Before I begin, I would just like to state that my review is solely based upon the customer service I received and the demeanor in which AHMAD at the CVS Pharmacy conducted himself.
I have been diagnosed with Asthma my entire life so indubitably my doctor has prescribed me a rescue Albuterol Inhaler. I only use my inhaler as needed, when I am exhibiting symptoms (shortness of breath/trouble breathing/emergencies). My last inhaler was running low, so naturally I took my prescription down to the pharmacy to have it filled (This was my last refill on this prescription). Mind you, this was about a month ago according to the records in the CVS Pharmacy database. I had no issues getting my prescription filled and I was in and out of the pharmacy in about twenty minutes.
I have since used this particular inhaler one time since getting my prescription filled. It worked fine and helped my shortness of breath. The next time I used my inhaler, it was not working correctly. The steroid/medicine was not distending from the conduit so I assumed I received a defective inhaler from the pharmacy. In an attempt to fix the inhaler, I tried blank tests in the air to see if the medicine would come out. Nothing.
Yesterday (April 26, 2014 at around 9:45am) I took my inhaler back to CVS to get a replacement. I first spoke with the receptionist or pharmacy tech and she told me I would have to speak with the manager. The manager on duty was "AHMAD." After describing my situation to Ahmad, he said there was no way to give me a replacement.
At first he responded with, "it's empty you need a new refill." This is INCORRECT because I just got my inhaler and there is a dosage counter on the back that says I had almost a full prescription left in my inhaler. Then he proceeded to say it was broken and without mentioning it, accused me of tampering with my inhaler and inferring that I was just trying to get a new one or free medicine.
Every time I would try to speak, AHMAD would cut me off, raising his hand in the air and persistently made statements such as, "You're not listening," "it doesn't matter," "I cannot do that," but would never give me an explanation as to why. He made statements that it was "illegal" or that I had no refills left. He also accused me of abusing my medication and because it was a month ago, "who knows what you've done with the medication since."
I kept trying to tell him that it's an emergency inhaler and that I don't use it every day (he's the pharmacist so I'm sure he knows). The inhalers start off with about 200 dosages and my inhaler was down to 140 when I brought it. He said that because 60 dosages had been passed, who knows what I had done with my inhaler. I kept trying to explain to him, even demonstrating in front of him, that I tried multiple times to force out the medication by pumping multiple times (wasting the dosages which is why the count is so low) and nothing would come out. Old inhalers never had the dosage count so if this was five years ago, how we would he even know how many dosages I had used anyways?
I left the pharmacy and contacted my insurance multiple times. Each time I called, I spoke with a different representative who all told me that the pharmacy should have no issue replacing a defective inhaler. All they have to do is take the bad one, send it back to the manufacture and the manufacture will send them a new one. All the while, AHMAD should have no issue giving me a new one when I return to the pharmacy. They even gave me a phone number to call so that he could speak with someone.
I returned to the CVS Pharmacy later that afternoon to speak with AHMAD again and he still resisted. He wouldn't call my insurance and he wouldn't call the phone number I gave him. At this point he increasingly got more and more defensive, and wouldn't even have a normal conversation with me. At one point he picked up the phone but never dialed anything. When he didn't want to speak to with me anymore, he handed me off to his coworker, slammed the phone and walked away. I was able to have a normal conversation with the coworker and I ended up leaving to go to another pharmacy.
I have since gone to multiple other pharmacies (Target, Safeway, Walgreens, other CVS locations) who told me AHMAD at this particular CVS was wrong and he easily could have replaced my inhaler for me. Now I get it, maybe this particular CVS is special and they have particular protocols. However, that doesn't give you a reason to treat a customer or anyone the way AHMAD treated me.
I completely agree with the other reviews on Yelp stating that the employees at this pharmacy have bad attitudes and mistreat their customers. I was appalled at my situation and just disgusted with my entire experience at this CVS Pharmacy. The entire face of CVS and the CVS Pharmacy brand should be embarrassed with AHMAD.
I highly recommend using a different pharmacy where they treat their customers with respect and the courtesy they deserve. read more
