CVS universally seems to have adopted the motto, "How can we not help you," but this particular location is s store where that phrase has been honed into an art. I am only a customer because my health insurance limits me to the chain and the second I become eligible for Medicare, it will be with great pleasure that I take my business elsewhere.
Most of my medications are mailed from Caremark but two controlled substances have to be handled by CVS. When it is time for a refill, I call my doctor's office and take care of everything. I can't trust CVS to do it or it won't get done. Once the prescription is placed the problems begin. A text will be sent telling me the order is being processed, followed by one saying there is a delay, followed by another one telling me the medication is not in stock and has to be ordered. They will text me when the order is ready to pick up. Today makes a full week since the prescription was placed and the third day without an anxiety medication I have taken for 18 years. If this was the first time the store had to order medications for me, I would think it a fluke, but this is common. Half the time there is a complication in filling one or both of the drugs that require multiple trips to the store or extended lapses between the end of one prescription and the beginning of another. As anyone who suffers from anxiety can attest, going without medication I rely on for a week is not only inconvenient, it can be dangerous. When I first started the medication, my doctor was very clear in his instructions not to stop without notifying him since it could be dangerous to quit cold turkey. Talk to one of the pharmacists and see how little they care. Instead of any sense of need on her part, the worst of the drug crew just smiled at me and said, "We can't give you what we don't have!" No explanation why a basic drug used by millions of people wasn't accessible inside their store nor why other locations weren't contacted to see if one had the stock. She just gave me a condescending, smug look and dismissed me. That's common for her.
The solution to stocking shortage seems simple. If the Dupont store doesn't have a drug in stock, find another nearby CVS that does and give the patient the option of going to that location to get the medication. For some unexplained reason, the pharmacist can't do that. She couldn't tell me what a text I received from CVS meant either. "I don't know" is not an answer I expect to hear from the pharmacist I give my business.
The front end person has always been friendly but I don't do business in the front end of the store. It seems counterproductive for a pharmacy to sell liquor. The two don't mix. The rest of the store is filled with candy, unhealthy snacks, soda, cards, and cosmetics. Nearby are a Kroger and a Walmart that have all the same products at lower prices. I see no need when I enter the store to deviate from the well-marked path from the front door to the pharmacy. Would the cost of my medicine be lower if this part of the store was eliminated? read more
