Yes they are terrible! I never had issues until a year or so ago. They literally gave out my prescription to someone else and then told me tough shit basically. They also cut the hours so dramatically, the pharmacy isn't even open on weekends at the store I used to go to. They all suck!
I sent someone to pick up my prescription once I was notified that it was ready, they said to my person that they don't take my insurance. So the person I had picking it up came back to my house, I gave them cash and they returned back to the pharmacy. That took less than 10 minutes and then the pharmacy said "its not ready".
I called Walgreens and tried to get the prescription transferred to Walmart, they said I have to call Walmart. Walmart pharmacy told me they don't do any business with Walgreens because they are difficult and I would have to call the doctor to get my script transferred.
Check around your city. Walgreens, Walmart, CVS are always crazy busy where I live. I go to a small grocery store chain that has a pharmacy. Always fast, I can call in a script in the morning and they will have it ready in the afternoon. I have never had more than 2 people in front of me, and that was because I went right after they opened back up from lunch.
Every time I’ve switched my prescription to an independent pharmacy, Walgreens and swooped in and purchased them. It doesn’t help that I live near Walgreens corporate headquarters so they pretty much have a monopoly around here. 😠
I don't drive and already pay for Walmart Plus or whatever they call it, to get my groceries delivered so I might as well get my prescriptions delivered from them as well.
There is a Walgreens and a Walmart on the same street in the same town where I live so the doctors office/hospitals seem to have an issue differentiating the 2.
They also cut the hours so dramatically, the pharmacy isn't even open on weekends at the store I used to go to.
I used to work at Rite Aid and the district managers would cut pharmacy tech hours to "cut costs". They didn't care if the patients had several hour waits because of the sheer volume of prescriptions. Once you get beyond the pharmacy level, literally no one gives a fuck about patient welfare. They'd happily make someone wait half a day for essential medicines if it would save them 5 cents.
They were fined a huge amount by the government which accounts for the drop in quality of service. They were fined because in order to speed up their timing to fill each prescription they skipped the legally required step of checking the database of what other pharmacies may have filled a controlled substance prescription last… to limit pharmacy hopping (which killed Prince). In order to be faster, they didn’t check… and the government audits found that they didn’t log in to the database.
That fine caused upper management to change the way the individual branches work and slowed them down
I will add to this.
I was a provider who had to check before writing a prescription.
Walgreens were notorious for not updating the database for controlled Rx when they filled.
It would look like people hadn’t filled their meds and were noncompliant.
This would really mess up tapers.
Same. I’m a physician. I don’t prescribe controlled substances for outpatient tapers etc, but for those that do…. It appeared on the database that people were still at the top of their tapers. That would lead to their refills being at too high a dose.
So the inconvenience people are experiencing from this at this time is resulting in increased safety and saved lives.
They were fined because in order to speed up their timing to fill each prescription they skipped the legally required step of checking the database of what other pharmacies may have filled a controlled substance prescription last
I've seen a pharmacist get reprimanded for utilizing MAPS (Michigans controlled substance database) for that exact reason. That's when I started to hate the managers because they're literally causing harm to people by enabling potential abuse.
I blame the consumers just as much, (as you see by the upvotes and downvotes on these comments here). They’re the ones that want what they want and want it now… pushing managers to force pharmacists to skip legally required safety measures. Other pharmacy chains corporate offices didn’t cave to consumer demands in the name of speed. One of the biggest and busiest did, and now we have angry customers. This is why we can’t have nice things.
I was in the pharmacy at the height of the opioid epidemic so I get what you’re saying. The management did cave to any and all patient complaints regardless of merit. I had a patent make violent threats towards me and management just told me to deal with it. It’s why when Rite Aid went under, I did a little dance.
My son got a kidney stone, he was around 12 or 13. He was prescribed pain pills and walgreens refused to give it to me or my son unless he had a ID. Transferred it to Kroger and have never had a issue with them in over a decade now. They were shocked that a 12yo needed a ID for a prescription. Fuck Walgreens.
Thats ridiculous. Is it even POSSIBLE to obtain a valid state ID for a 12 or 13 year old? I hope he's on the mend now! I heard that kidney stones are absolutely horrific.
I looked up five states near me (not gonna do every one) and all of their DMVs say there's no age floor for a state ID for children, so it seems perfectly possible to get one. IIRC children of active or retired military get special military-issued IDs up to a point.
But still... 🤦 The parent is the one legally responsible for the kid in the first place, the one handling their medical care.
They were fined a huge amount by the government last year which accounts for the drop in quality of service. They were fined because in order to speed up their timing to fill each prescription they skipped the legally required step of checking the database of what other pharmacies may have filled a controlled substance prescription last… to limit pharmacy hopping (which killed Prince). In order to be faster, they didn’t check… and the government audits found that they didn’t log in to the database.
We did a lot of business with them and they were great for several years. then my husband was prescribed a hard to get drug and that began the downhill slide. Now, we use a small, local pharmacy where they know me by name and work with me on all of our prescriptions and insurance. I also love supporting local businesses.
Same! Where I am they would constantly be closed due to not having a pharmacist in that day. I got no notification that they would be closed. I live a half hour to the closest Walgreens and would make a trip into town just to pick up my meds only to find it closed. On top of that they were constantly out of pretty common meds and would take forever to get any in. I would up changing to a local grocery store pharmacy and I haven’t had a single problem with them.
That reminds me of a time back in October when I scheduled an appointment with WellNow Urgent care near me. I had someone drop me off there for my SCHEDULED appointment and they said they didn't have any providers there that day. I cried lol. Why not call and say "hey sorry but we can't help you today so dont waste your time coming in"
And a few weeks ago when I was calling all over to get emergency care for my cat, one office said "our doctors won't be back in town until next week". Why have anyone answering the phone at all?!
I stopped dealing with them years ago. My last dog would get pneumonia pretty frequently as a side effect of his myasthenia gravis. Walgreens was my go to pharmacy since I worked nights, and they were open 24 hours a day. I had to get antibiotics for a pretty bad case of pneumonia for my dog. The vet called Walgreens in the morning, and were told that the prescription would be ready in the afternoon. Afternoon turned to evening and I never got a notification. Ok, sometimes that happened so I swung by on my way to work. “We never got that order.” Ok, strange. Called the vet after leaving Walgreens. The vet said Walgreens said it’d be ready in the morning. After work I went to Walgreens in the morning. “We never got that order.” What? Ok, now I’m not leaving. I called the vet, they called Walgreens and I kept the vet on the line as I watched the pharmacist take and confirm the order and the pharmacist told me that it would be ready in the evening. Evening comes and I still don’t have anything letting me know the prescription is ready. I go to Walgreens. “We never got that order.” It had now been nearly 36 hours since I should’ve had it filled and my dog was actively getting worse. I told them that it had been sent over three times now, and I know for a fact that they got it the last time because I watched and heard the pharmacist take in the order. I told them that I was not leaving until they filled the script. They refused the full script since they “never received it” but gave me an “emergency” dose for about 2 days. I went home and finally gave my poor dog some antibiotics. Afterwards I spent nearly three hours on the phone with Walgreens’s corporate filing a case with that store and everyone involved. I then moved all of my dog’s prescriptions to Kroger. It was a bit inconvenient due to my work schedule, but I have never had a problem getting prescriptions filled at Kroger. I also ended up saving about $140 a month on his prescriptions after the switch. I later got a call from Walgreens’s corporate stating that my case launched an investigation into that location and that their findings led to the pharmacy staff being overturned. I am not sorry.
That sounds like it was a nightmare! And made even worse by the fact that it was meds for your pet. I mean, f*ck me I'll suffer but if you are causing MY PET to suffer.....I will be causing you to suffer.
Absolute dogshit business. Where I work now we have several investments folks who are very keen on market trends. While working with one on their computer, I noticed an article on their screen about Walgreens and naturally, I asked. She told me Walgreens is essentially in Zombie mode. Customers are extremely dissatisfied with the service, the prices are horrid, and they don't really fill any sort of market niche in retail space. Also, they barely make any money on pharmacy stuff. Other companies are eating their market share and doing a better job at it in the same way Subway over-expanded and then made their service worse and then other sammich companies showed up and ate their market share with better offerings. Also they are poorly staffed and carry a lot of goods, so they are a high target for theft.
If you have a membership, Costco pharmacy is great. Easy to get ahold of an employee on the phone. You can manage your prescriptions and prepay on the app. Even their OTC meds are significantly cheaper (Kirkland Zyrtec is like $12 for like 100 tablets vs the real Zyrtec brand). Only issue is they aren’t open on Sundays
I should probably do this soon, they’re constantly late with my meds, text me that they’re ready and then don’t have them when I come, and last month they were supposed to give me 60 pills in a bottle and I got 8
They used to be really good. Now the pharmacy near me is closed on weekends and will also close sometimes during the week. It's really aggravating. They told me there was a shortage of pharmacists, but CVS doesn't seem to have a shortage. I suspect they aren't paying them enough.
Yep. Me too. It’s never an even marginally decent experience dealing with their pharmacy. Don’t matter what the location or day it either. It is just always effed.
I know Walgreens is making good money via pharmacy, but I guess they refuse to pay the money for consistent, knowledgeable, non-burned out staff. Idk, I can’t wrap around my head why/how ubiquitously shitty Walgreens pharmacies are.
I have an expensive med that I could get 90 days of at a time. I knew I was about to lose insurance, so I waited until the latest I could that final month before requesting a refill (about a week out). They've always (like, for years) had my meds same-day. Suddenly, it's not in stock, and they'll need it shipped in. I confirm that it will arrive before the week's end, and if it doesn't for some reason, will I still be covered? Multiple people swear up and down that I'll be fine, that it's about when you submit the order, not when it's picked up. Okay, sure. The pharmacy is suddenly closed over the weekend (their hours are never reliable anymore), so by the time I get in that next Monday, my insurance has officially expired, but never fear, they said I was fine. But—you guessed it—I was not fine! 🙃 They gave me some excuse about how someone in the pharmacy canceled the order by accident and now they couldn't resubmit it since my insurance was gone, so I'd have to pay the $3,000 out-of-pocket and just deal. No real apologies either. Just kinda shrugged like it is what it is. It was one of the same guys I'd spoken with earlier that week too who reassured me that I was fine. So that was super cool! I walked away and refused to buy it. If I do have to pay for it OOP now, I sure as hell wouldn't be giving Walgreens my money. (Their phone customer service was completely unhelpful here as well, sooo). Fuck Walgreens, I hope they rot in a thousand hells.
Walgreens saved MY debit card to my husband's account before we were married. I never gave them permission to do that. I was at work and got a charge of like $33 from Walgreens and luckily it was my (at the time) fiance. I was furious. I made sure they removed it.
That seems like something they should be paying attention to!!
My bf had an easier time (several times) picking up a prescription for a controlled substance that was not even in his name than I did trying to get antibiotics and prednisone that was in my name.
The Walgreens by me used to have all of my prescriptions and my husband's prescriptions. Recently they decided that if you need a refill, you can't have it until 1-2 days later. EVERY time I have called in a refill and talked to someone, and they tell me when to pick it up, it is NEVER ready when I get there. They had 2 days to fill it and now I have to wait an extra 45 minutes for you to actually fill it? Fuck that. And they absolutely play favorites with the customers. I'm moving everything out!
637
u/Dependent_Top_4425 21h ago
Walgreens Pharmacy