Walgreens — Local services in Effingham

This is coming from someone who worked at a Walgreens before, and is ALWAYS patient with customer service employees.

I had my dr send over some prescriptions thursday, and, being in walgreens text and call notification program, i expected a call or a text when my prescriptions were being worked on. Nothing. So I call today (saturday) and ask if they've been sent over. I have medicaid. The robot let me know my prescriptions were going to be over 700 dollars. What?! I get ahold of the pharmacist and we get my insurance corrected and I get ready to leave. I went to pick up my prescriptions today and as soon as i walked up to the counter (I usually do drive through but there were carts in front of the drive through) and I immediately got a bad vibe. Teenage male tech acted like he did NOT want to be there and treated me as if I was an inconvenience. I understand that working customer service can be hard, and you dont owe every single customer a bright shiny smile with an overenthusiastic cheery greeting but at least a "hi! How can I help you today?" In a kind, warm tone is appreciated. He talked very quietly and not one time did he have anything other than a mad "I don't want to be here" face. There should have been some kind of welcoming tone in his voice. I understand having bad days but this seemed different. There were 3 techs and 1 pharmacist and it took them all between 5-10 minutes to finish the last of my prescriptions. I had 4, 3 were done and one was finishing up. 1 tech was doing a good job at the window, another was wandering seemingly aimlessly through the pharmacy, one was begrudgingly finishing my prescriptions, and the pharmacist was working with a customer on the phone.

I have never had issues with Walgreens and have used them all my life but I will be switching to a different pharmacy. I really am sad to have to switch everything over but this experience is something I do NOT want to...

My level of frustration is so high I really feel I need to explain how difficult it is to get my prescriptions filled. A pharmacy should fill a prescription regardless of insurance paying or not paying. Walgreens should not be in the business of making a decision on a persons ability to pay or not pay. They should fill prescriptions and then let the patient decide not deny them the prescription because they are assuming you can not afford out of pocket cost. I called my prescriptions in and recorder gave me a time the next day for pickup. I went in to pickup and was told they were not ready because I needed more prescription than my insurance allows despensed for the allotted period. I explained that my doctor knows that I live out of the country for a longer period of time than 90 days therefore I am allowed to get more medication with the understanding that I will have to pay out of pocket. She looked on my file and said if I was willing to wait 20 minutes she could fill 2 of my medications but the third they do not keep on stock. I said since I had to come back I would pick them all up the next day. So today for the third I wait patiently for quite a while at the drive through window to pick up my prescription. To my astonishment she tells me I have 2 prescriptions to pick and I said no I have 3. She said your insurance won’t pay for it and it cost $400+ and I said I understand that I have to pay out of pocket for all my medication. She said I don’t have it ready can you come back in 15 minutes. OMG seriously! I am begging to pay these people. So now I will go back tomorrow for the 4th time to pick up...

My husband and I went in to have passport photos taken. The associate was very rude to us at the photo centre that night due to the fact she was busy, I understand dealing with customer service while being extremely overwhelmed as a lot of us have had to work through that. However for myself I always treat others with dignity, kindness, and respect no matter how customers present themselves to me. In this case we were at the photo counter and asked about having our passport photos taken then we were pushed to the side with a barking order to wait 15 minutes (it ended up being 1-2 minutes just to get us out of the way until other customers got their photos on their orders (no problem with that— I just hoped to be treated in a more polite manner). Then she called us over to have our photos lazily taken (my husbands shoulders were edited to the point they have “ledges” on them) and the same for myself. She clearly wanted us out of there. I don’t think it was the woman’s fault— she was stressed and clearly overworked, burnt out, etc, however this whole experience was horrible and I will never ever go back to Walgreens again for anything as now I know what the company stands for. I hope you all decide to invest in your employees more, and give customers the experience they pay for especially when taking photos the company has a standard for. I’d rather take my own passport photos next time or take my business to Walmart, or Costco where I haven’t had such...