Rare Moment When Mgmt. Doesn't Back Down!

[RxBoy]

Early this morning a customer came to pick up a prescription. She claimed that she had paid for it yesterday along with several others and left it behind. Normally this would be a simple issue. We could look it up in the computer and see that it was sold and we'd give it to her. However, when the technician she came up to informed her that it was showing as "Ready" and not "Sold" in the computer, she insisted that she already paid for it.

The technician then asked the lady if she had the receipt from yesterday which would show the RX numbers of all the prescriptions she had picked up. Do you think she had it? Of course not. She said it was home. So technician says sorry but there's nothing we can do without the receipt. The customer gets upset and demands the pharmacy manager.

Pharmacy manager comes over and basically tells her the same thing. We need to either see the receipt or she needs to pay for it now to take it. She doesn't accept that and states, "This is ridiculous that you expect me to go all the way home just to get a receipt!" She then demands to speak to the pharmacy manager's supervisor.

I'm standing up in the back filling prescriptions so I could hear the entire exchange. I said to the pharmacist working next to me, "They better not give in to this lady!" I would have been pissed if they did.

In a few minutes, the assistant store manager came over to talk to the lady and she gave him the same story. Incredibly, he backed the pharmacy manager. Once a prescription is scanned at the register, the status in the computer changes from "Ready" to "Sold". That's why we didn't believe that she had paid for it and wanted her to show us the receipt that she so conveniently left at home.

I just wanted to go up to this lady and say, "What the hell do you think we give you a receipt for??" But I was very happy that our managers didn't give in and let her have it. The cost of the prescription was $4, so I worried that they might just let her have it to shut her up and get rid of her. But they didn't!

[EmiOfBrie]

If it was a controlled substance management would have broken the law by giving in to her. Maybe that's why they didn't back down?

[Exaspera]

Also, she could bring the earlier receipt back in tomorrow, couldn't she?

[Brojekk]

What I think....unlike most retail stores.....pharmacies can't be as lienient with prescriptions the way dept or groc stores do with their stock. I imagine they're much more careful with stuff like that.

[RxBoy]

Quoth EmiOfBrie

If it was a controlled substance management would have broken the law by giving in to her. Maybe that's why they didn't back down?

No, it was actually just a cholesterol drug. Even if it was, I don't think they would have been in violation of the law for waiving the copay. We do that occasionally for people if they are held up because of our error. Although by law we cannot allow returns/refunds on controlled substances.

Quoth Exaspera

Also, she could bring the earlier receipt back in tomorrow, couldn't she?

That's what we told her, but she thought it was "ridiculous that she had to do that".

Quoth Brojekk

What I think....unlike most retail stores.....pharmacies can't be as lienient with prescriptions the way dept or groc stores do with their stock. I imagine they're much more careful with stuff like that.

We have a policy of not allowing returns on prescriptions. Once the drug has left the pharmacy, if we take it back we have to throw it out. We can't return it to the shelf to use for someone else to use it. In the case of this woman, common sense should have told her to bring the receipt with her. I'm very glad they didn't give in to her tantrum.