Dispensing With The Pleasantries

Australia, Bad Behavior, Pharmacy | Right | December 15, 2019


(I work in a pharmacy and occasionally, due to computer errors or just because the dispensary staff are being flooded with customers, there is a mistake in a customer’s script.)

Coworker: “Hi, how are you today?”

Customer: *cheerily* “I’m good, thank you!”

Coworker: “That comes to [total].”

Customer: *getting more agitated by the second* “No, that’s not right!”

Coworker: “I’m sorry, did you not want to take one of these scripts?” *gestures to medication*

Customer: “No, this is bulls***! I always get these scripts and they never cost this much!”

Coworker: “I apologise for the inconvenience; sometimes we do have system errors. I’ll call up the pharmacist and sort this out.”

Customer: “This is f****** stupid. I just want my medication. Just let me have my medication! I want my s*** for the normal f****** price!”

Coworker: *now calling the dispensary to get the issue sorted, replies calmly* “I understand, ma’am, but I can’t fix it from here; I can only bring up your script from your file. However, I am calling to get this fixed right now.” *manages to stay composed and continue smiling*

Customer: *now in a frenzy* “Just change the f****** s***! I’m never going to f****** shop at [Store] again! I’ll go to [Other Store — actually our sister store with same owner]!”

(The customer then turns to me, standing at the next till over doing a few jobs.)

Customer: *to me* “I can’t f****** believe it, and he says he can’t fix it!”

Me: “I am really sorry for the inconvenience, ma’am, but he can’t do anything from the tills. He is trying to fix it up now, though. The dispensary has to fix it up, but don’t worry; we will get everything sorted! It is actually quite common for this to happen.” *gives her the warmest smile I can muster*

Customer: “This is bulls***!”

Coworker: *hangs up from the call with the dispensary* “Okay, that’s all sorted. Sorry about the inconvenience. That comes to [new total].”

Customer: *smiles* “That sounds better!”

(My coworker finishes the transaction and apologizes yet again for the inconvenience, giving the customer a tired smile.)

Customer: “Oh, no, no, it’s not your fault! Thank you so much! Have a wonderful day!”

Coworker: “You, too, ma’am.”

Customer: *to me* “Bye!”

Me: “See you later!” *to my coworker* “Guess it’s that time of the month for her, too.”

Unfiltered Story #179774

Detroit, Michigan, Pharmacy, USA | Unfiltered | December 15, 2019


(I work as a cashier at a well known retail/pharmacy chain)
Me: Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Customer: Actually yes…I need you to cash this check for me.

Me: I’m sorry Ma’am, we can’t do that here, but there’s a bank across the street that should be able to cash it for you.

Customer: But I don’t want to make another trip! Can’t you just do it for me?

Me: Our store doesn’t have the ability to cash checks. Even if I got my store manager, or someone from corporate, they wouldn’t be able to because it’s impossible.

Customer: Well can’t you tell me a location that will cash this for me?

Me: Ma’am, our company does not cash checks, so no location can cash it for you. However, there is a bank across the street, which should be able to provide that service.

Customer: But the customer is always right! So cash this check, now

In the pharmacy I worked at they had a sign that said medications are up to 80% off of the regular retail price. A customer comes to my till to pay for his purchases.)

Me: You’re total is (total).

Customer: Where is my discount?

Me: What discount sir?

Customer: The 80% off that it says on that sign!

Me: Oh the discount is already added. What we sell you is already up to 80% off the regular retail price.

Customer: No, it says it’s 80% off, I want my discount.

Me: The discount is already included, it’s off the regular retail price not our current sale price.

(Customer continues to get angrier. He yells at me and won’t let me explain how it works and how it clearly states on the sign what it means. He then starts to blame me personally about the false adversiting in the store even though I have no say as it is a chain store. Eventually he leaves, leaving me to take a break to compose myself.)

Getting The Tattoo Was Too Painful To Remember

Extra Stupid, Pharmacy, USA, Washington | Right | November 27, 2019


(A man covered in tattoos walks up to the pharmacy window to pick up a prescription for his son.)

Cashier: “What is the person’s name?”

Customer: “[Child].”

Cashier: “What is [Child]’s birthday?”

Customer: “Um, is it [date]?”

Me: “No.”

(While the customer is trying to remember his child’s birthday, the cashier notices that a large tattoo on the customer’s arm is the child’s name… and birthday.)

Cashier: “Is [Child]’s birthday [date]?”

Customer: *wide-eyed* “Yes! How did you know?”

Cashier: *speechless*

(I would have thought that if you spent a couple of hours under a tattoo needle, you’d remember what was imprinted into your skin, but I guess I was wrong.)

One Ring To Rue Them All

Bad Behavior, Doctor/Physician, Pharmacy, USA | Healthy | November 13, 2019


My mom has an accident at work and spills boiling water directly on her hand, badly burning several of her fingers, one of which happens to be the finger she wears her wedding ring on. Her boss drives her to a nearby pharmacy clinic where she is seen by the on-call doctor.

At this point, her fingers have swelled a lot, locking her wedding ring on her finger and causing painful constriction. It’s clear that the ring needs to be removed. My mother is assuming they will cut the ring off of her finger, which she is sad about, but at this point, she’s much more concerned about relieving the intense pain she is in. The doctor comes into the room and quickly examines her hand, saying, “What a beautiful ring! It would be such a shame to damage it by cutting it off!”

He then proceeds to forcibly yank the ring off of her finger past the swelling, putting my mother in even more pain and tearing open the blisters that have started to form.

She has since healed and is relieved to be able to wear her ring again and not need to pay to have it fixed, but she isn’t sure it was worth all of the pain and the extra time it took to recover due to the blisters being torn

We’re In Our Thirties And That’s When His Attitude Is Stuck

Bigotry, Crazy Requests, Germany, Great Stuff, Pharmacy | Right | October 28, 2019


(I work at a pharmacy. My coworkers and I are female, all in our thirties. One day, an old man walks in. He carries a dirty bag. He has a pair of trousers in there, which he grabs and puts on the counter.)

Old Man: “Please fix it. The zipper is broken.”

Coworker: “Sir, you’re at a pharmacy.”

Old Man: “So?”

Coworker: “We sell prescriptions. We don’t fix clothes here.”

Old Man: *angry now* “But you all are young women in here! You have to be able to fix my pants!”

All Of The Above

Extra Stupid, Pharmacy, USA | Healthy | October 23, 2019


(One of my medications is delivered to my home through a specialty pharmacy. Every month they call to verify my information and see if anything has changed. At the end of our conversation, the Home Delivery Pharmacist — HDP — reverifies my medical history before finalizing the order.)

Home Delivery Pharmacist: “Okay… I see here this is from [Hospital Doctor]. Did you see him recently?”

Me: “Yes, while I was in-patient at [Hospital] last month.”

Home Delivery Pharmacist: “Okay. Have you been to the ER, had an infection, or been hospitalized in the last 90 days?”

Me: “Yes, all three.”

Home Delivery Pharmacist: “Which one?”

Me: “All of them.”

Home Delivery Pharmacist: “No. ER, infection, or hospital. Which one?”

Me: “Um… all of the above. All three.”

Home Delivery Pharmacist: *annoyed* “No, ma’am. Were you in the ER, did you have an infection, or were you hospitalized in the last 90 days?”

Me: “Yes! I went to the ER because I couldn’t breathe. I found out I had a lung infection and I was hospitalized for 21 days.”

Home Delivery Pharmacist: “Oh.” *sour tone* “You could have just said yes. We’ll ship this tomorrow.” *hangs up*

Note: I’m the bad customer here)

Recently, I got sick with a very bad cold that among other things, caused me to lose my voice for an extended period. My mother then proceeded to catch this cold, along with a pneumonia, and had to be hospitalized in the ICU with a tube down her throat. My dad has been by her side the whole time and left his phone charger at home, so I go out to get him a new one. It’s Halloween when this happens, which happens to be my mother’s favorite holiday, and I’m very aware of her condition on her favorite day of the year, so I’m not in the best of moods. I eventually find a CVS and buy a phone charger, in the process ruining the night of the cashier.

Me: (hands cashier items)

Cashier: “How are you tonight?”

Me: *Raspy and irritable* “Not great”

Cashier: “Is it because everyone else is ‘too cool for school’?”

(Note: We’re right next to a major university on Halloween, he probably thought I was having a bad night for more normal reasons.)

Me: ” No, it’s because my mother is intubated in the ICU.”

Cashier: (says something about how the ICU here is very good, but is clearly not expecting my response)

(That was a bad night for me, and as I walked out, I felt really bad about ruining that guy’s night as well. If you’re reading this, I’m sorry.)

Mosquitoes Are Satan’s Creation

Ohio, Pharmacy, Religion, Silly, USA | Right | October 16, 2019


(A man is buying some insect repellent.)

Me: “Did you find everything okay?”

Customer: “Yeah, thankfully. Listen, I’m a good Christian and I know God wants us to love our neighbor and forgive others of their sins, but… f*** mosquitoes. Seriously.”

Me: “…” *hands him a receipt* “Have a nice day, sir.”

Customer: *suddenly smiling* “You, too

He Has A Very Descriptive Past

Australia, Bad Behavior, Employees, New South Wales, Pharmacy, Sydney | Working | October 14, 2019


(My dad is regaling me with stories on a drive. As we go past a chemist:)

Dad: “That was the chemist that used to provide your grandfather with the drugs that kept him alive for ten extra years. The main pharmacist sold the place to someone else and when the new people opened up the computer records they found all sorts of horrible comments attached to people’s files: ‘Ugly, old b****,’ ‘Impotent pin-d**k,’ ‘Nice tits on her,’ etc.”

(Fast forward ten years and I am handing in a prescription at a chemist on the other side of the city. The pharmacist looks at my name on the script and says:)

Pharmacist: “Oh, [My Uncommon Surname]! Did you have a grandfather that lived in [Town of the first chemist]?”

Me: “Yes, I did.”

Pharmacist: “I used to own the chemist there and saw your grandfather often. I sold that place and moved here about ten years ago.”

Me: “Oh, really, how about that…” *smiles and nods, pulls my cardigan closed, backs slowly out of the place, and makes a mental note not to go back there*

A vaguely semi-regular patient without insurance filled a few prescriptions, picked them up, etc. This is a rough approximation of the call I later received from the patient’s spouse, edited to maintain patient privacy.
Caller: My spouse, xxx, filled medicine xxx at your pharmacy. You do price matches, right?
Me: Sir/Ma’am, your spouse already picked up the medicine earlier in the day. Price matches are something that are done when filling the medicine, not after the fact.
Caller: But I called [competitor] beforehand, and their price was xxx, that’s xxx less! I told them to tell you to price match! (Clearly, the spouse didn’t listen, because the words “price match” had never crossed their lips. Also, I find it very presumptuous that they said to tell me to price match without even knowing whether we do so in he first place, as opposed to saying to ask me to call the competitor for a price match.)
Me: They did not mention price matching at any point during the filling, and as I said before, I cannot retroactively price match. It isn’t even possible in my computer system.
Caller: But that’s a lot of money, and we’re regulars and fill things at your pharmacy all the time! They only picked it up like five minutes ago! (It was about 25% less. Also, I’d made the prices extremely clear at the time of drop off, providing ample opportunity for the prescription to be taken elsewhere or a price match to be asked for. And to top it off, the prescription had actually been picked up almost an hour before.)
Me: Unfortunately, there isn’t any way for me to price match something that is already picked up, it’s not physically possible in the system in the first place.
Caller: …
After about fifteen seconds of silence from the other end of the line during which I asked multiple times if the caller was still there, the line disconnected abruptly.

Recently, I got sick with a very bad cold that among other things, caused me to lose my voice for an extended period. My mother then proceeded to catch this cold, along with a pneumonia, and had to be hospitalized in the ICU with a tube down her throat. My dad has been by her side the whole time and left his phone charger at home, so I go out to get him a new one. It’s Halloween when this happens, which happens to be my mother’s favorite holiday, and I’m very aware of her condition on her favorite day of the year, so I’m not in the best of moods. I eventually find a CVS and buy a phone charger, in the process ruining the night of the cashier.

Me: (hands cashier items)

Cashier: “How are you tonight?”

Me: *Raspy and irritable* “Not great”

Cashier: “Is it because everyone else is ‘too cool for school’?”

(Note: We’re right next to a major university on Halloween, he probably thought I was having a bad night for more normal reasons.)

Me: ” No, it’s because my mother is intubated in the ICU.”

Cashier: (says something about how the ICU here is very good, but is clearly not expecting my response)

(That was a bad night for me, and as I walked out, I felt really bad about ruining that guy’s night as well. If you’re reading this, I’m sorry.)



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Mosquitoes Are Satan’s Creation

Ohio, Pharmacy, Religion, Silly, USA | Right | October 16, 2019


(A man is buying some insect repellent.)

Me: “Did you find everything okay?”

Customer: “Yeah, thankfully. Listen, I’m a good Christian and I know God wants us to love our neighbor and forgive others of their sins, but… f*** mosquitoes. Seriously.”

Me: “…” *hands him a receipt* “Have a nice day, sir.”

Customer: *suddenly smiling* “You, too!”

Mosquitoes Are Satan’s Creation

Ohio, Pharmacy, Religion, Silly, USA | Right | October 16, 2019


(A man is buying some insect repellent.)

Me: “Did you find everything okay?”

Customer: “Yeah, thankfully. Listen, I’m a good Christian and I know God wants us to love our neighbor and forgive others of their sins, but… f*** mosquitoes. Seriously.”

Me: “…” *hands him a receipt* “Have a nice day, sir.”

Customer: *suddenly smiling* “You, too!”

A vaguely semi-regular patient without insurance filled a few prescriptions, picked them up, etc. This is a rough approximation of the call I later received from the patient’s spouse, edited to maintain patient privacy.
Caller: My spouse, xxx, filled medicine xxx at your pharmacy. You do price matches, right?
Me: Sir/Ma’am, your spouse already picked up the medicine earlier in the day. Price matches are something that are done when filling the medicine, not after the fact.
Caller: But I called [competitor] beforehand, and their price was xxx, that’s xxx less! I told them to tell you to price match! (Clearly, the spouse didn’t listen, because the words “price match” had never crossed their lips. Also, I find it very presumptuous that they said to tell me to price match without even knowing whether we do so in he first place, as opposed to saying to ask me to call the competitor for a price match.)
Me: They did not mention price matching at any point during the filling, and as I said before, I cannot retroactively price match. It isn’t even possible in my computer system.
Caller: But that’s a lot of money, and we’re regulars and fill things at your pharmacy all the time! They only picked it up like five minutes ago! (It was about 25% less. Also, I’d made the prices extremely clear at the time of drop off, providing ample opportunity for the prescription to be taken elsewhere or a price match to be asked for. And to top it off, the prescription had actually been picked up almost an hour before.)
Me: Unfortunately, there isn’t any way for me to price match something that is already picked up, it’s not physically possible in the system in the first place.
Caller: …
After about fifteen seconds of silence from the other end of the line during which I asked multiple times if the caller was still there, the line disconnected abruptly.

Finally Registers The Reason Why

At The Checkout, California, Health & Body, Pharmacy, Rude & Risque, San Diego, USA | Right | October 7, 2019


(I am stocking shelves at a pharmacy. An elderly gentleman, at least in his 70s, walks up to me and looks at my nametag.)

Customer: “Mister [My Name], yes, I was wondering if you could open up a register for me?”

(I look at the cashier stands. Two are operating, and the lines are not busy at all.)

Me: “The wait shouldn’t be very long. Is there a problem?”

Customer: “I really just need you to open a register for me, please.”

Me: *very confused* “I assure you, the ladies running the registers right now are competent and will have you out the door in no time.”

Customer: “That’s just it. They are ladies…”

(He turns to me and exposes the large box of condoms he has secreted in his jacket.)

Customer: “I wouldn’t be so brazen!”

Me: “Right this way, sir.”

He Has A Very Descriptive Past

Australia, Bad Behavior, Employees, New South Wales, Pharmacy, Sydney | Working | October 14, 2019


(My dad is regaling me with stories on a drive. As we go past a chemist:)

Dad: “That was the chemist that used to provide your grandfather with the drugs that kept him alive for ten extra years. The main pharmacist sold the place to someone else and when the new people opened up the computer records they found all sorts of horrible comments attached to people’s files: ‘Ugly, old b****,’ ‘Impotent pin-d**k,’ ‘Nice tits on her,’ etc.”

(Fast forward ten years and I am handing in a prescription at a chemist on the other side of the city. The pharmacist looks at my name on the script and says:)

Pharmacist: “Oh, [My Uncommon Surname]! Did you have a grandfather that lived in [Town of the first chemist]?”

Me: “Yes, I did.”

Pharmacist: “I used to own the chemist there and saw your grandfather often. I sold that place and moved here about ten years ago.”

Me: “Oh, really, how about that…” *smiles and nods, pulls my cardigan closed, backs slowly out of the place, and makes a mental note not to go back there*