CVS — Local services in Manheim Township

PART TWO

One of the staff at this CVS must have been a student in my freshman comp class and received a low grade.

It's midnight the morning of September 24. I have been trying to get a call back from the pharmacy since mid-day September 17th about a medication for which I have a prior authorization. Texts from this pharmacy tell me the authorization was approved; and that it was not approved. No one calls me back.

I attempted to leave yet another message: the machine says that the store is closed; call back after 9AM. I guess the machinery is tired of my messages.

Clearly the problem is *someone(s) on the staff. Several of the pharmacists and techs have been wonderful over the past four years. Others are condescending or downright snotty on the phone (when they deign to call back).

Three different physicians groups I work with tell me THEY rarely get called about meds they prescribe, regardless of what CVS promises.

You-all are making the District of Columbia and Maryland urban stores look good.

Until this month, I had uniformly good service for Rx and vaxx - quick service, intelligent answers, good communiction, and then, April. My prescriber called in a medication I have taken - and had filled at CVS Oregon Pike - for several years. When after a week I hadn't received info to pick up the med, I called; I was told that the medication now requires prior-authorization; I checked, and prescriber had not been told this by CVS; I called CVS - where an extremely impatient woman told me they had sent several notices to prescriber stating they need prior insurance authorization (which ordinarily the prescribers nurses handle, when they know it must be done). That staff person insisted they'd 'sent a fax' that morning and would send another. Subsequent call to prescriber: no contact from CVS. I asked them to refill this medication THEY HAVE REFILLED MANY TIMES without insurance authorization because I have a time constraint; they declined to do that for this particular medication.

Bear with me. So today I called to speak to pharmacy manager. A different woman called me back, to lecture me and tell me to contact the insurer myself. I asked why I wasn't told that a week ago; she narrated her inability to "speak for what happened prior" to our conversation, and that I could use a different pharmacy.

I asked if she is the pharmacy manager, and she again tried to speak over me. I asked to speak to pharmacy manager, who isn't in today. While she again narrated a defense to the unreasonableness of my complaint of a weeks delay in notification, I asked to have the pharmacist call me when in. She snippily told me that I can call back tomorrow.

I'm one of those retirees from Elsewhere to whom Lancaster has been promoted as a great place to retire. When I came here three years ago and began using CVS Oregon Pike Pharmacy I brought with me 5 monthly Rx, and added two more subsequent to need.

Three of these are high-compensation medicines. I'd be happy to share with readers the name of my...

CVS is my primary location for prescription needs. Please hire more pharmacy workers. It is not uncommon to wait 20 to 30 minutes in the drive-thru lane to pick up a prescription that has been called in by one's doctor. At the CVS location that I use there's a two-lane drive-thru for pickup but they only use one because they are understaffed. Recently I went there to pick up a prescription and I was told at the window to please come in because too many people called out sick and we don't have anyone to work the drive through. Going inside is not much better. It appears there's only one pharmacist and one pharmacy tech and then two counter clerks, but they just cannot keep up with the volume. So as a result your customers have to wait to get their prescription that is already filled and just waiting for pick up.

I know this is not a matter of money for CVS because CVS has expanded all across the country and in the process is causing the closing of all little local pharmacies as well as Rite Aid in Pennsylvania.

Please don't do what Walmart does... which is to say, they really don't care about the customer. they never have enough lines open. and on a good day the lines are down the aisles.... and that could be any season of the year not just Christmas.

Does seem that CVS is going that way as well. You've put in self-serve check out machines which while somewhat convenient for the customer, you are putting clerks out of work by doing this. And I know that's the reason why you install them. It has nothing to do with customer service. So instead of hiring more clerks behind the counter, you want us to be the clerk for nothing and do the self checkout.

CVS is huge now, but so was Rite Aid and K-Mart before they lost...

Went to the drive through at this location to pick up medicine for my husband. It was closed with a sign that said to come inside. I have severe COPD and a heart condition and can't wear a mask for more than a minute or two at a time. I went inside and tried to explain to a young girl that I couldn't wait but she told me they would be putting on another associate to make the line of twelve people move quicker. I went over to wait but just was not able to do so. I then went to another counter and asked if the drive through would ever be back open. This girl snarkily responded that when they had the staff to open it, they would. The first girl heard my question and said, Take your mask off, you don't have to wear it. She was extremely rude and mean. I started to cry and slowly made my way back to the front of the store and out, gasping for breath. I cried the whole way home to the other side of the city (I recently moved), not knowing how I am ever going to get his medicine that he needs to live. This location has ALWAYS been dsyfunctional and understaffed, way before the pandemic hit. They need to understand that there are ill and fragile customers who cannot come in to the pharmacy for medicine and need that drive through. I would have gladly waited in my car for as long as it took to get service because I could have easily done that. They keep offering flu shots, Covid tests, etc., but are not giving their customers who use them for medicine the customer service that they need and deserve. I still don't know how I'm going to get this medicine. I guess I will have to call and wait on hold, as usual, for at least ten minutes, to find out if the drive through is open or not. Terrible way to...