Walgreens

Super nice staff! Was able to call them, asked them to check if they had an item, and even had them hold that item at the register for my husband to pick up the next day! :)

This particular Walgreens is staffed by the most friendly and helpful maybe of most any or all of the other branches staff members. I ask my Pharmacists LOTS of questions, does this interact with that? What do you recommend for this?, and they have never let me down. Everyone is professional, helpful and friendly. They are all special and I love having them as my pharmacy. Even if they get swamped, which happens alot here, they are friendly. I appreciate this nowadays.

I have been a loyal Walgreen’s customer for over ten years. I travel a lot and have picked up prescriptions while traveling all over the country including Puerto Rico. I have picked up scripts in Washington DC, Tampa Florida, various cities in California, New York, and so on. I have always experienced the pharmacy as friendly and helpful and very dependable — even in situations where there was confusion about the prescription or the fact that they had to go to other Walgreen’s in the city to fill the script in short time frames because of my schedule. However, I had a very disappointing experience at this pharmacy — which has truly changed my point of view about Walgreen’s. It is especially disappointing since I have decided to make Spokane my home and would have liked to develop a positive relationship with my pharmacy provider.
I have a medical condition which requires that I use consistent brands of certain meds. I cannot change from one manufacturer to the other for instance. When I went to fill my prescription, one of my meds was the wrong manufacturer. I told Sarah, the pharmacy manager that it was the wrong manufacturer but she insisted (despite evidence to the contrary) it was the same one I had been using since I first filled it. The actual reason was that Walgreen’s had changed suppliers and the brand I used was no longer available to it’s customers. A fact I should have been informed of right off the bat.
I was so upset — mainly because for the first time in years — my labs were perfect and I was feeling great! This had been a long process of trying different meds and changing brands at this juncture threatened to derail my progress. And remember, I am the patient and the customer. The pharmacist is the care-​giver. My health should be important enough to give pause and restrategize if necessary. But no. All my protests were ignored and she slammed the phone down and sent someone else to talk to me.
OK — so if you were the Pharmacy manager what would you do? If I were her, I would have said — «Let me research that for you.» «Can you come back later?» OR «Let me call your doctor and see if it’s OK to change brands.» Or «Let me call my supplier and find out why your brand is no long available.”“Let me call around to the other Walgreen’s and see if they have any.»
On another note, her assistant — Ryan called me later — probably because I called the Walgreeen’s customer complaint service and filed a complaint. He did research other pharmacies outside Walgreen’s to find out who carries the brand which is what I would expect my pharmacy to do for me. He was calm and very hands on with the problem solving, and I appreciated it very much. He treated me respectfully and with care which is what I expect. Seems that the brand was hard to find anywhere.
I got curious and Doing research on my own, I discovered that the brand I used in the past was under investigation by the FDA. OK. Why couldn’t a person whose job it is to manage medications find that out? Or at least err on the side of the possibility instead of insisting that I was making up the fact that I ever took that brand? She completely dismissed me and I got the impression she thought I was stupid. Or not worth bothering with. Maybe because I am an older woman and I drove up in an old pick-​up truck? Maybe farfetched — but trying to understand her reaction.
Finally, I did also call my doctor and was told that it was better to go with the new brand since the old one was not available. Now I have to go back to monitoring my labs to see if there are significant changes and at this point I have no choice –BUT it seems to me that I should have been informed of this change by my trusted pharmacy — solid facts instead of being dismissed — and practically called a liar.
What happened to me at the pharmacy was completely unnecessary. Never have I been treated so badly. I am sure I am not the only person this has happened to –so it’s just a matter of time before this catches up with this manager. But it’s enough for me to never go back.

Best place to get your prescriptions filled because they have the best pharmacist: Dr. Sauer! :)