Really irritated with my pharmacy

When I first filled my Apriso prescription a few months ago, I filled it about two weeks early (I wanted to finish out my last bottle of Asacol).  The pharmacy tech I spoke with when I dropped it off advised me to put it on auto-refill, as they don't keep Apriso in stock, and it takes 3-4 days for them to get it in once a refill request is submitted. 

Anway, when I picked up my previous refill, they were in the midst of changing out their computer system.  When I went to the pharmacy on Thursday afternoon to pick up my current refill (and my son's flouride drops), I was told they didn't have it, because they didn't do auto refills anymore with the new computer system, and that they'd be able to have it for me on Monday.  I didn't think too much of it at the time (I was distracted thinking about some family issues I'd just heard about) and I had more than enough pills left to last me.

After I left, though, I got to thinking about it, and got pretty mad.  What if I'd not had enough to last me until then?  What if I'd been leaving on a two-week's vacation?  It would have been ok if it had been a med they keep in stock and I would have just had to wait 30 minutes while they filled it. 

So today I went in to pick up the refill during my lunch break.  I asked the tech if they had sent out notices they were no longer doing auto-refill, and she said they hadn't.  I explained why that concerned me, and she absolutely agreed with me and apologized.  Then she said that it wasn't something their particular location (it's a chain) had control of, but it was something that came from coporate.  She also said she'd be filing a complaint with them (not on my behalf, but in general), but I think I'm going to see if I can find contact information and make a complaint myself. 

 

I'm glad you expressed your concern! It is very valid. That could really mess someone up.

This one was a Fred Meyer store, which is under the Kroger umbrella.

I think I'm done with this pharmacy...it's not the only problem I've had with them. Many, many, many times I'll do a refill request for other prescriptions (on-line or phone), and it'll say that it will be ready by (for example) 2pm the next day, and when I go in to pick it up, it's not ready, and I have to wait while the fill it.

Besides, a new Supercenter opened in my town (the Fred Meyer is in the adjoining town), so I think I'll start shopping there. It's more convenient to my house and then my sales tax will stay in my town. :)

You can get an override from your insurance company for a vacation. I have done it. They don't like you have an extra pills around in case you are going off the insurance or change pills and they already paid for the extras. I have been guilty of refilling early for months to have a stock pile to tied me over during a few months I gap my insurance (while still having cobra to fall back on).

That is such BS! I feel for anyone dealing with the inefficiency of pharmacies and insurance co.'s - why does it seem like with all the tech and time saving stuffs they have all over the place these days, script filling is such a PITA?

So far I've been good to go with my CVS pharmacy for my own scripts but my husband has been having issues and it's hard to tell who cares less: the insurance co. or the pharmacy.\

He has to take Avonex for MS, which is a shot he takes once a week. The shot has to be refrigerated and the first year he was on it things were fine, it would ship to our CVS and every month he'd pick up four new doses. So easy. Then everything inexplicably changed and the whole process is just a HUGE waste of time, resources, and money now!

Whether the insurance made the call or CVS did I don't know but now, CVS doesn't fill the script for us at the store, we have to get the shots via overnight UPS delivery every month and half the time they forget to fill it so now we just have to habitually call our insurance co. to make sure they're shipping the meds on time, which IMHO defeats the freaking purpose of auto-fill.

Then to make it even more ridiculous, the meds show up in a HUGE box full of styrofoam and ice packs and packing for this teeny, tiny little box of shots (so incredibly wasteful) WITH THE WRONG NEEDLES every time! So Husband then has to go to CVS ANYWAY and pick up the correct needles, which they also make him pay for so we end up with all these extra needles to dispose of. And another annoying aspect of all this is they do not require a signature on delivery which means every month we have a box full of meds AND needles sitting on our porch (and we've had packages disappear before).

Rah!