Advice on how to handle certain customer

[EML9255]

I have this one customer at my store who comes in multiple times per week. He is about 97, terribly mean (he has made one of my techs cry), and just way way way too old to be dealing with his medication by himself. I have never seen him come in with anyone else. He pulled through the drive thru one day, terrifying that he drives.

He constantly has issues, but they are not real issues...he is just so old and out of it and has no memory of anything he does it seems like. He will come in screaming we gave him 200 pills and are trying to kill him (he seems to just dump his pills into the same bottle once he picks them up, that we gave him wrong drug (mfc change). Tends to come on the 20th of every month but had a huge freak out on rxm last month and took everything off autofill, came back 20th this month screaming why is nothing ready (he has at least 100 pills of everything he is on) he will pick it up and bring it back the next day saying we gave him too many.

Its getting to the point where it is just ridiculous; last week he dropped off a script for cipro; came back the next day to yell about something else and then asked us why we had a prescription ready because he never dropped one off (didnt even remember going to the doctor, rx was dated for day he dropped it off). Today he came in screaming at me asking why i called him this morning from his doctors office. he kept calling me "the nurse he spoke to on the phone this morning". he wont leave the store until he has talked to every employee he possibly can about the same issue and just yells at you like a very very angry old man

i honestly cant deal with it anymore. lately i have jsut been super brief and using a loud voice and stern tone telling him nothing is ready, etc (whatever fits what he is "complaining about") and it seems to be getting him out of the store faster. Ive never seen any sort of caregiver with him though so its not like i can talk to someone in his family about hte issues


Apparently he got in my store managers face last week and he was thinking of banning him
its exhausting dealing with him multiple times per week; I like my store and all the other customers for the most part are pleasant.

Does anyone have any other advice on how to deal with this?

might be long and repetitive. just typed it out really fast. but basically he gives everyone in my store hell whenever he comes in

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[zelman]

I have this one customer at my store who comes in multiple times per week. He is about 97, terribly mean (he has made one of my techs cry), and just way way way too old to be dealing with his medication by himself. I have never seen him come in with anyone else. He pulled through the drive thru one day, terrifying that he drives.

He constantly has issues, but they are not real issues...he is just so old and out of it and has no memory of anything he does it seems like. He will come in screaming we gave him 200 pills and are trying to kill him (he seems to just dump his pills into the same bottle once he picks them up, that we gave him wrong drug (mfc change). Tends to come on the 20th of every month but had a huge freak out on rxm last month and took everything off autofill, came back 20th this month screaming why is nothing ready (he has at least 100 pills of everything he is on) he will pick it up and bring it back the next day saying we gave him too many.

Its getting to the point where it is just ridiculous; last week he dropped off a script for cipro; came back the next day to yell about something else and then asked us why we had a prescription ready because he never dropped one off (didnt even remember going to the doctor, rx was dated for day he dropped it off). Today he came in screaming at me asking why i called him this morning from his doctors office. he kept calling me "the nurse he spoke to on the phone this morning". he wont leave the store until he has talked to every employee he possibly can about the same issue and just yells at you like a very very angry old man

i honestly cant deal with it anymore. lately i have jsut been super brief and using a loud voice and stern tone telling him nothing is ready, etc (whatever fits what he is "complaining about") and it seems to be getting him out of the store faster. Ive never seen any sort of caregiver with him though so its not like i can talk to someone in his family about hte issues


Apparently he got in my store managers face last week and he was thinking of banning him
its exhausting dealing with him multiple times per week; I like my store and all the other customers for the most part are pleasant.

Does anyone have any other advice on how to deal with this?

might be long and repetitive. just typed it out really fast. but basically he gives everyone in my store hell whenever he comes in

Your current strategy sounds good. You might want to call the doctor and find out if he has a caregiver involved there.

 

[SClENCE]

The more you entertain his issues/complaints the more time you will end up wasting at no benefit to anyone. He probably has no clue what is going on and the more you try to explain something the more angry/confused he will get. I wouldn't ban him unless he was threatening or obscene - Just get him what he needs and send him off as timely as possible.

 

[trailerpark]

I agree with calling the doctor. He's probably the same way there and they might give you more info that can help.

 

[Leper Messiah]

fill all of his bottles with warfarin

 

[lcow2004]

fill all of his bottles with warfarin

Then I am sure he won't be coming back in to your store anymore, or any store for that matter... ;D

 

[npage148]

Just tell him he's not welcomed at your store anymore. I've banned people for less

 

[trailerpark]

I wanted to ban someone before, but didn't want to deal with any back lash if they went to their store manager or called walmart corporate or whoever. Did you guys who have banned people just do it on the fly or notified store manager or DMs or whatever first? What's the proper channels to go through. Of course there's never a training module for this type of stuff.

 

[Old Timer]

This man is so old and while he is pain in the ass what is required here is compassion.
Please read this

 

[BidingMyTime]

I vote for calling his doctor. The doctor might know if he has any family who could help him, and let them know about the situation (they might not be aware of it.) I'd encourage the store manager to ban him, or at least agree to back you up that he will be asked to leave the store anytime he starts being abusive. Although, you will have to be ready to call the police, as its unlikely this guy will respect your asking him to leave the store or respect being banned.

I called a son once about his mother being extremely confused (she kept asking what happened to the store across the street...the store she was talking about hadn't existed for nearly 20 years & when I told her that she insisted it had been there the week before.) In her case, she was very sweet, I asked for the name of her children, and then called one & let him know his mother seemed very confused about what year it was and that I was concerned. The son was also very kind, grateful I called him, he was aware of a problem with his mom's memory, but not everything that was going on.

 

[SClENCE]

What does it tell your technicians when you sit there and watch them get verbally abused over something that is out of their control? It's unacceptable and I would not hesitate in kicking someone out unless they are senile/confused. There's a difference between good customer service and allowing jerks to walk all over you

 

[Estrace]

I understand that this situation is very frustrating but where is the compassion? This man is very old and obviously very forgetful. I have dealt with patients like this before and I don't attend to them at the drive tru. I have paid for pill organizer with my own money for similar patient. Walgreens also has talking pill box . Try sitting down with him next time to find out what works for him and reassure him that he could always call you on the phone when he gets confused at home without having to drive down to your store. Provide your number with your name written down next to it. At my old store, we had a couple of patients like that and my rxm doesn't have patience for them. I took care of them. They knew my schedule and they called only when I was there. You will be surprised how understanding they could be when they know you go out of your way to help them.

 

[pillpharmer14]

I understand the compassion side of this, and have dealt with the confused old folks that just require a little extra help but that doesn't sound like this gentleman. There is a big difference between people that need extra care and people who are belligerent. Banning him from the pharmacy will only push the problem off to someone else, but the PCP definitely needs to know so he can get assistance. Not that it's his fault for being being cognitively impaired, but it's not the pharmacy staff's job to be his care taker. There's also a fine line between verbal and physical abuse. Today it's yelling, tomorrow a tech gets a cane to the face and happily tells the local news that he's been an issue for months with no response from management.

 

[Deja]

ehhhh from the sounds of it even if you did ban him he probably won't remember and come back again the next day anyways

 

[npage148]

I wanted to ban someone before, but didn't want to deal with any back lash if they went to their store manager or called walmart corporate or whoever. Did you guys who have banned people just do it on the fly or notified store manager or DMs or whatever first? What's the proper channels to go through. Of course there's never a training module for this type of stuff.

I'll tell my sp so we are a unified front but I've never told my dm. I also have never had anyone call and complain but if I did it's easily explainable why they were banned. I've done if for any threat of violence, belligerent drunks, and yelling/swearing gets 3 strikes. This old man sound belligerent and violent so he's gone

 

[EML9255]

Thank you for the responses

I have never personally mentioned banning him to anyone, because I know he would most likely come back etc that was just what the store manager said one day. I did call the MD office this morning and they said that they have similar issues and sometimes he will come in with someone but they dont really speak for him or do anything to help resolve the situation unfortunately

As far as compassion I completely agree however this is a situation which has been going on and off for about 6 months now; trust me we have all been compassionate and tried our very best to help him in anyway we can. I think Target banned him and he had everything transferred over to us. As soon as you even open your mouth to talk to him he yells at you to stop cutting him off. He is just extremely old and confused which is upsetting because it seems like he has no one to give him the help that he needs. I sat down with him once like 2 months ago and went over all his meds with him and did everything I could to help him understand and be organized (he refused to use pill organizer), told him to call me when he has questions, to see if things are ready etc. but once again he came back two days later with the same issues, my old rxm had done the same for him as well. its really past the point of an elderly man needing a little extra help/time, i have done that effectively in many other sitations and its worked out just fine, its just not the case here.

I dont even let my techs talk to him anymore whenever I see him i just greet him and let him know there is nothing ready. He came in again today and I told him this and he left immediately so it seemed to be pretty effective; i dont give him time to ramble to my techs anymore and give them a hard time.

 

[trailerpark]

We all get old, seems like you're doing the best you can with him.

 

[Ackj]

Definitely have a talk with the doctor. If they're as bad as you say, they may not be able to be independent anymore. Maybe their primary could refer a social worker/visiting nurse/recommend moving into assisted living. Kicking them out of your store doesn't help the patient, it just makes it someone else's problem. Except it's worse, because they don't even know any patient history, they just have some random deranged patient that appears out of the blue.

 

[farmadiazepine]

This man is so old and while he is pain in the ass what is required here is compassion.
Please read this

Props, you are so spot on.

 

[Old Timer]

Props, you are so spot on.

Hope all of you read it. Heschel was the BOMB. When we wasn't lecturing Medical students or helping to rewrite Vatican 2 or speaking out against the war in Vietnam, or writing more than dozen books, he was marching the MLK:

The single most influential religious philosopher of the 20th century.....

A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

 

[Peon]

Have the store manager ban the old guy from the store. This guy is a disruption and could lead you to making a mistake filling a rx. You are wasting your time trying to deal with him.

 

[SClENCE]

I'd ban everyone who looks at me wrong if I could

 

[Dalteparin]

OP, you might try talking to the MD again about how to start guardianship proceedings on this gentleman or whether they can have a discussion with his family without the patient present. I shudder to think what his home must look like; surely he isn't doing a very much cleaning! I'm also amazed he hasn't burned his house down while trying to cook. For his and everyone else's safety, he needs to be in assisted living (at minimum) and he definitely needs his car keys confiscated.