Nasty, Rude Customers in Retail Pharmacy

[Angela1234]

Anyone have any stories to share about the rude, nasty customers coming to retail pharmacies? I'm sure if they saw how stupid and ignorant they saw themselves on camera they might regret their actions. The worst is when these scum of the earth people threaten pharmacists and other employees with threats of violence. One guy last night theatened to turn me into corporate because I refused to fill his Xanax early without his doctor's permission after cursing me out. He then had the store manager try to force me into doing it too. Working at a retail pharmacy has made me really dislike people. I wouldn't even be working there if I could find another job. I'm hoping I can find something else soon.

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[crazybob]

My customers have been nice to me. People always say "just give it time," but I have yet to see it.

I've seen customers being rude to others in different pharmacies though.

 

[BMBiology]

All it takes is just one person to ruin their day. Get out while you are still young.

 

[awval999]

Retail pharmacists get paid "Hazard Pay" due to this.

This is why they make >$25K more than the standard hospital RPh.

There's nothing you really can do except try to stay above the fray. Just state that you understand they are upset but without the physician's "okay" you cannot fill the Rx.

Give them a choice: 1. Take back the Rx or 2. Wait until the MD can be reached. If they decline either just hand them back the Rx and state "I am sorry that we cannot fullfill you medication needs at this time".

 

[Angela1234]

I was able to get a hold of the doctor on call last night. They okayed the one refill for the jerk and then will report it to his physician for me. I don't think it's fair that I have to have someone walk me out to my car every night and worry about my safety. As soon as possible, I am going to get out of retail pharmacy. No job is worth having to worry about your safety and jerks reporting you to corporate and the board for refusing to break laws for them.
I've also spoken to several retail pharmacists all over the country and they also said they have been threatened with physical violence by customers. One pharmacist in Chicago was beat up in the parking lot once for refusing to fill someone's controlled substance.

 

[crazybob]

Don't you have security at your store during your shift? Are they that cheap?

 

[Angela1234]

No security, and yes, they are that cheap. I feel like the company doesn't care about our safety at all. In fact, I had a store manager tell me we are discouraged from calling the police in our store. He even said that he would welcome back in the store a customer who theatened me with physical violence. From 14 hour days with no breaks to not caring about our safety, the retail chain I'm at is one of the worst places ever.

 

[nafcillin]

This is why I am in hospital. People can be so nasty and rude. And it seems like corporate doesn't give a **** about it

 

[Angela1234]

I have been trying for a hospital job. The job market is so bad right now, I am still searching. I won't give up hope. Pray for me please.

 

[crazybob]

No security, and yes, they are that cheap. I feel like the company doesn't care about our safety at all. In fact, I had a store manager tell me we are discouraged from calling the police in our store. He even said that he would welcome back in the store a customer who theatened me with physical violence. From 14 hour days with no breaks to not caring about our safety, the retail chain I'm at is one of the worst places ever.

That's just asking for trouble.

 

[rph3664]

My old hospital's retail division was only for employees and dependents, and we also filled hospice orders too. There was an ER nurse who was angry that her RX wasn't ready, and she started throwing things through the hole in the window. This included a partially filled soda bottle (closed, thank heavens) AND HER NAME BADGE.

That stunt almost cost her her job. I'd hate to see her lose her you-know-what with a patient.

 

[njrph007]

When I worked for a now defunct small NJ based chain, I had a regular customer ask me "Why aren't there any Americans working here?". I am Indian but an American Citizen. At the time I had another Indian tech, a Hispanic tech, and a Polish tech. I handed the customer her prescriptions back, and told her to take her business elsewhere. Corporate supported me 100%.

In my last 8 years, that is the only bad experience I can think of. Other than that, my customers treat me very well, as I treat them well. I may be a minority, but I love my job.

 

[rph3664]

I just posted on another board that when I worked at the grocery store, we joked that we should put up a sign that said, "ABUSING THE STAFF WILL NOT RESULT IN LOWER PRICES'.

 

[Temperature101]

When I worked for a now defunct small NJ based chain, I had a regular customer ask me "Why aren't there any Americans working here?". I am Indian but an American Citizen. At the time I had another Indian tech, a Hispanic tech, and a Polish tech. I handed the customer her prescriptions back, and told her to take her business elsewhere. Corporate supported me 100%.

In my last 8 years, that is the only bad experience I can think of. Other than that, my customers treat me very well, as I treat them well. I may be a minority, but I love my job.

People can be that rude!..,.Wow...

 

[Ackj]

Had a guy guy mad today because he forgot his credit card, and we wouldn't let his wife take a picture of it and text it to us so we could type in the numbers off of it.

I've had very few meltdowns, although I haven't been in any ghetto stores. Mostly working class, blue collar folks, who are pretty easy going. Unless they're retired or unemployed, somehow makes them more demanding. Work is good for people.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Had a guy guy mad today because he forgot his credit card, and we wouldn't let his wife take a picture of it and text it to us so we could type in the numbers off of it.

I've had very few meltdowns, although I haven't been in any ghetto stores. Mostly working class, blue collar folks, who are pretty easy going. Unless they're retired or unemployed, somehow makes them more demanding. Work is good for people.

The worst meltdowns I've seen have been rich, entitled people. I worked at Kroger in the highest SES zip code in my city and hated it. I worked at Wags in the ghetto and it was just fine.

 

[rph3664]

Had a guy guy mad today because he forgot his credit card, and we wouldn't let his wife take a picture of it and text it to us so we could type in the numbers off of it.

I've had very few meltdowns, although I haven't been in any ghetto stores. Mostly working class, blue collar folks, who are pretty easy going. Unless they're retired or unemployed, somehow makes them more demanding. Work is good for people.

I met a pharmacist at an association meeting who just had to do 2 days of relief in a wealthy neighborhood in our city, and she was never cursed at, called more names, etc. more in the preceding 30 years of practice as she was in that time, and this was also the only time anyone had ever thrown anything at her. Ironic thing is, she probably had more education and made more money than 90% of the people who thought she was fair game because she was standing behind a counter! She wouldn't have gone back for the second day if it hadn't been an absolute dire need - it was that bad.

 

[owlegrad]

The worst meltdowns I've seen have been rich, entitled people. I worked at Kroger in the highest SES zip code in my city and hated it. I worked at Wags in the ghetto and it was just fine.

I have seen plenty of rudeness from both extremes, but I hate the rich, entitled ones WAY more. That particular brand of rudeness really grinds my gears. Though really once you go beyond the 'standard' rudeness (much worse with the wealthy/puedo-wealthy) it hardly matters at that point.

 

[Sparda29]

The nasty rude behavior is there in hospital pharmacy as well, except instead of patients you're dealing with nurses.

I had a ER nurse once yell at me for checking labs on a patient before giving her a few 20 meq/100 ml potassium bags.

Also had another ER nurse yell at me while was getting her a bag of Levophed, dopamine, and vasopressin, apparently I was walking too nonchalantly instead of running the stuff over from the IV room.

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

When I worked for a now defunct small NJ based chain, I had a regular customer ask me "Why aren't there any Americans working here?". I am Indian but an American Citizen. At the time I had another Indian tech, a Hispanic tech, and a Polish tech. I handed the customer her prescriptions back, and told her to take her business elsewhere. Corporate supported me 100%.

In my last 8 years, that is the only bad experience I can think of. Other than that, my customers treat me very well, as I treat them well. I may be a minority, but I love my job.

Drug Fair?

 

[mustang sally]

The nasty rude behavior is there in hospital pharmacy as well, except instead of patients you're dealing with nurses.

I had a ER nurse once yell at me for checking labs on a patient before giving her a few 20 meq/100 ml potassium bags.

Also had another ER nurse yell at me while was getting her a bag of Levophed, dopamine, and vasopressin, apparently I was walking too nonchalantly instead of running the stuff over from the IV room.

Not that there isn't any rude behavior in the hospital but it is like a million times better than retail pharmacy...at least for me anyway.

 

[SpecterGT260]

The worst meltdowns I've seen have been rich, entitled people. I worked at Kroger in the highest SES zip code in my city and hated it. I worked at Wags in the ghetto and it was just fine.

Rude is one thing but entitlement is what really gets my goat. I'm sure you guys see your share of people who think you're some obstacle between them and their pills. People forget that healthcare is a business (more like several) and the customer isn't owed anything other than fair access.

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[smercer]

Not that there isn't any rude behavior in the hospital but it is like a million times better than retail pharmacy...at least for me anyway.

Huge difference when you can report/write up people being extremely rude to you.

 

[browneyes021]

The worst meltdowns I've seen have been rich, entitled people. I worked at Kroger in the highest SES zip code in my city and hated it. I worked at Wags in the ghetto and it was just fine.

Yeah, I will definitely agree with that statement. I work in a pharmacy in a upper middle class neighborhood and I've never seen such spoiled, rude, and entitled people in my life. These people will sit in their car in the drive thru line for about an hour, then call our store and complain to the manager that they wasted their gas and that they won't come into the store because the drive-thru is for their convenience. Our customers are always throwing fits for any kind of inconvenience and telling our manager that we're the worst pharmacy they've ever been to... yet, they continue to come back. Working here has made me wayyy less intolerant of people and their bullsh*t. And these are the people who complain about Medicaid patients, but are quick to b*tch about coupons and not ringing up their store discount cards to save them a few cents.

 

[Sparda29]

Huge difference when you can report/write up people being extremely rude to you.

Yes, but they can write you up as well. I've been written up a few times by the nurses for "refusing to send up med". In reality, I didn't refuse it, but I told them that I couldn't help them out at the time or that they were gonna have to wait a few hours for it since we're backed up.

What I hate is when they ask me "when will it be ready". My usual response to that is "when I get to it", then they bitch and moan because I won't give them an exact time that the med will be ready/sent upstairs.

Something I don't understand is how the nurses think they can't leave until they complete all their tasks or administer all the meds for their shift. Why not just pass it on to the next shift? That's what we do in pharmacy. Can't do it by the end of your shift? Pass it on to the next guys.

 

[BenJammin]

The worst meltdowns I've seen have been rich, entitled people. I worked at Kroger in the highest SES zip code in my city and hated it. I worked at Wags in the ghetto and it was just fine.

I worked a weekend and had this conversation with a patient.

Pt: What's the cash price for this drug?
Me: $16.35
Pt: Oh okay. I want to transfer my prescriptions to this other store since their price is lower.
Me: It's $16.30, ma'am.
Pt: Exactly.

 

[Angela1234]

What would happen if pharmacists formed a union? So that way those of us stuck working 14 hour shifts could have breaks to eat and better working conditions? Maybe even have more help?
Are there already any unions for pharmacists?

 

[Angela1234]

I wanted to add that maybe as a union, we could also work towards better security in the pharmacy.

 

[SpecterGT260]

I wanted to add that maybe as a union, we could also work towards better security in the pharmacy.

I believe there already are such unions..... to my knowledge only physicians are barred from forming unions, but talk is on the table to change this with mid level expansion happening.

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[Its Z]

The nasty rude behavior is there in hospital pharmacy as well, except instead of patients you're dealing with nurses.

I had a ER nurse once yell at me for checking labs on a patient before giving her a few 20 meq/100 ml potassium bags.

Also had another ER nurse yell at me while was getting her a bag of Levophed, dopamine, and vasopressin, apparently I was walking too nonchalantly instead of running the stuff over from the IV room.

You don't think its necessary to run up those pressors? You really don't get it do you.

 

[pharmasaur]

I met a pharmacist at an association meeting who just had to do 2 days of relief in a wealthy neighborhood in our city, and she was never cursed at, called more names, etc. more in the preceding 30 years of practice as she was in that time, and this was also the only time anyone had ever thrown anything at her. Ironic thing is, she probably had more education and made more money than 90% of the people who thought she was fair game because she was standing behind a counter! She wouldn't have gone back for the second day if it hadn't been an absolute dire need - it was that bad.

How was she working in a wealthy neighborhood and made 90% more than they did?

 

[pharmasaur]

To play devil's advocate here I've seen some pretty idiot pharmacists. They tend to be the older ones who went into pharmacy because they wanted to hide in a box and not talk to anyone. Now they hate life bc times have changed and they have to talk to patients. Soooo socially inept. I was standing in line behind a lady and she was talking to the pharmacist. The phone in the back rang, and this idiot just left her mid-sentence and went back to pick it up, without saying excuse me for a second or anything. Just left her hanging. WTF, who does that?!? I was surprised she didn't say anything when he returned.

My mom the other day called the local pharmacy to get refill on her simvastatin. They said they will call the doctor and get refill request. She called every day for 3 days to follow up and she kept repeating the same request. On the 4th day she called and YELLED at them. They phoned the doctor immediately and had it done in like 10 min. She then called the Drs office and asked if anyone from the pharmacy had called prior to today, and they said no, it was just today. Our doctor only has one receptionist so she would know. I'm basically not convinced that pharmacists are angels and are amazing employees. On my own rotation I've seen some younger ones texting constantly while there were pts waiting in line. Maybe competition now will weed out the bad ones that had guaranteed jobs for so many years.

 

[Sparda29]

You don't think its necessary to run up those pressors? You really don't get it do you.

The ER nurse was waiting at the pharmacy window. She was mad that I was walking from the IV room to the pharmacy window as opposed to running from the IV room to the pharmacy window. What are you gonna save by me running 20 feet as opposed to walking 20 feet, 5-10 seconds?

 

[StallionRx]

My mom the other day called the local pharmacy to get refill on her simvastatin. They said they will call the doctor and get refill request. She called every day for 3 days to follow up and she kept repeating the same request. On the 4th day she called and YELLED at them. .

Just curious...have you ever worked in a pharmacy?

 

[SHC1984]

OP, don't work in the ghetto parts of town you will be better off.

 

[owlegrad]

The doctors office blaming the pharmacy, unthinkable!

 

[BenJammin]

What would happen if pharmacists formed a union?

Mass layoffs.

 

[rxlea]

The nasty rude behavior is there in hospital pharmacy as well, except instead of patients you're dealing with nurses.

I had a ER nurse once yell at me for checking labs on a patient before giving her a few 20 meq/100 ml potassium bags.

Also had another ER nurse yell at me while was getting her a bag of Levophed, dopamine, and vasopressin, apparently I was walking too nonchalantly instead of running the stuff over from the IV room.

I'm sorry but I don't understand why the hell you don't think pressors are important.

 

[rxlea]

The ER nurse was waiting at the pharmacy window. She was mad that I was walking from the IV room to the pharmacy window as opposed to running from the IV room to the pharmacy window. What are you gonna save by me running 20 feet as opposed to walking 20 feet, 5-10 seconds?

It doesn't exactly look good when you don't operate with a sense of urgency if a patient isn't doing so hot...

Are you going to walk to a code too?

A pharmacist and I ran up the stairs for 7 floors last week to get to a code because the elevator wasn't available. Maybe we should have trotted instead to avoid the intense burning in my calves. Patient can wait

 

[pharaday]

They phoned the doctor immediately and had it done in like 10 min. She then called the Drs office and asked if anyone from the pharmacy had called prior to today, and they said no, it was just today. Our doctor only has one receptionist so she would know. .

Oh please. Like the receptionist would ever admit that they had indeed received the request. Of course not. They just blame the pharmacy when they don't authorize prescriptions in a timely manner and the patient is angry.

 

[JoBreeze]

Oh please. Like the receptionist would ever admit that they had indeed received the request. Of course not. They just blame the pharmacy when they don't authorize prescriptions in a timely manner and the patient is angry.

The situational irony of anyone calling anyone else entitled.

Or someone like me commenting on it for that matter...

 

[pharmasaur]

Oh please. Like the receptionist would ever admit that they had indeed received the request. Of course not. They just blame the pharmacy when they don't authorize prescriptions in a timely manner and the patient is angry.

No, that pharmacy is a mess and run by unprofessionals. My sister and I have had issues there as well. My point is there are plenty of horrible pharmacists out there too. A lot of them are not god's gifts to patients.

 

[Sparda29]

I'm sorry but I don't understand why the hell you don't think pressors are important.

It doesn't exactly look good when you don't operate with a sense of urgency if a patient isn't doing so hot...

Are you going to walk to a code too?

A pharmacist and I ran up the stairs for 7 floors last week to get to a code because the elevator wasn't available. Maybe we should have trotted instead to avoid the intense burning in my calves. Patient can wait

Oh I know they are important, but I'm not gonna aggravate my already messed up knees. According to my ortho surgeon, my right knee looks like it belongs on a 65-70 year old.

Walk to a code? Depends. If it's something like a code gray or code green involving security, I'm just gonna walk the other way, same for a code red and code decon.

 

[bp2313]

Yes, but they can write you up as well. I've been written up a few times by the nurses for "refusing to send up med". In reality, I didn't refuse it, but I told them that I couldn't help them out at the time or that they were gonna have to wait a few hours for it since we're backed up.

What I hate is when they ask me "when will it be ready". My usual response to that is "when I get to it", then they bitch and moan because I won't give them an exact time that the med will be ready/sent upstairs.

Something I don't understand is how the nurses think they can't leave until they complete all their tasks or administer all the meds for their shift. Why not just pass it on to the next shift? That's what we do in pharmacy. Can't do it by the end of your shift? Pass it on to the next guys.

Some ppl are lucky to be your co-workers

 

[Digsbe]

When Oxy was reformulated to prevent crushing I had an irate patient call the pharmacy with her first line being "I'm going to sue the pants off of all of you who tried to kill me." She complained that we dispensed an extremely dangerous medication to her because her pills turned into a gel substance. I played naive and explained "You wouldn't believe this, but there are people out there that abuse this medication and alter the dosage form to get high. They reformulated the medication to prevent this, your pills are fine." After that she just hung up and I snickered. We all got a kick out of it.

 

[Sparda29]

Some ppl are lucky to be your co-workers

That's what the shift before mine does to us. Pretty much everyday when I walk in, someone walks up to me and is like "here's all the stuff I didn't get to", and then when the next shift comes in, the cycle is repeated.

Hospital pharmacy is a shift job, you do what you can while you're on the clock. Once your time is up, walk out the door, especially since they aren't gonna pay you for staying late to finish your work.

 

[BidingMyTime]

No, that pharmacy is a mess and run by unprofessionals. My sister and I have had issues there as well. My point is there are plenty of horrible pharmacists out there too. A lot of them are not god's gifts to patients.

Then why in the world would you and your family keep going back to that pharmacy? I have a hard time working up sympathy for people who complain of bad service, and yet keep going back to the same place! All I can figure is that secretly, they know they are at fault, not the place of business.

With the situation you describe, if your mom really thought the pharmacy wasn't calling/faxing/e-rxing to get her refill (and I find it hard to believe they weren't....more often than not the doctor has not responded to their request for whatever reason--many times because the patient ignored the note on the last refill saying that labwork & dr's apt were needed before more refills would be authorized.).....well, the logical thing would be to call the doctor, explain that the pharmacy refuses to call for a refill, and then ask the doctor to call the refill into a DIFFERENT pharmacy. That is what I would do. Unless you are out in the middle of nowhere, why would you keep going back to a place with "horrible" pharmacists? If you are not getting the refill you need, why would you not call the doctor yourself after a day or 2 to find out what the problem is?

 

[SpecterGT260]

Then why in the world would you and your family keep going back to that pharmacy? I have a hard time working up sympathy for people who complain of bad service, and yet keep going back to the same place! All I can figure is that secretly, they know they are at fault, not the place of business.

With the situation you describe, if your mom really thought the pharmacy wasn't calling/faxing/e-rxing to get her refill (and I find it hard to believe they weren't....more often than not the doctor has not responded to their request for whatever reason--many times because the patient ignored the note on the last refill saying that labwork & dr's apt were needed before more refills would be authorized.).....well, the logical thing would be to call the doctor, explain that the pharmacy refuses to call for a refill, and then ask the doctor to call the refill into a DIFFERENT pharmacy. That is what I would do. Unless you are out in the middle of nowhere, why would you keep going back to a place with "horrible" pharmacists? If you are not getting the refill you need, why would you not call the doctor yourself after a day or 2 to find out what the problem is?

The first question should be "how big is your home town" or "what is your transportation situation". Or even "have you stopped going now? "

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[pharmasaur]

Then why in the world would you and your family keep going back to that pharmacy? I have a hard time working up sympathy for people who complain of bad service, and yet keep going back to the same place! All I can figure is that secretly, they know they are at fault, not the place of business.

With the situation you describe, if your mom really thought the pharmacy wasn't calling/faxing/e-rxing to get her refill (and I find it hard to believe they weren't....more often than not the doctor has not responded to their request for whatever reason--many times because the patient ignored the note on the last refill saying that labwork & dr's apt were needed before more refills would be authorized.).....well, the logical thing would be to call the doctor, explain that the pharmacy refuses to call for a refill, and then ask the doctor to call the refill into a DIFFERENT pharmacy. That is what I would do. Unless you are out in the middle of nowhere, why would you keep going back to a place with "horrible" pharmacists? If you are not getting the refill you need, why would you not call the doctor yourself after a day or 2 to find out what the problem is?

Yes, we do live in the middle of nowhere. It's the closest one and we don't use a pharmacy often enough otherwise we would switch. My mom already had the Dr appt and labs and everything done prior. She did call the doctor's office one of the days and they said no one picked up when they tried to call the pharmacy, and they told my mom to tell them to call.
Another story, I called in a refill for a Rx that i recently started taking. I have a couple months of refills left on it so there should be no trouble. I called it in the morning, spoke to the pharmacist herself. She said it will be ready in 15 minutes. I went by 3-4 hours later and it was never filled. Tech was confused that I told her it should be filled already bc nothing was recorded in the system and nothing was ready for me in the bin. It was fine, I didn't mind waiting 15 min for it but since I am in pharmacy school myself I thought how that was unprofessional. I'm not switching pharmacies because I'm not bothered by that situation THAT MUCH but I can sympathize with others who might be pissed if that happened to them. If I was running late somewhere, I might have actually gotten pissed, but I'm on winter break and didn't mind. I might switch if this keeps happening. This is my first time getting Rx's in my adult life. Honestly you're just getting defensive instead of believing that there are unprofessional pharmacists out there.


Specter, yes that would be the logical way to proceed...

 

[SpecterGT260]

Specter, yes that would be the logical way to proceed...

after the generation of stuck up and impersonal docs they started grinding social sensitivity into us in theory and clinical training I'm just glad I nailed it and you weren't actually just whining about something in your control. Cuz then I'd have to eat that post