Anyone else hate CVS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My health insurance started making me fill many of our family's prescriptions through CVS this year, and every month, I am finding reasons to like them less and less. Both of the CVS pharmacies near my house are really large with long lines to pick up perscriptions. Picking up a perscription takes forever. The customer service is awful, the pharmacy techs are rude, and forget about getting someone from the pharmacy on the phone. More than once, I've had them place me on hold and then...nothing.

Today's nuttiness has been trying to get last minute things done for spring break. DC has a 90 day Adderall perscription. it's been about 85 days since I last filled it, and he has less than a weeks worth left. We leave for the beach tomorrow am ( ) and he does not have enough Adderall left to make it through the entire trip. But, CVS won't let him get a refill until day 89, because it's a controlled substance-- even though we are traveling. That's right-- no refill of a 90 day supply of medication until there is one pill left. I called the insurance company to get a vacation override, and discovered I don't need one. It's been more than 75 days since the last refil. It is fine to be filled today. The 89 day rule is CVS policy. So, I had to get the doctor's office to call CVS and approve of an early refill. At which point, CVS told me they don't keep Adderall in stock and have to order it. And, they can't always get Adderall strength DC and don't know if/when they will get it in-- but certainly not before we leave tomorrow.

Faced with DC having to skip several days of medication over spring break, I ended up taking the perscription to Rite Aid, where they filled it in 10 minutes with zero hassle. And I paid over $200, since my insurance only covers CVS.


And everytime I try to get anything filled, it's this kind of shitsh@w. I am so pissed off that my insurance is making me use these clowns, and that they are never ending time, energy, hassle, stress. I could use some sympathy. Anyone else find CVS tough to deal with?

If you think they don't pull crap like that on purpose to make themselves money you're kidding yourself. They didn't have to fill a scrip at the negotiated rate and instead she paid full price somewhere else - money in their pockets. It's criminal.

[Anonymous]

Huh, that sucks. I love CVS.

[Anonymous]

I think part of the problem is who cvs hires. Have you seen their employees? They are similar to McDonald's employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the problem is who cvs hires. Have you seen their emloyees? They are similar to McDonald's employees.

Phillipinos have those jobs locked down in McLean area. We recognised a daycare provider working the cash register behind the pharmacy one time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the problem is who cvs hires. Have you seen their employees? They are similar to McDonald's employees.

Way worse. That's part of the game. If you can't spend a week if your life trying to get your prescription filled and go away to fill it for full price somewhere else they make money. They're only paying their customer service reps min wage so they make tons of $$.
It's so great that they are buying up all the pharmacies!

[Anonymous]

CVS is awful. What do Pharmacists actually do?

[Anonymous]

OP, were you at CVS in Fairfax on Wednesday night? There was a Dad there and he was getting the runaround from the pharmacist for a similar issue (didn't mean to eavesdrop, I was waiting about 6 ft away on another consult and couldn't help but hear). I felt so bad because of the upcoming travel and not being able to get the 90 day prescription filled. I didn't know it was a CVS policy, I thought it was a requirement because it's a controlled substance. I was just there on Weds afternoon and they told me they didn't have enough meds to fill my son's 30 day supply of liquid stimulants (we just started 2 weeks ago) and it would be next week due to the paperwork requirement to get it filled. I returned that night and had resigned myself to take whatever volume they had on hand, only to be told they did have enough to fill the prescription.

It's rare that I have a problem with them, but since I've switched to ExpressScripts, I haven't had to use them often, but now I'll be there every month. I'll keep RiteAid in mind in case I reach my wits end with CVS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, were you at CVS in Fairfax on Wednesday night? There was a Dad there and he was getting the runaround from the pharmacist for a similar issue (didn't mean to eavesdrop, I was waiting about 6 ft away on another consult and couldn't help but hear). I felt so bad because of the upcoming travel and not being able to get the 90 day prescription filled. I didn't know it was a CVS policy, I thought it was a requirement because it's a controlled substance. I was just there on Weds afternoon and they told me they didn't have enough meds to fill my son's 30 day supply of liquid stimulants (we just started 2 weeks ago) and it would be next week due to the paperwork requirement to get it filled. I returned that night and had resigned myself to take whatever volume they had on hand, only to be told they did have enough to fill the prescription.

It's rare that I have a problem with them, but since I've switched to ExpressScripts, I haven't had to use them often, but now I'll be there every month. I'll keep RiteAid in mind in case I reach my wits end with CVS.

OP here, and not Fairfax. But I'm sorry to hear that another parent is having to deal with this too. They really put you in an impossible situation when you are traveling. You can't fill before you leave, and there is a good chance that you can't fill in a different state with the paper perscription. I asked them what I should do, and they said have the MD call and approve the early fill. I was lucky that he did reasonably quickly-- until they turned around and refused to fill it anyway. But the worst part was being treated like a criminal. Over 4 days worth of pills, for DC, and not for me. (And DC has a very tough time when he is not on his medication. Skipping doses while traveling is a terrible option). We've been filling this perscription for over a year, and never "lost" meds, had them "stolen", needed an early fill before, etc. Also, it is just a PITA to have such a narrow window to fill the perscription. If DC is down to one pill, and I'm having a busy day, I need to drop everything I'm doing and spend a half hour waiting in line. Only to discover that the insurance was filed incorrectly, they filled the wrong strength (this happened last time) or theses is some other problem. Ugghh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: thanks for all the good advice on keeping this from happening again, and stories of CVS screw ups. I'm sorry other folks are also having a tough time with CVS. But, it's nice to know this is not just me.

CVS made such a huge production of the fact that I was trying to get a *controlled substance* filled *early* and acted like I was lying about the spring break travel. I ended up feeling like I was doing something very wrong. I'm probably paranoid, but I got the feeling that they could fill the perscription once the MD okay'd it, and we're just choosing not to. It's a common medication, and they've never had problems filling it within 24 hours before. They wouldn't do that, right?

[Anonymous]

I hate getting calls from them about my prescriptions. I don’t shop there. I don’t use their pharmacy. But they robocall me all the time about refills.

[Anonymous]

They're the worst. I was able to switch to an independent pharmacy. So much better.

[Anonymous]

I hate our local cvs too. I waited in line an hour to pick up a prescription the other night. One person working the counter and a line of about 30 people who all seemed to have issues with their prescriptions.

[Anonymous]

I recently had a miscarriage and part of my prescription wasn’t filled properly. They told me to call my provider too but it was after hours and impossible to get a hold of them. It was a truly horrible experience and I’ve started going to a local pharmacy instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently had a miscarriage and part of my prescription wasn’t filled properly. They told me to call my provider too but it was after hours and impossible to get a hold of them. It was a truly horrible experience and I’ve started going to a local pharmacy instead.

I'm sorry PP.

How does CVS benefit from having more stringent guidelines than gov or insurance? Like refills or making docs jump through hoops? I would think they'd want to push those rxs out, take the money...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently had a miscarriage and part of my prescription wasn’t filled properly. They told me to call my provider too but it was after hours and impossible to get a hold of them. It was a truly horrible experience and I’ve started going to a local pharmacy instead.

Husband had blood clots and they filled his scrip incorrectly re: dosage of the blood thinners. This could have been a deadly mistake.