Wal-Green's Pharmacy Sucks!

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momof3boys

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The only good thing Ive liked about Wal-Greens Pharmacy is that there are 2 pharmacies in town that stay open 24 hours. So when or if something "Big" comes up, and you need to get a prescription filled at anytime, they are open! :)

But after my recent experience with them, I doubt I will be going back for any regular prescription!

Our insurance changes every year on July 1st.

On July 1, 2011 they changed our insurance, and we had to go through express scripts, and walgreens along with express scripts, did not reach an agreement on services, so they lost alot of customers. We couldnt go there during that time period. But now that July 1st of this year has came and gone, we were informed that we could now go back to walgreens again. Prior to that, we were going to Target Pharmacy. Which we;ve had no issues with, but we thought since it changed again, we couldnt no longer go to Target, and had to go back to walgreens.

My husband had a prescription he got filled at the end of May. When our insurance changed, I thought we had to go to walgreens again. So on 9/10/12, I switched his precription from Target to walgreens. The first thing I didnt like about walgreens was that they did NOT contact us to let us know the prescription was filled and ready to be picked up. We made the switch on a monday... never heard anything... called on friday... and they said it was ready monday to be picked up! OK.... why didnt anyone contact us to let us know this?


So, yesterday, my husband is at work, and im going out to do some errons with the kids. I go through the drive thru pharmacy to pick the prescription up. I get there, and the guy who is taking care of the pharmacy drive thru, says he has it ready. The prescription is for my husband's testosterone level problem. We found out in sept 2011 he has a tumor on his pituatary gland that is too small to remove, but is affecting his testosterone levels really badly. In the meantime, he has to take injections to get his levels high again. When we got this filled at Target, they gave us a bottle of Testosterone Injection 10ml bottle, for $10. Instructed to use it as 1ml injection once every two weeks. Ok... great!

Now yesterday I pick it up, expecting to get the same thing!

NOPE... NOT the same thing! Walgreens gives me (2) 1ml bottles of the testosterone injection for $10. Not the 10ml bottle we got from Target! I ask why is it that Target was giving us a 10ml bottle, and now walgreens is only giving us (2) small 1ml bottles?

according to Walgreens... BY THE LAW... they cant do that! Really? Why did Target do it then? The guy at walgreen's response... "Target is committing Insurance Fraud"... ...


Oh really? HMMM... well, Im going to contact them and my dr, and my insurance company to check on this.

Oh and another thing that went wrong with walgreens... was that I had a coupon for when you switch a prescription over to any walgreens, as long as you dont live in any restriction state.. which we dont... and dont have any federal insurance.. such as medicaid, etc..., which we dont... you can get a $25 gift card for switching to Walgreens...

But guess what? The manager said I cant get the gift card because we have to be a NEW customer! When they looked up my husband;s name, his last prescription he had filled there was in 2011~ So they wont honor the coupon...

Now this coupon says NOTHING about having to be a new customer! So I said forget it, and leave. I get home, give a call to walgreens customer service, and ask about the coupon and why the heck if you have to be a new customer, why its not listed on the coupon? According to customer service, I should have been able to get the gift card! They take my info and tell me someone at the Walgreens will contact me.

Today, I get a call from the Head Manager at the store location, asking me to explain everything to him. He is confused because the manager that told me I had to be a new customer, and the employee that was helping me, told 2 different stories!

So I tell him what took place. He apologized and said I should have got the gift card because you dont have to be a new customer!.... and based off of what they know about Target giving us a 10ml bottle, compared to walgreens trying to give me (2) 1ml bottles at the same price, that they have to go by what you take on a MONTHLY basis. If the prescription says 1ml every two weeks, they have to give us what you would take for 1 month.

Now when I checked with our insurance company, they said no... when a dr prescribes you that kind of medication, it comes in a 10ml bottle, and the instructions on how much you take, and how often you take it, are listed on the label.

So what Walgreens is doing by giving me only 2mls for $10, instead of getting 10ml for $10 is crap! Even the head manager said he's never heard of any pharmacy or insurance company doing that. But, like i told him, our insurance company said they never have heard of a pharmacy only giving out 1ml bottles of the medication either!

Its freaking crazy how walgreens work... But I can tell ya one thing... I will NOT be going back to them for any of my regular prescriptions again! I will for sure keep Target on my #1 list!
 
I find if funny that the person just plainly stated that Target is trying to commit insurance fraud. Did you ask him where he graduated law school from? hahaha what a joke, I am sure the people at Target would get a good laugh at that.
 
Yea, we were faithful Walgreen customers until they stopped taking express scripts. I actually never had many problems and they are just a stones throw to my house. Hmm, I wonder if ours is taking express scripts again. I'm using krogers now and they are sooo slowwww and don't have the drive thru.

What a bunch of bs, the way they treated u.
 
Yea, we were faithful Walgreen customers until they stopped taking express scripts. I actually never had many problems and they are just a stones throw to my house. Hmm, I wonder if ours is taking express scripts again. I'm using krogers now and they are sooo slowwww and don't have the drive thru.

What a bunch of bs, the way they treated u.

I used to be a Walgreen's customer, too, but had to change to King Sooper's (Kroger) because of our insurance. King Sooper's may not have a drive thru like Walgreen's does nor is it open 24/7, but I do like the pharmacists much better there and get much better service than I did at Walgreen's. The one's at Walgreen's were rude and weren't helpful if I had any problems.
 
Esteems pissed me off when they randomly stopped taking tricare insurance without warning. I live in a military town so it's ridiculous. Grr.
 
Walgreens!!! Freaking auto correct can suck my left nip. Ahem. Bad moods lately, excuse me.
 
Walgreens bought out the small Mom & Pop pharmacy we go to a couple years ago. So far I haven't experienced any problems but thanks for the heads up!
 
i hate em and i dont use that word often unless its in reference to my epilepsy cause every month i call in 5 scripts same time they say be ready in a hr 4$ charge for 4 of them and 20 for the other. get there and they tell me its not covered how when we go through this every month thank goodness my wife takes care of it and i get my pills.
 
Walgreen's use to price match what Target was giving to their customers. Like for example, my husband gets his blood pressure medication at Target. They offer $4 medications for a 1 month supply, or you can get a 6 month supply for $20. Prior, walgreens was price matching it. But then they changed it and said we no longer price match what Target has. I guess they lost alot of customers. After speaking with the head manager, he said he was sorry for the way I was treated and he hopes I come back... (Not in my lifetime buddy!)

The way they treat their customers is just not right. I didnt have any issues with them two years ago.. but then once they got rid of express scripts, and we couldnt go there last year, now I see they brought back express scripts. But the service there is awful!
 
Do you have a walmart, samsclub, or costco in your town? I've gotten pretty good service and very low prices from them.
 
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We do have a walmart, and sams club. We dont have a membership to sams club though. We have tried walmart here, and it was ok service. I wasnt impressed by any means. But I found Target has two very nice pharmacists that have always been very friendly to us over the past year now. I havnt had any issues with them. I just thought with the new change of insurance, we were not allowed to go there. But guess I was wrong! I should have done alittle more research into things before I switched the prescription. Oh well... we got with the dr today and they faxed over a prescription to Target for us. We'll check in with them tomorrow to see if its ready.
 
Fortunately, knock on wood, my walgrens hasn't been to bad. The line at the pharmacy at walmart scares me and I hear the wait is horrid.

lol, I guess walgrens works good for me cause everyone in town is at walmarts pharmacy! :D

Sorry you're having so much grief.
 
Sorry you had a bad experience but in a way it's funny to me, not what happened to you but the fact that I switched to Walgreens from Walmart because I kept having problems with Walmart and FYI WALMART PHARMACY SUCKS. I was at Walmart for over 10 years and never had a problem until the last year and from then on they sucked. Doctors never getting requests from Walmart, Walmart telling me I needed authorizations, telling me they hadn't heard from the doctor or insurance wouldn't pay for it and the list goes on.

In all honesty, I dont think it's necessarily the Pharmacy that screws up but the people that work IN the pharmacy cause since I switched to Walgreens, they've been perfect, I get the prescriptions the same day I request them, even those that are out of refills if it isn't the weekend and my doctor isn't there. I get them the same day if they are out of refills and they contact my doctor the same day & my doctor always is on top of my medications. Walmart pissed me off, constantly screwing up my medications and coming close several times to running out of medications and since I switched to Walgreens, haven't had ONE problem. So I think it depends on the person you deal with, not the pharmacy themselves.
 
I wish we could order directly from the manufacturer without using a pharmacy as a means to obtain meds or acquiring medications via delivery to our home in extreme hot/cold temperatures. A pharmaceutical warehouse could contact us/email us to pick up meds. That does take some personalization out of those mom and pop pharmacies or the huge pharmacies where there are a few conscientious people who actually know and remember us. There has to be a better way to do this.
I'm wary of deliveries to my door without knowing if that mystery box has brand name, a different medication or a generic that has been never tried in the past.
 
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