Complaint to Walgreens
Manager of Walgreen’s Pharmacy/ re: follow-up letter to phone complaint

Wednesday Sept 21, the day of the hurricane evacuation, my wife called the pharmacy to re-order her prescription of Clorazepate, and told a pharmacy employee that the doctor was leaving the office within ten minutes. My understanding is this medicine has a calming effect. And too I understand the doctor played a role in this problem.

My wife explained the urgency to your pharmacy, saying she was completely out of medicine and that her appointment with the doctor was cancelled the following day because of the evacuation. The pharmacy said the prescription would be ready after 7:30.

A few hours later the automated system called me at home and said the prescription could not be filled. I called and spoke with a woman pharmacist who said Clorazepate is a controlled substance and requires a doctor’s order and suggested we go to the emergency room (during an evacuation?) to get a prescription.

A few minutes later I called back saying I couldn’t reach my wife’s doctor. The pharmacist never offered to call the doctor and reiterated this was not considered a necessary medication, and it would be against the law to dispense. She again suggested the emergency room which rankled me because of the evacuation and because it would cost us money when I’m on disability and the cost-of-living increase this year was 40¢ a day and every medical bill has gone up & my drug co-pay has doubled.

I told the pharmacist that she was following what a computer was telling her to do and failing to understand that people are what matter. I again explained that my wife might be out of medicine for several weeks if the storm hit and said this was unfair to botch the order and not make good in this situation. But the pharmacist refused to budge.

Maybe my government says my wife doesn’t need a calming medicine when a category 4 hurricane is bearing down on the community & threatening to destroy our homes and livelihoods. Or that my wife doesn’t need her medicine when she’s taking care of a disabled spouse and separated from family support in Ohio. But your customer adamantly disagrees, and I’m certain your pharmacist would not act the same if it were her family member.

I told your pharmacist that corporations are allowed to shop American jobs around the world but law-abiding Americans are not allowed to shop the world for our doctors and medicines. And I told her these roadblocks are ripe to fall because of incidents like this, and you know this is true because the government is increasingly telling people to ‘take care of themselves,’ and people will do just that with or without your help.
Pharmacy personnel should be aware that functioning chronically ill people vehemently disagree with a medical system that lines us up through checkpoints before we can get the medicines we’ve taken for years … and when this system falters, your customers will eliminate your jobs because they want medicines, not prescriptions.

After getting off the phone with your pharmacist, I called my wife at school, where she was still working, after-hours, to secure the school building and minimize possible loss to the community. I told her about the problem at Walgreen’s, and it caused her additional concern because she thought the issue was resolved hours earlier. It just added problems for us, especially since we could have called another pharmacy if your people told us from the beginning they couldn’t handle the order.

My wife drove to your store where the pharmacist asked if she really needed the medicine. Would your pharmacist ask her own family member that question?

My wife was angry and stressed that your people were withholding her medicine in a time of crisis, especially since the order was mishandled from the start.

Your pharmacist did hand my wife a few pills and we appreciate the gesture … but before doing so your pharmacist announced aloud for others to hear, that my wife ‘was the problem,’ and that ‘nervous people just have to have their medicine.’ This lack of discretion is totally unprofessional, and it upset my wife terribly. And me too.

Does your pharmacist think she has the right to hold my wife up to ridicule? Is this her best answer to a conflict between community need and government regulation? My wife works every day to pay the bills and take care of a disabled spouse. Each day she and her staff educate our community’s children, but moreover her school acts as the first line of social service for families in her area without question or co-pay, and my wife performs these duties with integrity and professionalism toward everyone. My wife would never treat her customers unprofessionally like your pharmacist.

Your pharmacist thinks we need her service? She’s wrong. Your customers would put her out of a job in a minute, and when the government opens our borders to free competition for drugs, she’ll be unnecessary.

Frankly I can’t understand people who don’t respect their jobs, especially when business is so simple: A problem, large or small, is an opportunity to develop community ties with your customer. What a lost opportunity. Your pharmacist owes my wife an apology and she should re-think her role in the community because insulting customers is a very low aspiration.               Thank you, Gene Haynes




Gene Haynes