CVS — Local services in Northampton Township

Former CVS Pharmacy technician here: a lot of complaints regarding the pharmacy are due to factors outside of the employees' control. Not all, but most.

Long lines at drive-thru: drive-thrus are for convenience, NOT SPEED. It is just the same as a single line inside of the store, except that instead of walking up, you drive up. Honestly, things take even longer as you factor in the starting and stopping of the cars safely as well as how signatures have to be handled since the patient cannot sign on the electronic pads like in the store. Also to the one lady who thinks we can just rip out the grassy median or just add another drive-thru lane there: hahahahaha they cannot, they don't own the parking lot in any way and no one at the store level has even a fraction of the authority to make that decision. There is also not at all enough room for a second lane. On top of all of that, the Covid testing does take time to do correctly and verify information, so if you do not want to go to a pharmacy with Covid testing at this time...good luck finding one.

Long lines in store: there are rushes just like with every other business. A lot of people "just stop in quickly" on their lunch break or just after work at 5pm to find out that half of Richboro had the same idea. When all registers are pumping out patients as fast as they can (there is a lot of information to verify to keep patients safe!) and you take into consideration half of the people may have insurance issues or other problems that cannot be handled at the register and must be done at a computer station, you can see why lines get clogged up. Save yourself some time and VERIFY ONLINE OR BY PHONE THAT ALL INSURANCE IS UP TO DATE AND THAT THE PRICE IS CORRECT PRIOR TO PICK UP. Actually, do yourself a favor and do as much online as you can to save yourself the thousand phone calls to pharmacy staff that is already so busy and understaffed that it makes it difficult to pick up the phone after only a single ring. Also, please take any coupon issues or front store merchandise to the front store register. If it is one item, that is fine. If you have a full cart, take it up front. If there is a coupon or Extracare card problem, they have to call the front store manager back to the pharmacy, and now a pharmacy line is held up for people who need prescription medications because you want your $1 off toothpaste.

Rapid tests getting canceled: These tests done in the parking lot are done by a third party. The PHARMACY has no access to these records or scheduling. Any information is through the MinuteClinic, which is technically a separate entity under the CVS umbrella. It seems like a small thing, but our computer systems are segregated in a way that the pharmacy CANNOT access info regarding rapid tests. PCR tests done through the drive-thru are in a different system from which the pharmacy CAN access info.

Rude staff: I cannot tell anyone how words will come off to them. I can only speak from my experience in that when I was having a bad day (which was a lot of days there) it showed a lot of the time. I did my best to keep a professional attitude and tone but do admit that I slipped up at times (I'm sure that people reading this who recognize my name and face would agree). It was almost never because of the situation in front of me but because I was stressed out of my mind and had a million other things to do once that interaction was over. I can only ask that everyone try to show some compassion and use calm words to try and resolve situations where feelings are hurt. Yelling at staff will only cause a rift between the staff and that patient.

I hope that my essay above helped at least enlighten some of the issues that I know many patients experience with the pharmacy specifically. I do not speak for the front store or MinuteClinic, and will admit that I left CVS Pharmacy's employ in 10/2020. All...

As many have stated, if I could give zero stars to this pharmacy, I would. I had a popular prescription that was difficult to get. For one week, it said it was back ordered. For another two weeks after that it said the pharmacy didn't have it and that they ordered it and it would be filled by the fill date. Well, I didn't have a fill date. A week later I went to pick up two other prescription and ask if they could give me a ballpark of when I could expect to get the medication the man gave me a date which would was 3 day away. 3 days came and went not prescription. After 3 and half weeks of no updates I called the pharmacy. After letting all the option run out so I could speak to someone I was prompted to leave a voice mail and someone would call me back. You are given about 20 seconds to leave a message so I got cut off twice. I got a call back less then 10 minutes. The pharmacist was rude from the begining and said we tried to order but it probably wasn't going to be be filled. When I stated that is not what it said on my account in the app and what I was told when I spoke to someone in person she said it was not true. I have no reason to lie. If they had just been honest about not being able to fill the prescription instead of stringing me along for a month it would not have been a problem. I would have kept my business there and just gone to another pharmacy for the hard to find a nd prescription. I have been a customer for years sufficent to say I immediately contacted my doctor to switch to a different pharmacy and had my family do the same. If you live in or near richboro do not use this...

see update at the bottom: Wish I could give zero stars. Showed up at 1:28 with my elderly mother to fill urgent prescriptions. I was advised by another CVS worker to RUN to the pharmacy as they were about to close for lunch. I was greeted with a command to come back at 2 PM. There were 4+ workers there, its ridiculous that pharmacies have started closing for lunch. Take turns! have 2 people cover while 2 lunch - its not rocket science. If pharmacists ran McDonalds they would close for lunch. You would have thought the building was going to blow up with the urgency they had to pull down the gate. Terrible customer service. I know its hard to find staff, and people are pushy a-holes who complain about slow pharmacies, but the closing at lunch is not a good solution.

note: I've been educated some since posting this. Apparently they cannot stay open unless there is a 'full fledged pharmacist' actively working, so to allow 2 lunch shifts, you need two pharmacists working at lunch time, and its very hard to find pharmacists, so most of them have to close if the pharmacist is going to get a...