It is truly astounding to me how this business continues to legally operate. I am out of state and rely on my elderly parents' care assistant to pick up prescriptions. Accordingly, over the course of multiple days, she attempted to pick up a prescription THREE different times and continued to be told there was no card on file to be charged. She did not have the money to pay the $50 fee and thus, returned without it. When I learned of this and called, it was explained that there was indeed a credit card on file but that the insurance would not cover it so it was assumed we did not want the medicine and it was put back on the shelf.
I then called again and spoke with Helen who was competent, professional and kind (thank you, Helen). I advised that we wished to obtain the prescription regardless of insurance coverage (this was an urgent script that regardless of cost, was necessary. Period.). Helen processed the payment (with the card on file - that had been on file the entire time). She even called me back to confirm the script was ready for pick-up. My parent's assistant then went to pick up the script via the drive through. She was told there was NO prescription. I then called and spoke to Lorraine who curtly explained to me that because payment had already been processed, the script was at the "pharmacist's station" and the drive through employee "did not know to look for scripts" there. My parents' care attendant returned and was AGAIN told that there was no prescription to be picked up.
I AGAIN called and requested to speak to a manager. I was put on hold and eventually connected to a presumed manager, named Eric. When I explained my situation, Eric advised that he is not actually in the pharmacy and thus, is "not responsible for what goes on back there." Seriously? Way to take ownership! After 20 minutes of explaining, re-explaining AND explaining again as well as being put on hold multiple times, Eric finally was able to explain the "mystery" in that prescriptions are not usually paid for in advance and thus, the script was placed in a special location that no employee appeared to consider looking in when the attendant tried to pick it up.
My parents' care attendant returned AGAIN and FINALLY received the pre-paid prescription. Unfortunately, this process took three days and for an elderly person, dealing with an urgent health condition, this is simply unacceptable.
In addition to being terribly unprofessional and with questionable problem-solving skills, these employees' behavior is negligent. I am astounded that this is the best talent Bellingham has to offer. I have now commenced the process of moving all scripts to a local family-owned COMPETENT and CAPABLE Bellingham pharmacy. Money talks and Walgreens will get no more of my money or my time. Now I simply hope my elderly parent can successfully recover from the effects of this unacceptable delay in medication. read more