My letter of complaint to the Costco pharmacy

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(haven't sent it yet though)

I am disappointed in the service from the Costco Pharmacy at . My mother was diagnosed with an eye infection and her doctor gave her a prescription for erythromycin ointment. I brought this prescription to the Costco pharmacy at approximately 11:00 a.m. on September 5th. The pharmacy employee told me that because the computers connecting to the insurance companies were down, it would take up to one hour to fill the prescription. I said that I would pay cash for this one, so it would not be necessary to contact the insurance company. I asked how much it would cost and the employee looked it up on the computer, while holding the box containing the tube of ointment. From this I could see that they had the correct item in stock. I completed my shopping for other items at Costco and before leaving, checked back at the pharmacy to see if by chance the prescription was ready. Since it was a tube of ointment and not pills to count out, I thought would have been a quick, easy order to fill and that it might have been ready by then. The pharmacy employee looked it up and told me it would be ready in 30 to 45 more minutes. So I said I would come back later, and left the store at 11:30 a.m.

At 3 p.m. I arrived back at the Costco store, with my mother waiting in the car. I thought it would be only a minute or two to pick up the prescription. I waited in line and when I reached the cash register I was told that the prescription was not ready, and would be ready in "a few minutes if you'll have a seat and wait." Therefore, during the 3 1/2 hours between the time I left the pharmacy and came back to it, the employees did anything about the prescription. Even though one employee told me at 11:30 that the prescription would be ready in "30 to 45 minutes," that failed to happen. Nobody did anything. I don't know what those people were doing for 3 1/2 hours, but they let my mother's prescription just sit there. Finally, at 3:24 p.m., 24 minutes after I had come in to pick it up, the prescription was finally sold to me. This was nearly 4 1/2 hours after I had dropped it off that day. My 88-year-old mother had to sit and wait in the car, suffering the burning irritation of an eye infection, for an additional 24 minutes while the pharmacy employees finally took action on her prescription.

If the employees give a time estimate to the customer, they need to live up to that. What if an asthma patient had to wait 4 1/2 hours for an inhaler? This pharmacy could easily endanger a patient's health by letting a prescription "fall through the cracks" like that. Needless to say, this was the first and LAST prescription we will ever have filled at Costco and I am warning everyone I know to avoid having prescriptions filled there.

[BlueIris]

1. That's a lot nicer than I would be.

[Pool Hall Ace]

2. I hope your mom is doing better now.

And that's a good letter. I hope Costco takes it seriously.