CVS — Local services in Mount Airy

I came here for my 3rd Covid vaccine which turned into a nightmare. The employees in the pharmacy area have zero organization, a lack of professionalism, and seemingly no protocol in place for vaccinating people based on their appointment times. I waited for nearly an hour an only received a vaccine after speaking with two separate employees on two different occasions. The second employee I spoke with was extremely rude to me when I was just trying to figure out why people who arrived after me with the same appointment time were being vaccinated BEFORE me. Because of this interaction they were finally ready to vaccinate me after what felt like being skipped and ignored.

The woman who administered my vaccine did not ask any screening questions and seemed like she got thrown into the vaccinator role with minimal training. They also did not provide me with any privacy whatsoever while getting vaccinated, it was literally just in the corner of the pharmacy for all the other 10+ people to see. Unbelievably unprofessional and truly uncomfortable. After waiting nearly an hour to even get vaccinated, I was informed I was apparently "required" to stay for another 15 minutes to monitor for reaction, which I expressed I wished to opt out of. They literally tried to force me to stay by holding my vaccine card hostage until "the pharmacist fills it out." Which was 100% an untrue statement -- when I went to speak to the pharmacist about getting that done quickly so I could leave, another employee approached me so I explained to her the situation. She then went back over to the woman who vaccinated me, who was not the pharmacist, and she was filling out the card RIGHT THERE where I was just sitting. This other kind employee retrieved my now completed vaccine record card so that I could leave.

I also want to mention, they wanted me to wait for 15 minutes in a very crowded store area with no possibility for social distancing, where some people weren't even wearing masks. Why do y'all think I'm getting a booster lol??? I don't want to be around strangers and possibly be exposed. You would expect a pharmacy to understand that, but I suppose the employees are all new or under-trained so they can't understand that concept.

I feel bad for the other people who were also there waiting patiently to get vaccinated with zero updates or direction from the pharmacy staff. If I didn't speak up I truly think I would have been there for 2+ hours or more.

The pharmacy employees at this CVS should take a field trip to check out a veterinary vaccine clinic and take some notes -- we actually get stuff done...

On 22 August 2023 the CVS on Rotary ave in New Market MD recieve a RX from my doctor. On 25 August I received a text message saying my medication was ready for pick up. When i went to pick it up on 25th i was told by the pharmacist Erica there was a fridge malfunction and they could not access the fridge to get my meds as the fridge temp had dipped BELOW temp the previous night and that the securiy manager had to clear the medication before she could release it. I called on Saturday 26 August to check the status and was told that I only had to wait 24 hrs and the medication would be cleared and able to pick up (on 27 Aug) On 27 August i went in to pick up the med and again the pharmacist Erica said she was unable to give me the medication and that what i was i told on 26th about being able to pick it up on 27th was incorrect. She also said she was going to cancel my existing on site order and submit re order so that she could get a new supply in. She cancelled my order. Monday 28 August the pharmacist called me and said the new order that she created on 27th was delayed as it was on backorder. I explained that my med does NOT need to be in fridge if unopened and asked if I could please pick up what they had in the frdge - that again if unopened the temp shouldnt matter. She agreed it didnt need to be in fridge if unopened and said yes i could come pick it up. We hung up with the understanding that i was on my way in to pick it up. A few minutes later Erica called back saying she (ironically) JUST heard from her (hard to reach for 3 days) security manager stating because the fridge temp ROSE ABOVE FREEZING (note that is a completely different story than the first, i.e the first story was that the fridge DROPPED in temp) the med was no good and had to be excessed. At this point we do not believ my med was even there on site and fully believe we are being lied to. So My husband went into the CVS branch and asked to see the box of meds just to verify it was in fact there on site, Erica refused. He also asked to get a letter in writing from her stating that my med was processed and ready for pick up however was unable to be picked up due to a malfunction on CVS part (fridge malfunction) however again, once more ERICA REFUSED! This is gross mismanagement and Ericas (the pharmacist) refusal speaks to poor customer service and a total lack of regard for patients...

Recurring (years worth) of Rx issues. Regularly get texts stating mom's prescription was ready yet after getting to the store we're told that "they are working on it right now". This time around not only did the above happen, I was told that I'd need to wait 45 minutes for them to finish the Rx. Not about to suffer yet another one of their mistakes I went home rather than waiting. Later that evening my mother received another text stating that she will be texted when her Rx is ready. So much for 45 minutes. I feel that telling people that their Rx is being worked on "now" is standard CYA verbiage and is almost always untrue. They only start working on it after you're at the store and tell them you were notified that it was already ready for pickup. The other example is that my cheapo insurance company (Aetna) no longer pays for the brand name of my medication (two of my doctors expressed a preference for the brand name as too many of the generic drug labs have poor quality control practices so the actual amount of the active medication ingredient varies from batch to batch....WOW). 4 times now (so 4 months in a row) CVS staff have purposefully decided to ignore the comment in my profile and filled the old generic Rx. So 4 times I have had to tell them to remove the generic drug from my profile and only keep the brand name one, and that I will continue to pay out of pocket. What right do they have to arbitrarily decide to change my Rx from brand name to generic??? That alone should be a termination worthy offense. There is seriously ZERO oversight being applied to this department's processes or procedures and it's been going on for years. We have tried the local Walmart pharmacy (they have their own issues) and other CVS locations with no improvement. Next step is to talk to the store manager, with screenshots of the bogus texts messages we've received, and see what good that might do. TERRIBLE,...