PHARMACIST STEVE

I didn’t tell you all what happened, AGAIN, at Walgreens yesterday.
It’s gonna blow your damn minds!!

So, I get my meds every 2 weeks, exactly 15 days at a time.
It was day 15 yesterday, so I went to my regular Walgreens home store, and the pharmacy manager was there, and he told me that he didn’t get them in, he’s been trying for 3 weeks, and hasn’t gotten them.
But, he again, told me to go to the dreaded Bee Ridge and Beneva store.
I say dreaded because of the consistent treatment I get at that store. I posted just a few weeks ago, what happened to me and an old man as well.
I HATE this store. BUt, I was TOLD to go there, that they had them.
So I go, almost crying on the way there, I go in, I’m nice, I hand the girl my scripts and ID, and she starts typing in the computer and says she has to see if they have them by talking to the pharmacist whose name is xxxxx (Not completely sure of the last name spelling because he REFUSED to show me his badge).
xxxx says to me that he “doesn’t feel comfortable” filling one of the scripts, and because they have to be filled together, I’m not getting my meds.
I remind xxxx of the ADA and Civil Rights laws, that he’s violating my civil rights under these 2 laws, and xxx proceeds to throw THE BIGGEST TEMPER TANTRUM I’ve seen since Sebastian was 5.
He started yelling and screaming at me, slamming his hands on the counter, and when I say screaming, I mean screaming, yelling so loud, that I’m sure people in the front of the store heard him.
I remained calm, but raised my voice in return, and reminded xxxx of the laws again, and told him that because of what he’s doing, I can report him to the board of pharmacy and medical licensing board as well, and he can lose his pharmacist license over this and his outrageous behavior.
xxxx then informs me that he’s been threatened with the Supreme Court before, and he’s not afraid of ME. He made the me very loud and clear which is why I cap’d it.
I told xxxx that when I go home, that I would be filing multiple complaints to Walgreens corporate, the ADA at the justice department, the BOP and medical licensing boards, and also with my insurance company, UnitedHealthcare. The reason for filing a complaint with my insurance is because Walgreens has a contract with the insurance providers. Under that contract, they are OBLIGATED to fill valid, on-time prescriptions for medications that my insurance covers.
He said “Go right ahead and file your complaints, and I’ll ban you from ALL Walgreens for the next 3 months! I have that power! I have the authority to do that!”
So I calmly said to xxxxx, “Then do it. Right now. Do it. I’m sick and tired of this store playing with my life, so do it, ban me, please, it will just make my complaints all that much stronger.”
xxxx then got on the phone and asked for a manager to come to the pharmacy. He basically had had it with me, and wanted a manager to throw me out of the store.
The assistant manager comes, and tells me she can’t force him to fill them, but come back at 3 pm when xxxxx, the pharmacy manger is on duty, and she can over-ride xxxxx’s “notes”, if she chooses.
I thank her very much for her time and information, and I leave planning to go back at 3pm.

I got home around noon and immediately started filing my complaints.
The ADA makes it SO easy to do, they say right on their website that you can fill out forms and mail or fax them back, but the quickest way is to email them.
The ADA’s complaint email address is at the US department of justice.
Hahahah! I love that!
So I file all my complaints, call my insurance company and file a “quality of care” complaint because being denied my medications means that I will be in excessive pain, and because I’m being denied my pain meds, that my body will start to go into withdrawals.
There’s no easy way to say that to anyone. I take and have been taking, heavy duty narcotic pain meds since early 2000.
My body is used to them, and sadly, my body is yes, addicted to them.
I take my meds as prescribed, I don’t “get high”, they don’t ever, nor have they ever, gotten me “high”, but when your body is denied them, your body goes into the worst, ugliest withdrawals.
I’m not going to describe for you what that all means, look it up, or if you’re super curious, message me and I’ll tell you, but you will be horrified, and sorry, grossed out.
It’s a truly ugly thing that happens.

My insurance company rep that I spoke to couldn’t believe it, so she asked me for their address and phone number and she called them herself.
xxxx gave her the same exact line.
“I don’t feel comfortable filling them, and by law, that’s all I have to say, end of story”.
The rep couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Here she is, the insurance company that they are contracted and obligated with, calling on their member’s behalf, and the pharmacist,xxxx, still stuck to his bullshit line.
I say bullshit because the only LEGAL AND VALID EXCUSES that a pharmacist can give ANYONE, is that A) this medication will interact badly with other meds that you take, and B) because some of the ingredients we know you’re allergic to, so this med may cause an allergic reaction.
That’s it, those are the ONLY 2 valid and legal excuses they can give.
Simply saying, “I don’t feel comfortable”, is against the ADA and Civil Rights laws, and against their contracts with ALL insurance providers.
So I file my final complaint with my insurance company and then wait until 3pm and hope that xxxxx will take mercy on me and fill my scripts.

**Mind blowing part here**
We had some friends friends over yesterday, their car was being worked on here, and they came up with the idea to not only go in the store with me, but FILM IT.
So I said sure, because nobody will believe what happens to me at this Walgreens, it’s crazy, makes me feel like I’m going crazy.
So around 3:15pm we leave, that gave xxxxx the pharmacy manager time to get there and go through all her official emails which probably did include my complaint.
This complaint makes about the 23rd complaint I’ve made against this store in the last year, 14 of which are in the last 6 months alone.
We go in, my friend Nick is by my side to help me do the talking should they deny me again, and his girlfriend Katrina was standing there with her iphone filming the whole thing.
I hand my scripts to the pharmacy tech xxxxx, she types my name and id into the computer, and then goes to ask if they have them in stock.
xxxx IS STILL THERE. HE SEES THE SCRIPTS WITH MY NAME ON THEM AND OUTRIGHT TELLS xxxxx TO LIE TO ME AND SAY THEY DON’T HAVE ANY.
xxxxx comes back and says that, they don’t have any in stock.
Nick asks her so nicely and politely, and sweetly, “Is there another store we can go to? My friend needs her medication. This is a medical health crisis. Without these medications, my friend will end up in the ER by tomorrow morning, if not sooner, please helps us.”
She says to him, “Let me check with the other pharmacist” and goes off to ask xxxxx.
xxxxx brings them back over to xxxxx’s counter and says, “We have them fill them”.
!!!!!!!!!
xxxxx then tells us that it will be about an hour. Nick says thank you so very much, he even says thank you to xxxxx, and we leave.
At this point in the day, I was in serious pain, so bad, I had to walk with my cane for stability. I HATE using my cane, but I could barely stand up anymore, so I used my cane to walk into and out of that store, and even used it to get around my house until it was time to go back, and I had to use it then as well.

WE GOT THE WHOLE THING ON VIDEO!!!!!!!!
We got xxxxx telling xxxxx to LIE to me and say they didn’t have them in stock.
We got xxxxx saying we have them, fill them.
WE GOT THIS WHOLE THING ON VIDEO.
I now have the proof that I’ve been lacking for so long against Walgreens and their treatment of me.
Their blatant discrimination and outright lying to me, constantly.

A supervisor did call me yesterday and wanted to talk, but funny, Walgreens had a system wide failure with their phone system, and you couldn’t get through.
I tried to call him back at the store he was at yesterday for almost 7 and a half hours, so many attempts, I killed the battery on my phone.
I called that store this morning, and one of my all time fave pharmacists from their company, xxxxx, answered, I told her that xxxxx had called me yesterday, but I couldn’t get through because of their phone system. She apologized for the phone issues, but surprisingly, xxxxx was at that store again today.
So I told xxxxx my whole story of happened with xxxx, his behavior, mine, the whole shebang!
xxxxx was angry that xxxxx had threatened me with a 3 month ban, he said that “floater pharmacists”, do NOT have that kind of power or authority, and was just basically overall disgusted by what happened with xxxx.
Then I told him what happened at 3pm, and that we have it on video.
And then I told him that I’ve completely had it with this store’s consistent discrimination and treatment of me, and now that I have PROOF on video, I’m willing to go all the way with it, and I told him that my friend who went with me knows of an excellent malpractice attorney, and we will be calling him within the next 24 hours.
xxxxx said to me, “I’m going to call that stores PIC (pharmacist in charge), as well as the entire company’s pharmacy supervisor right now and someone will be calling you back ASAP”.
I said “Good, I hope to hear from someone, because I’m sick of this crap, I’ve had it, I’m over it, and now that I have video proof of what they do to me, I’m going all the way against Walgreens. That store, those pharmacists, and Walgreens as a whole, for telling me yesterday, that “they will stand behind every action of their pharmacists”.
Does that include the outrageous temper tantrum xxx had which is on their store’s video monitoring system?
Oh, I hope so. I hope that they watch xxxxx’s actions yesterday, and I can only HOPE that their monitoring system also captures sound, because xxxxx’s physical gestures, sure are pretty awesome as far as temper tantrums go, but it’s all the things that he said to me that make it even better.
And then what happened at 3pm, I hope that’s on there too. xxxxx telling xxxxx to LIE to me and say they don’t have them, and then xxxxx saying “we have them, fill them”.
I hope that everything is on their system.
I have my video proof, they need to seriously look and listen to theirs, the fit he threw, the things that he said, his refusal to give me his name and I asked for his name like this, “Please either tell me your name, or show me your badge”.
I had to ask him that no less than 7-8 times, and then he finally SCREAMED his name at me, xxxxx
I’m sure a lot of people thought that maybe my posts talking about what happens at Walgreens were overblown, or exaggerated, well, now I have video proof.
I can’t post the video though, I’m sorry. It has to be shown to my new attorney first, and then he may put a gag order on it and tell me that I can’t show it to anyone because it’s now crucial evidence in our case against Walgreens.

I was so hoping the day would come when I could catch them doing this to me, and many, many thanks to Nick and Katrina for actually helping me get not only the proof I needed, but getting my medications.
If Nick hadn’t been there and been the one to talk, I probably wouldn’t have gotten them again. I probably would have been told repeatedly, that they didn’t have them in stock.
Nick just knows how to talk to people, and he really did that so well yesterday. He even told me that if we didn’t get them, that he’d be the one to take me to the ER, and he’d stay with me.
He of course, did say that while we were standing there waiting for xxxxx to talk to xxxxx.
Nick just knows what to do, period. And I’m just so glad that I had him on my side yesterday or it would have been another time going without my meds and ending up in the hospital.

But, I have proof now bitches!!! Hahahahahahahaha!
Screw you Walgreens!
I got you on video blatantly discriminating and lying to me!
Eat it!!!

Filed under: General Problems