Walgreens — Local services in Saint Paul

This is the worst pharmacy I have ever experienced. For a long time, they would never fill prescriptions unless you came inside and asked for them to be filled-even if they were sent over by ER doctors at United. I often had to come inside, ask for them to be filled, and then sit there and wait to make sure they were filling them. In the last year, I filled out online requests at CVS, and later at another pharmacy to transfer my meds. However, this pharmacy never processed those transfers. I have also had instances where my prescriptions were not filled correctly (wrong number of pills) and the techs kept telling me the wrong days in which my refills were available. About three weeks ago, a new lead pharmacist came on board and explained that she was hired to "turn the place around" because "the staff was not trained properly." I have had three experiences with this new pharmacist and all were horrible. She has horrible bedside manner and aggressively contorts her face and almost shouts at you when you ask simple questions or voice concerns. She appears to treat her staff kindly and it does seem that the logistics of filling prescriptions might be improving, however, no customer deserves to be treated in the way she treats people. Last night, my app showed that I had 4 refills left on a med, and I requested a refill. I went over to pick it up. Since there was no one in the drive through, I pulled right up to the window. The tech was kind enough and told me my refill was not available but I couldn't understand why (I also had a harder time understanding his accent because I have a hearing loss). He went to grab the lead pharmacist and it took several minutes. At that point, another car pulled up behind me. When the lead pharmacist came to the window, she aggressively stated "You need to come inside because I can't have you holding up the line." Once I got inside, she aggressively slammed a sheet of paper down on the counter and stated that "You already picked this prescription up." I explained that I had gone through my pill box at home and did not see those pills anywhere. She aggressively stated "I don't know what to tell you" but did offer to give me a 3 day supply so I can go back home and find them. I also let her know that with the last prescription I picked up (which was after she started), I was given twice as many pills as I was supposed to have. This was for prednisone so it is not a medicine you want to take too much of. I showed the pill case (with the pills in them) to my physical therapist and orthopedic doctor and both stated that I was given twice too many and not to take the extra pills. They also advised that I let the pharmacy know. I did just that and she stated "What do you want me to do about it- if you didn't take the extra pills then its no harm no foul." I tried to explain that there was a foul because my faith in this pharmacy was even more eroded so it makes it harder for me to take their words for things when it comes to whether a medicine was picked up or filled correctly. However, she cut me off and I never really got to explain myself. This pharmacist has terrible bedside manner and no one deserves to be treated this way. She may very well succeed in turning this place around logistically but you cannot speak to customers this way. I promptly came home and again attempted to transfer my prescriptions to Amazon pharmacy. Hopefully they will process my request this third attempt. I may need to talk to my doctors about calling new prescriptions in fresh to Amazon pharmacy. One thing I know is that I will never give any business to this...

I was pricked by a needle and had prescriptions to prevent an HIV infection sent here that I needed to start within 24 hours. One of the prescriptions was accidently deleted on their end. The other was out of stock. When I inquired about the deleted prescription (I got a notification on my phone from Walgreens that it was received and also called my health insurance company which confirmed they received the prescription, ran it, and then immediately deleted it- I’m sure it was a human error) the pharmacist interrupted me, yelled at me and stated that she was “literally the only pharmacist working” and that I would have to get a new prescription from my doctor. She wouldn’t even look on the system and see if the prescription that was out of stock was in stock at another Walgreens and knew my situation because I explained it in detail to her. I had to pay another $54 to see my doctor and got prescriptions sent to Lloyd’s Pharmacy. They were out of stock of the same medication but immediately said that there is a speciality pharmacy (that it is a Walgreens on west lake street) that would have it in stock and I picked it up in an hour. Had she bothered to spend one minute of her time and look she would have seen they had it in stock. The way the pharmacist treated me was completely unacceptable, and the fact she wouldn’t spend one minute of her time to see if another Walgreens had the medication in stock given that I needed to start the medication in 24 hours to prevent an HIV infection- which I told her- showed complete disregard to my health and her duties as a healthcare professional. I worked at Walgreens for over 6 years and am the last person on earth that would complain about the service I received but I will never fill prescriptions at Walgreens again and emphatically urge anyone who cares about their health to do the same! I spoke to the District Manager, Paul Mcintire, about this situation and he gave me $20 in Walgreen’s cash rewards, which after everything I went though was honestly almost insulting- but I appreciate he took the time to call me and listen- he said he would speak to the pharmacist. He should have at least offered to reimburse me for the cost of having to see my doctor again due to the fact that they deleted my prescription. I do not know the pharmacist’s name. She was the first person to answer the phone the second time and never bothered to say her name or even that she was the pharmacist when she...

This is the second review I’ve given because this place continues to fail its customers. I know, I should just go somewhere else, but I’m hoping that something changes. I’ll preface this by saying that I do think that the people working at this location are doing the best they can, so I have to believe that there’s a problem with leadership, higher up at the corporate level. But there still needs to be some kind of accountability from the store itself.

In this particular instance, I submitted my three prescriptions on a Friday. Two were ready on Saturday. I stopped by on Sunday and was told that my third wasn’t ready, but it would be in a little bit and that I could wait if I wanted to. I said that I’d stop by later. I wasn’t able to on Monday, so I stopped by on Tuesday night. When I arrived, the customer next to me was saying how she can never tell when her prescriptions are ready anymore. And when it was my turn, the employee said that my last prescription wasn’t ready and that they’re 12 days behind, but that I could wait an hour or come back tomorrow. I said I’d come back tomorrow, even though I should’ve known better. I asked the staff member if they really thought that it would be ready when I came back tomorrow. I didn’t say it in a snarky manner because I knew that it wasn’t their fault, but I have to ask, how does telling customers that they’re 12 days behind filling prescriptions an acceptable response to give to customers? I assume they were pretty frustrated as well, having to explain to customers why things are so delayed. I had another employee tell me that they’re so behind because employees keep calling in sick. I empathize with them because they’re showing up and working hard, but it’s a hard pill to swallow for customers to hear that. This prescription is really important to my health, but I can still manage if I miss a dose. But what about other customers who need their life saving medications? Also, some insurance policies will not let you order a prescription until around the time it’s due for a refill, so you can’t pre-plan and order your prescriptions early to account for delays by the pharmacy. I know that it’s a tough time to fill positions in many industries; however, the way that this location operates, I really feel that something has to change because it seems like Walgreens doesn’t care about...