CVS Caremark
Poor Customer Service - in store pharmacy customer service

Today at 11:20A.M. I went into CVS at 78th and Western to pick up a prescription that had been waiting for me. After a few minutes, one of the assistant pharmacists came over to assist me. I told him my name, and he searched for my medicine while I spoke with the managing pharmacist. The assistant rang up the medicine, and the other 2 items that I had, baby oil and deodorant. I told him that I had Extra Bucks that I wanted to use against this purchase. He took the Extra Bucks coupon for $11.00 and rang it up. The purchase with the Extra Bucks had to be for the total amount of the coupon, so I purchased 2 boxes of M&Ms. He then asked me to swipe my card and he competed the transaction. That is when he noticed that the transaction was not correct and then proceeded to go through the motions of what I thought to be voiding the purchase, but what I later understood to be refunding the purchase. He asked me to swipe my Debit card a total of 3 times in all before he was done. One of those swipes was apparently for the actual purchase with the Extra Bucks coupon. Before I left the counter, he asked that I sign 3 refund receipts; the reasons were never explained to me. When I asked him would I now have to watch my account for multiple transactions he said, “No there will only be one transaction, for the purchase, ” as he gave me my purchase, with 2 final receipts. Which I thought was odd, but should have, at the time, seen as a red flag.

When I got home, sometime later, I looked up my bank account online and noticed that there were 2 transactions for CVS for today. One for the transaction with the coupon and one without. (The totals on both receipts!) I called the store and spoke with the Store Manager, Darnell something. He looked it up on the computer and told me that I would have to come into the store and have the incorrect transaction refunded to my debit card. I told him that it was very inconvenient for me to come in today, but that I would be in as soon as I could. I also asked if they conducted any kind training for their employees, sense this was the second time I was inflicted with this assistant pharmacists’ ineptitude. Once before, with this same person, I had the very same issue, with needing to be refunded multiple transactions. He laughed and said that they did train their employees, but they never knew how much they retained. I asked the store manager, if I could request someone else wait on me when I come into the store, or if I were stuck with the inept assistant pharmacist. He said that I would always ask for someone else to wait on me.

I felt I should go and have this taken care of while the transaction was still fresh on everyone’s minds. So, 20mins later I was in the store, looking for the store manager. The pharmacist, called the Manager and he came to be back of the store. He told me that because it takes longer for a refund to go back into someone’s account, I wouldn’t see the money for up to 3 days. And that there was nothing more he could do. He went and got the paperwork that he said explained everything. I told him I understood everything that he was saying, but that that meant I would be out of the $70.12 for up to 3 days by no fault of my own. How did they know I had that money available for them to play with? I also said that his store had made the mistake, his employee, and at no time did he ever apologize for the mistake. He said, “Well, I’m sorry, what more would you like for me to do. What can I do for you? Would you like a $5 store credit for your inconvenience? “ He also said that, I was the one who paid for the transaction with at credit card, that if I had paid in cash, the refund would have been given back to me in cash. As if it were my fault because I paid with a credit card.

I am just one of the uninsured millions we have in the country, but thank goodness, I have always had a way to pay for my prescriptions. I had been shopping at this CVS for years. I spend hundreds of dollars there EVERY month, not just on prescriptions, but on many other items. At times, I have had Extra Bucks for up to $25. Do you know how much money you have to spend to accumulate $25 in Extra Buck? I do have a job, and in that job, I work with the public everyday… It wasn’t the $70 that bothered me; it was the way it was handled. This manager wasn’t apologetic for the mistake that was made, in fact he was very dismissive. That is poor customer service, and that is way I will be shopping at another pharmacy in the future.

Company: CVS Caremark
Country: USA

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