Another day in the Pharmacy

[Gryphon]

So I'm working the drop off window at a store in a nicer area than the other pharmacy I'm helping out at, and yet I am approached by White Trash Female, aka WTF.

She slams a receipt down on the counter and I give her a confused look. Now I'm thinking "What in schnitzel's name does she want me to do with that?"

Me: Hello, how may I help you today?

WTF: Fix this.

[insert confused silence for about 4 seconds]

Me: What would you like me to do about this ma'am? Do you know what prescription this is for? (hoping that I could possibly wrestle some sort of information out of her and send her to one of my poor coworkers stuck on the register)

She rummages around in her tote-thing that resembles what may have once been either a cloth grocery bag or some sort of alien life-form and pulls out an insurance card! YAY! We're getting somewhere! Or so I think...

WTF: It's for Ad-ur-awl, put it on this! (and then she slams the poor card down on the counter as though it's all it's fault she had to pay $25.32 for a medication)

Now, common sense says that without insurance, that particular medication would have been more expensive than that, so I'm now thinking "great, I've got another nutjob on my hands, best move her along". I manage to weasel her full name and DOB out of her and locate her profile on the computer.

But wait!

Me: Uh... Ma'am, I can't help you. You didn't pick up this medication at this store.

WTF: YOU SHOULD GET SOMEBODY WHO ISN'T STUPID AND KNOWS HOW TO DO THEIR JOB OVER HERE! (as she's snatching up her card and receipt)

~

And another one I just watched, as my pharmacist handled it himself.

This cranky older man walks up to the Pick-up window and is told his prescription is almost ready, it'll be just 10 more minutes. Now, in a pharmacy that is busier than hell, 10 minutes is very good for someone who gave us no warning that they wanted it quick. But that's not good enough for Jerk Monkey.

JM: I want it faster than that, and I want the prescription with it!

Male Rph: Do you have a hardcopy sir?

JM: NO! You're going to give me the prescription! With the refill on it!

MRph: It was sent electronically, and you'll get a slip of paper that tells you the prescription number and the refills.

JM: I don't care about that! I want the medication and I want the prescription, I'm not refilling it here! (at this point, the man is turning a funky red color and my Rph has stopped smiling)

MRph: We need to keep the hardcopy here sir, we can not give it out.

JM: You WILL give me my medication in less than 5 minutes AND the prescription, or I'm taking it and going to a different pharmacy! (fully tomato-faced at this point and talking loud enough that everyone in the general vicinity is listening, whether they want to or not)

MRph: I'm not giving you the hardcopy. If you want it filled elsewhere, they have to call and get it. Now get out. (And then my pharmacist went back to his tower of awesome and reveled in the adoring looks we all gave him for telling off JM)

JM stood there and glared a bit, but when he realized we were just going to keep ignoring him, he stormed off to complain to his Angry Jerk Monkey Friends that the pharmacy was full of meanie heads that wouldn't cower before his Wrath.

~

I swear this job gets more and more interesting as time goes by.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Ahh... Angry Angry People: instead of marbles, you lose fingers!
.________.
(both maybe?)

[LewisLegion]

The one time I needed medication from a pharmacy super duper fast...I got it super duper fast. And not because I asked or threw a fit or anything.

I had just been to the walk-in clinic over lunch at work, because I was having a very hard time breathing. After some tests and a turn on a nebulizer, it was determined I was asthmatic. Doc gave me a script for a steroid and an emergency inhaler, told me the nebulizer treatment would last about five hours and if I had problems breathing again after that to use the emergency inhaler (severe problems, go to the ER of course).

Fast forward six hours. I had just gotten off work and was starting to feel constricted and wheezy again. Not nearly as bad as I had been, but bad enough. Drove to my local pharmacy and turned in the scripts, and was told it would be about twenty minutes. I kindly thanked them and meandered a bit about the vitamin aisle directly in front of the pharmacy.

Clearly I must have either been wheezing harder than I thought, or looked like I was having a rough time, because I noticed suddenly that the pharmacist was moving very quickly and everyone behind the counter kept glancing in my direction. Less than five minutes later I was called over and handed my medication, the pharmacist insisting that I take a hit even before I paid for it.

Long story short, if something is wrong and you need meds RIGHT NOW, chances are a pharmacist is going to recognize that. You throwing a fit and demanding your meds yesterday are going to make them far less inclined to help you, especially if you clearly do not need them immediately.

[Seshat]

Yes - I've noticed that too. Pharmacists and pharmacy techs are perfectly happy to triage and give urgent treatment urgently.

[Gryphon]

If I see someone who desperately needs the medication, I will bend over backwards to make miracles happen so they get it immediately and when someone says that a patient looks like they need it, we all move into lightspeed mode.

Asshats, on the other hand, can wait.

If ever the occasion arises that an asshat needs a prescription immediately for a valid reason, we'll make sure they get it immediately, no matter how much we dislike them on a regular basis. Usually that's all that's needed to cure them of their asshattery and other negative attitudes towards us when we're busy other times, actually.

[Sapphire Silk]

My pharmacist and her techs are flippin' AWESOME!

They know how terrible my migraines get because they've seen me in the full throws of one (as Evil Empryss will attest as she was there, if she ever gets her ass back here).

If I tell them I need a refill on my migraine meds, they handle it post haste unless I tell them I'm not actually having a headache and just stocking up (my meds are expensive, so a lot of the time I don't get the refill until I actually have a migraine).

[Gryphon]

I always like hearing about pharmacies where the pharmacists and techs are awesome!

I work in a (supposedly) nationwide chain and often take shifts at stores in my district and the one right next to mine, and some of the stores have downright atrocious customer service! I made it my mission to cheer up people at one of the stores and get a rapport going with the customers, even though I was only helping out. It made all the difference in how the employees were treated by customers once they realized how much smiling would help!

Customer service is an art, one that I have learned from working, and, to be honest, from reading on this site since I got my job. Thank god for CS.com, you've all made it easier to handle both crazy customers and difficult coworkers.