Yesterday afternoon, at around 3:15 pm, was the first time that I brought a prescription to be…read morefilled here. I had to fill out a form that all first-timers have to fill out, and was told by the pharmacist that I could come back and pick it up in about 20 minutes. Twenty minutes later, after doing some shopping and pushing a cart around with about 10 big and heavy items, I went back to the pharmacy and waited in line. There were three people ahead of me, and after they made it to the cash register to pick up their prescriptions, it looked like all of them were told that their meds weren't ready yet and that they could come back. I was hopeful that I would break the rejection streak. I walked up to the register, told the pharmacist my name and she said that my med wasn't ready yet, and I could come back in 10 minutes. Dang! Shame on me for coming back 10 minutes later only to be told that my med still wasn't ready yet, and that it would take another 10 minutes to fill. Uh huh ... riiiiiiiight. I thanked her and told her that I would be back tomorrow.
So ... early this afternoon, I went back to the Costco pharmacy to pick up my med. I waited for about 20 minutes in line (behind 3 people!) until I was helped by the pharmacist. She had the med, and asked me, "Are you using medical insurance to pay for this?" I replied, "No. Why?" She said, "Your Dr gave you a prescription that's the same as the non-prescription Flonase. I can show you where it is." She took me to the aisle, and, sure enough, she knew what she was talking about. Not only that, but the med was on sale, and I got 5 containers of the over-the-counter spray for a lower price than 1 container of the prescription spray - and they're the same thing! Why wasn't anyone in the pharmacy take the time to tell me this yesterday? Needless to say, I told the pharmacist that I wasn't going to pick up the prescription.
Earlier, while I was waiting in line, I heard some of the customers behind me talking among themselves about how much cheaper their prescriptions are at Costco compared with other pharmacies, and that this pharmacy is always busy.
So I was originally going to give this pharmacy 2 stars based only on my experience yesterday. After my interaction with the pharmacist and listening to the "experienced" customers in line behind me, I decided that maybe 2 stars would've been a little harsh, especially after the pharmacist took the time to explain reality to me and physically showed me where the OTC med was that I needed. Her actions bumped it up to a 3.5 stars, and I'll round my rating up to 4 stars.
Good save, helpful pharmacist!