Insanity

How many chances do you give a store before you completely give up?

I am at the point where I think my local CVS has my name on a list behind the counter along with the words “Provide the worst service possible.”  And yet I keep going back.

My issues with the local CVS are primarily with the pharmacy.  The rest of the store is just okay (nothing like the shiny new CVS stores that are popping up all over the place), but the people are nice enough and the shelves are well-stocked.  But the pharmacy.  Wow.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are some friendly, competent people working there.  But their good work is overshadowed by their much less capable counterparts.

The worst experience I had at this pharmacy was when they filled a prescription with an expired medication.  I only realized this because it was a pre-packaged prescription and I noticed the date on the package.  While I check expiration dates on over the counter medications, I can’t say that I pay attention to the dates on prescriptions (aside from the date printed on the label by the pharmacy).  Or I should say, I didn’t.  Now I do.

There is always a line at this pharmacy.  And I understand things get busy.  But the reasons lines are so long is that they continually misplace prescriptions.  More than once, I have had to return two or three times to pick up prescriptions because they either can’t find them or forgot to fill them.  I dropped off a prescription yesterday afternoon and was told it would be ready by 4:00.  I joked that I would come back at 5:00 and the tech laughed.  I came back at 6.  Guess what?  Not ready!  I went back again on my way home last night around 10:30.  I waited 20 minutes while they searched and searched for the prescription for the person in front of me in line.  Finally, I gave up.  I went back this morning around 6:45 on my way to work.  First I was told there was no prescription for me, based on the information in the computer and that I had not dropped anything off.  I insisted that I had.  The person working then checked the baskets of prescriptions, starting with the one that should have contained my name.  He took about ten minutes to slowly dig through various baskets.  Then he went back to his computer again and asked me what the prescription was for.  He then went back to the same baskets and went through them again and finally found my prescription.

While this was going on, I joked with the person behind me in line that my name must be on a list somewhere and that coming back was clearly insanity (defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).  After all, I have complained multiple times about the service at this pharmacy, and have been reassured that things will change and that they are working on the problems.  Over a year later, nothing has changed.  For the most part, I’ve moved my prescriptions away from this pharmacy.  I now use the mail-order service provided by my insurance  company for any regular prescriptions.  But when I have a prescription for an antibiotic, I don’t want to wait for the mail-order processing.

I have watched people burst into tears while waiting for prescriptions out of frustration.  Parents who need medication for their children.  A husband waiting for a very important prescription for his dying wife.  People who are clearly sick and having trouble standing long enough to wait for their medications.  Sure, we all have to wait in lines, and sometimes mistakes happen. But that should be the exception and not the norm.

I have said this before, but I think this is it.  I have given this store enough chances.  They provide terrible service.  The only reason I keep going back is because it is extremely convenient.  Of course, it’s not convenient when I have to come back multiple times.  I believe the grocery store I use has a pharmacy.  I think I’m going to be taking my next prescription there.  I need to break the cycle and stop the insanity.

Megan Smith

Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:

In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance.  It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information.  It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck.  While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.

While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.

Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.

So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan.  I needed to budget.  I needed to know what I was spending my money on.  I needed to prepare for the future.

I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way.  I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.