My retired mother and I have visited this location twice. My mother was new to an OTC benefits program through her insurance plan. Her card was only good at CVS stores and online. She needed a product stat so we went to the store a few weeks ago and planned on purchasing several items. Unfortunately they were out of stock on most of the items we wanted, but we did snag the last box of probiotics she needed.
A young (early 20s?) female associate was very rude. I used to be a store manager at a few very successful stores. We were the only customers in the store at the time. We were looking in a supplement aisle and the associate made us move so she could bring her cart through that way to the other end when she could have easily gone down the other aisle. Then she stood at the end and stared at us comparing items and finding one covered by her plan, instead of shelving her items. When we reached her end for the probiotics, she began shelving, acting as if we were in her way. We grabbed the last box of probiotics and I politely asked (with a smile) if she happened to have another one on her cart. In a very rude tone she loudly proclaimed, "Excuse you?" I was shocked and my mother (a counselor) was startled as well. I slowly repeated my question and she rudely said no without even looking.
We grabbed a few extra items (impulse buys) and went up front to check out. Because of the OTC items on the plan, we couldn't use self checkout. The front end was empty. No customers. No cashiers in site. (These days people could walk out with their items!) We literally stood right in front of the register and waited for at least 5 mins, looking back and scanning the store for someone to help. Finally the same woman came up and asked us if we needed help. (No, we are just relaxing here at the register for fun.) Before beginning, she saw our items in the basket and immediately lectured us that we could not use the sale promotion with the OTC card. Again, surprised at her callous remark and assumption, I said, "No problem. We are actually making 2 transactions, one for my mom's OTC benefit, paid by her, and a second one for my 2 boxes of hair dye (the promo), paid by me." If she had even known what she was talking about, or asked, she wouldn't have said anything because hair dye is not covered by OTC benefits anyway. SMH. My mom and I were gracious to her but not pleased with that experience. I was showing my mom how to login to the app and pull
up the OTC benefits barcode. The cashier said "No, tell me her name." The cashier misspelled it and told us she didn't have an account. I said, "That is why I am pulling this up. Here it is," and showed her the barcode. She scanned it and pulled it right up. Again, very rude.
We returned yesterday to buy more OTC items since they had previously been sold out of some. After waiting for several minutes in the store and not being seen or helped by any associate, we just gave up and left. From a customer perspective, this store has the worst customer service I have seen in years. Both of us are very pleasant and gracious but we will not support rude businesses. Not only did they loose $90 from us yesterday, they will lose much more from us from any purchase (Rx, OTC benefits, and normal retail) in the future. It also gave us bad impressions of the CVS brand, so I will likely shop at other pharmacies and stores. From a retail leadership perspective, if this location doesn't already struggle with theft/loss, they will if they neglect the front end as they have. The front should be staffed or regularly checked, especially once any customer enters. Even SCO needs to be monitored. Or the front door should be locked and only the drive thru open if they are understaffed that day. Maybe an old reception bell at the empty checkout so the associates can hear when a customer wants to pay? I would recommend replacing the associate we dealt with (or moving her to stocking only, without customer interaction ) as our encounters only gave us negative views of this store. Regarding the OTC benefits we must use at CVS, we will either try the Mounds View store or order the OTC products online as we did today. Avoid this store. read more
