARIZONA -- My insurance requires me to use Mail Order to buy maintenance medications. I bought $300+ of prescription medications from Walgreens Mail Order, and the medications arrived in a manner that must be illegal! I've used mail order drug companies for years, and I've never seen anything like this. The envelope was a thin, plastic sheet, glued together in a very shoddy manner. One of the medications, Acebutolol, which is in capsule form, was in a bottle which had ripped apart due to the poor protection of the envelope.

Many of the large capsules were torn at the top end and the entire envelope, and all of the other drugs, were thick with what looked like talcum powder, but which was really Acebutolol medication dust. The other meds in the envelope were all thickly covered by this Acebutolol medication. It simply cannot be legal to ship drugs from one state to another like this. The drugs came from Phoenix, Arizona and was delivered to my door in Oregon via Fedex Overnight. I complained by phone and was told to JUST throw away the 73 capsules from the bottle that opened. I complained further that I was not comfortable taking the other meds due to the thick Acebutolol dust covering them.

They eventually agreed to replace all of the drugs, so I don't have a monetary loss from this transaction. That said, however, based on my 9 yr experience of being on Medicare and dealing with mail order pharmacies, the manner in which these drugs were sent from Arizona into Oregon is highly unusual. The other mail order companies use bubble wrap and/or bubble wrap protected envelopes and/or boxes. It cannot be legal to send prescription drugs in a manner that guarantees the quality of the drugs will be affected.

I have pictures of the envelope and state of the drugs. I just wonder if anyone at Walgreens even cares that they have such poor delivery capabilities that people could get sick from this...

BIRMINGHAM -- Back around November 2010, I went to pick up a new RX for my Glaucoma and I when the Clerk told me the price of the drops, I tried to tell her that those were the wrong drops. That they had never been that much before but she disagreed with me and I told her that I did not want those because they were not the correct drops and I left.

On Dec 18th 2010 I was at the Pharmacy in Walgreens and I paid for my RXs at the Counter and then told the Clerk that I needed to speak to the Manager of the Pharmacy (who I later learned her name was) so he went and told her. But instead of her finishing up with the Customer that she had and coming over and addressing my concerns, she kept on taking people that were walking up to her window. I ask the Clerk if he had told her that I needed to talk to her and he said that he did.

A lady standing behind me heard what I had ask the Clerk and commented that First come First serve does not apply here in Walgreens. And that she knew that we both had been standing there longer than the people walking up to the Manager's Window. So, I had to leave, I could not wait any longer.

I called back and talked to the Manager of the whole store and told him of the incident. And he took my name and number and said that he would talk to her and have her call me or he would call me back. Neither of them ever called me back. As of this date I have not heard from anyone from Walgreens. I have gone online to see Customer Service Complaints from Walgreens and Wow!! You have a lot of them so my incident was not just an isolated situation.

I don't know if this matters or not, since you are a big Company but I want you to know I have transferred all of my Rxs to CVS on 12/31/10. And I spoke to a very nice and helpful Gentleman who took time with me and even straighten out my concern on a Eye Drop Rx, the same concern that I was trying to address with your RX Manager at Store # 06977. This CVS Pharmacist even went so far as to call my Doctor and explain one of the Dr's Residents had prescribed the wrong type of Eye Drops for my Glaucoma. "THAT'S CUSTOMER SERVICE", something that your employees have not learned yet.

The only reason that I am writing you is to let you know because maybe you can address the Customer Service Concerns and other customers of yours won't have to go through what I experienced. It's too late for me, I have found a Pharmacy that cares about their customers. They don't have a drive through but their personal and caring service makes up for that. As of 2/10/11 Walgreens have not even had the courtesy to contact me on this complaint, not that it would do them any good because I am through with them forever.

AURORA, COLORADO -- I am so angry with the service of the Walgreens pharmacy (yes not capitalized because they do not deserve it), on Peoria and Mississippi in Aurora Colorado, that I do not know where to begin. My family has had several incidents with this Walgreens that range from just out right rude customer service to no filling critical authorized medications. The latest incident is as follows: my doctor called in a script for a medication that is critical for my pregnancy to continue. My husband and I received a recorded call one day later telling us that the script was ready for pick-up. My husband went to pick up the script and what do you know, it was not filled.

My husband inquired as to why the discrepant information and the tech said, "I don't know" and wanted to continue on with the next customer. My husband did not allow this and asked the tech to look into the situation. The tech told my husband that the pharmacy did not make the call, (of course I still have the recorded message), and the script was not filled because they needed to get pre-authorization. My husband called me and the tech was not only rude with me but then hung up in my face. Of course I went down to the Walgreens in an effort to resolve this situation.

I explained to them that the medication that they neglected to fill was needed to sustain my pregnancy as well as my disappointment that they had two days to fill the script and resolve any problems not to mention the recorded message that we received stating that the medication had already been filled. The tech had the nerve to still be rude. Unbelievable!!! The tech stated that they would call my doctor, I explained to the tech that they did not need to call my doctor as the pre-authorization needed to come from the insurance company not the doctor. They called my doctor anyway. By this time, there were three managers involved in this situation.

After a few minutes, a manager told my husband that the Dr. Stated that I needed to come and see her before they could issue any medication, (I had just seen the Dr. two days prior to this). I then called my doctor and she told me that she gave them no such information but that she told them that my situation was critical and that they needed to give me the amount of medication that I requested. My doctor called the pharmacy again, (she is also livid by now), and told them to issue the medication. My husband requested just enough of the medication to get me through the next few days, long enough for us to find another pharmacy.

The manager, as rude as his tech go figure, stated that they would give my husband the requested medication but that he would need to wait to have the script filled. Wow you have got to be kidding me!!! My husband said not so and demanded the medication on the spot, mind you, we had already spent two hours dealing with this. For the love of tea!!! We are in utter dismay about this incident as well as the many other incidents with this company and particularly this location!! We have filed at least three former complaints against the Walgreens with their customer care service but to no avail!

This however was the last time that we will be dealing with Walgreens! Walgreens managers and staff put the i. n.c.o.m.p.e.t.e.n.c.e in the word incompetence, that's right Walgreens is the complete spelling of the word incompetence and they encompass the complete meaning of the word as well.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA -- After being hospitalized this past summer, I went to the Walgreens Pharmacy at Broad & Snyder with several scripts. That same day, a nebulizer was delivered to my home. Some of the scripts were coming up on the computer as not covered, including the medicine to be administered by the nebulizer. After several minutes waiting, we confirmed from Medicare that I was indeed covered, but that they needed 10 days to have the proper insurance billing order show up at pharmacies, labs, etc.

Now, you need to know that I am disabled with a disease expected to result in death. I am on SSDI, Medicare and Medicaid. The proper procedure in a situation where a pharmacist confirms coverage, but for whatever reason can't complete the order, is that he/she is required by federal law to provide up to 3 days worth of the medication while the problem is worked out. They simply don't process the claim until such time. Because I am very poor, most of what is not covered by Medicare part B/D is covered by Medicaid as a bill of last resort.

Walgreens clearly trains their pharmacy techs to avoid doing this, because Medicaid provides a low "take it or leave it" reimbursement and the company knows that once they accept that payment, no matter how small, they cannot bill the customer. Not only have they refused to fill scripts that they knew were actually covered until I paid for them first, but I have seen time and again, people denied their medicines because of Walgreens' employees intentionally disregarding the law in favor of a corporate training edict to collect the cash, no matter what.

Walgreens practices are simply horrible. A casual observer might note that 50% of the customers that come to the counter thinking they are covered, end up going through hassle after hassle and ultimately paying out of pocket, hoping for a speedy reimbursement, walking away from the counter feeling abused.

I nearly died of pneumonia, had to shuffle in the stifling heat and humidity to be made to wait, treated with distrust, and have absolutely no resolution until I paid full price for the meds I needed. This happened three times in a row, so I switched to a specialty pharmacy who will even ship my meds to me for free. Since I switched, there has been zero problems.

Walgreens has better overall prices than RiteAid, but they need to train all of the pharmacists that they hire in trouble-shooting, problem solving and ultimately that they are required by law in most cases, and for most meds, to provide a limited supply until the glitch is fixed. Furthermore, an extremely poor person such as myself who has both Medicare and Medicaid should NEVER be sent away from the pharmacy counter empty-handed because I don't have the co-pays. Suffice it to say, I shall never use ANY Walgreens pharmacy again, not even in an emergency.

If anyone at Walgreens corporate reads this, the take-away should be this: The pharmacy is the last stop in a healthcare-receiving process. It shouldn't be marred and dehumanized by profit motives. I never felt less human than the 45 minutes I spent wheezing in your store, so weak that I could barely stand. You really ought to think about how you train your pharmacy techs, because their actions right now in these situations are nearly criminal.