Walgreens — Local services in Lynnwood

About 10 months ago I posted a great review about this pharmacy after I saw how much abuse these pharmacists put up with by angry customers and praised them for dealing with it. However since then and after several more months I can see why they are angry in the first place. It does not matter if you call ahead of time by a day or by a week....this pharmacy will not have your prescription ready 96percent of the time even when you go out of your way to remind them multiple days in a row in advance since you have been screwed over before having to leave on vacation and now sit on a 7 hour flight in agony since they don't care and narcotics are monitored so strict that you can't get them now and have to wait until you are back. And now not only are you having a horrible god awful time mentally to see your sick father across the country but you are also in tremendous pain since your pharmacy could not do their job with 3 days notice and multiple reminders. The pharmacists then apologize and blame 3 other things for it happening and swear up and down it will never be so again.......to then have the same thing happen just 4 months later on another trip out. There is always some excuse made by the pharmacist and after 10 months of excuses and me doing everything on my end to actually have my medication and prescriptions ready there is no solution other then doing this job for them at this point or going elsewhere. My favorite is when they say they will have it ready for pickup in an hour and you get there and they actually are closed when you get there 2 hours before it says the hours are. This has happened twice and no it wasn't a holiday and they put a little temporary sign up. At this point I feel like I could submit an application at the same time my doctor submits my prescription, go take the college course and go through the entire hiring process and be working there before my prescription is up and ready. And yet somehow it is still getting worse to the point someone cannot count to 30 on a prescription that is closely monitored that's suppose to be double counted and initialed by the pharmacist before handing over. And then when you bring it up the response is we will do a count but we are very busy. Well ok that's fine and all but you messed up my prescription before you started helping the other people after me so that is not a great excuse.....even then hopefully you can take care of me in a little bit or same day? Apparently not. You will then get told they will figure it out by tonight or tomorrow morning and still hear nothing back at 2pm the next day to yet more excuses. It should not take threatening to contact your local police department to have them come review cameras since you are now wondering if the employees are taking your prescriptions because at this point I wouldn't be the least but surprised that it would be going on here. I have never raised my voice or used profanity at any of these employees but there is a reason that while the times I am hanging out there or in line that 1 in 3 customers are currently yelling or reaming them. What a joke of a business. Walgreens needs a new pharmacy director or a new pharmacy manager at the very very least. All this new technology and yet somehow going backwards in effeciency on prescriptions that effect peoples lives and well being. I don't even want to think about what happens with the other poor elderly customers, people with mental illness, or people that don't stick up for themselves here when it comes to their prescriptions and holding these employees accountable. I hate to think about the people that have just gotten there for something like a horrible ear infection or something causing tremendous pain and having to deal with waiting and waiting and waiting. I have even seen a poor women in tears here because she has to figure out how to arrange a ride from someone to get there the next day since they told her it would not be ready today....when it's currently only 3pm and they are open until 10pm with only 2 other people there waiting....

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT GO TO THIS PHARMACY. We were former Rite Aid customers and had to make the switch as they have regrettably closed down. Unfortunately, we tried this Walgreen's and our experience was AWFUL. We should have jumped on-line first to look at the reviews. I'll try to make this short, but there were many issues that need to be pointed out. First, my family and I (my wife, two daughters and me) had scheduled an appointment for 2pm on Saturday. My wife entered all of our personal information on-line. Unfortunately, when we checked in at 2pm for our appointment (actually 1:55 as we were 5 minutes early), they told us they did not have any of our records and would have to fill out the paperwork on-site. I understand that sometimes things happen and was patient with them (so was my wife), so we filled it out again. We spent a few minutes filling out paperwork before handing it back over to the employees. About 30 minutes go by, then they call our names. Unfortunately, it wasn't to administer the vaccines and instead, had more paperwork to fill out! Then another 30 minutes go by, and they have MORE paperwork to fill out. So, now were over 60 minutes waiting around. Keep in mind that the queue is getting long and nobody is getting any vaccinations. All of these people checked in AFTER us. From my vantage point, I can actually see the pharmacist (I think her name is Valentina) and she has a frazzled and confused look on her face whilst staring at her computer screen. Another 30 minutes go by and they have EVEN MORE paperwork for us. While my wife is filling it out, the pharmacist finally comes out (90 minutes after our appointment) from behind the desk and calls out somebody else's name (this party checked in after us)! At this point we're getting visibly irritated and I'm starting to really question the operation here. The employee behind the desk said we would be next. Well, the pharmacist comes out of the treatment room and calls for another person (not us) who had also checked in well after we did! Even one of the people waiting said 'Yep, they checked in after this family did'. At this point, my wife and I have had it and we confronted her. She was unable to explain herself and at this point, there's no way I'm having my family get vaccinated by these people. I was upset and said some things I shouldn't have (something to the effect of 'rub your two brain cells together and figure this out'). Of course, she immediately got defensive and said "I don't feel safe vaccinating your kids". That's totally fine, because quite honestly, I have zero confidence this pharmacist can even administer the correct vaccines! At first, I was ticked off because we wasted well over 90 minutes doing nothing. After thinking about it however, and I now have the opportunity to warn others, I consider it 90 minutes well spent (especially because we didn't get vaccinated there). Enter this pharmacy at your own risk!

On another note, we went to the CVS on Aurora and 196th Street. No appointment. They got us in, took our information, got us vaccinations and gave my daughters two bubble blowers each and stickers. All within 30 minutes. These folks couldn't have been nicer and more...

I debated writing this publicly because I don’t typically complain about businesses but I put myself in the shoes of someone with fewer resources than me and felt obligated to share my experience.

After a scary trip to the ER, my wife was discharged with a prescription for a nebulizer to use at home. I called several places and visited this pharmacy, tired and ready to be done with the ordeal, with a five year old in tow. The pharmacy confirmed they had the nebulizer in stock but said it would be about 30 minutes. They mentioned there was a lunch break and to be sure to get back before they took a break for lunch.

30 minutes later, before the mentioned lunch break, I returned to pick the nebulizer up. Sure enough, not only was it not ready but now they were going to lunch. The new estimate was 2-3 hours and offering to pay out of pocket didn’t change anything. Thankfully I have the resources to go elsewhere and I did. I also have the flexibility to take a day off work and chase nebulizers. I keep imagining the same situation if I were a single parent, or had a shorter window of time off work, I’d have wasted an hour of my day and possibly missed an opportunity to look elsewhere. People get busy, I understand, but neither me or my wife got a call to say they were running behind.

I visited Norco in Seattle and walked out with a nebulizer in 10 minutes.

The only bright spot in the entire encounter was Brian the manager. He listened, heard why this would be frustrating, and promised to make things better. For the sake of other customers I hope they are able to hear...