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Pharmacy ripped me off!! Need advice!

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Chronic Pain
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Posted 1/5/2013 5:52 AM (GMT 0)
Ok, so I have an infected cat bite wound & had to go to ER! They gave me a script of Vicoprofen-12 tabs which I took to my local Walmart to be filled. When I got to my car I opened & counted them(habit!!) & there was only 11 pills in bottle. So, I called & spoke with pharmicist who put me on hold for 10 seconds, came back & said "Sorry, our count is correct"!!! He must have glanced at a computer screen to get that info that fast. I thought they had to manually count them from their own bottle to verify the correct count! Anyway, I know its only ONE pill BUT I did pay$15 for 12 not 11 pills! And, with this injury every pill counts! Should I call them back in the morn to see if they would help me or would I be wasting my time & embarrassing myself over just 1 pill??!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Posted 1/5/2013 7:14 AM (GMT 0)
This is just my opinion, and others may have a different one, but I would just let it go. I've had similar issues with finding broken pills & fragments at the bottom of the bottle, being short a pill or two. It's irritating but people make mistakes, especially in high volume pharmacies where they churn out massive numbers of scripts in a short amount of time. Since you didn't count the pills in front of pharmacy staff, it's your word against theirs. It sounds like an acute pain injury, but if you are a chronic pain patient, I would most definitely let it go because there's no way to prove it and the pharmacy staff may react very defensively, raise red flags, well, the list goes on. It's unfair, but with any narcotic these days, we all have to be very careful. If there is a next time, I would count them in front of the pharmacy staff. I've never actually done this, so I'm not sure how they'd react, but at least you'd get what you paid for.
Cat bites can be nasty, so if they prescribed antibiotics, make sure you take all of them.
I hope you are feeling better soon.
Posted 1/5/2013 9:21 AM (GMT 0)
I'm gonna have to agree with 1 day. I know it doesn't sound fair and there was a time I felt differently about it. But even though most pharmacies audit their controlled substances every night (or so I've been told), each time I have been shorted a pill or two, without fail the pharmacist would tell me that their counts were 'spot on'. So one of three things happened: either the machine or manual count was wrong (no way to prove that), or someone played a little "59 for you and 1 for me" (who's going to admit to that?), or the pill(s) fell on the floor. Now, you may get lucky and when they audit the inventory your pill will be found - but I doubt it. As 1 day said, the only way to avoid it is to count your pills at the pharmacy counter. A pharmacy I used to go to actually had a sign that reminded customers to count before they left or they had no recourse against the pharmacy. There was this one woman who went there and she counted out every one of her prescriptions at the counter - HUNDREDS of pills! And she didn't count out 2 or 3 at a time - she counted 1,2,3,4......! Keep in mind, she had to do this in front of the pharmacist or tech. I would drop off my scripts, come back later, and she would still be there counting. I asked her once if they were ever off and she said no, but she still insisted on doing this every time! I had asked the pharmacist what he thought and he said it didn't bug him as much as it used to - she used to count them all twice!
Posted 1/5/2013 7:44 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry to hear of your infection...I hope that they also prescribed antiobiotics for you as well! That should help with the pain as well as the Vicoprofen.

I have to say I am in the camp of not sweating it out for one pill. You already called to ask and they don't see the count being off, so I would just let it go. One pill of hydrocodone is really not going to make a huge difference so I would just take Advil to replace the last one.

I had an issue two months ago where the count was wrong in the opposite way and they gave me double of my prescription. He accidentally filled the same one twice...I called them when I got home as I was taking them out to put in my weekly organizer. Since I've been going there for 11 years and know the two Pharmacists...he was absolutely mortified he made this mistake and that I had to drive back. When I got there he handed me a gift card for $20 for my troubles.

So...unfortunately it does happen when they are counting them out and if you were missing more than one than I would try to go further. And as others mentioned, with small prescriptions like this, it is good to go ahead and count them out right there.

I hope that your wound will heal quickly!
Posted 1/5/2013 7:52 PM (GMT 0)
I have forget it the chances are slim to none of getting it.

I do have one question since you said OUT of habit you count them, if you are on other meds for pain did you call your doctor to report this script an if you didn't please do so as we have had far to many posts that it didn't occur to anyone to do that an lost their the meds over a few tabs or some such.
Posted 1/6/2013 8:53 PM (GMT 0)
I agree I would let it go. If it were something you had to have for ongoing chronic pain
I would make sure in the future you counted in front of them before you left.
I have been on the short side before and the long side before, we are all human and sometimes we make mistakes. Sorry it happened to you, hope your feeling better!
Posted 1/7/2013 7:46 PM (GMT 0)
Hello, sorry to hear of your problems with your pharmacy.  I would not call, I would go there.  I have been with the same pharmacist for almost 20 years, I count my meds as soon as I get htome.  I have had 2 times where I was shorted, i dont know 1 to 3 pills.  I call her or go to see her, and have never had a problem with gettaing the meds I was missing.  She is not always the person who fillls the scripts, the techs also do, and we are all human and make mistakes.  She always finds the problem and off I go.  You should get what you pay for. thats just my opionion.

Good luck,

Kathy

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