Asda pharmacy - inept and rude.

VfM4meplse

pineapple wrote: »

Today I asked for Migraleve Pink at an Asda pharmacy. The assistant (Pharmacist?) advised me that cocodamol was the the same but cheaper. No not the same. I told her that Migraleve Pink is different in that it has an anti nausea agent which is why I buy it. She scrutinised the packaging as if she didn't believe me then served me silently, with a scowl. I had the same palaver the time before, but worse. It's not so much the knowledge but the attitude.
This time - I've made a complaint.

This really isn't acceptable, you should have asked to speak with the pharmacist at the time.

MamaMoo wrote: »

I heard her mutter something about "irresponsible teenagers" and "breeding for benefits"

Outrageous! The pharmacist is responsible for all the advice that goes out over the counter and should have been within earshot on both occasions. The kind of judgement you came across is completely unprofessional and unnaceptable; apart from anything pharmacies now offer advice on all kinds of SH matters so this attitude cannot be supported. The name and registration number of the responsible pharmacist is required to be clearly displayed so it's always worth making a note of it.

Use the instore complaints procedure as already recommended.

Btw:
- it's the yellow Migraleve that's a branded version of co-codamol
- you can buy accurate pregnancy tests from the 99p shop / Poundland (they all test for the same hormone)

MamaMoo_2

I'd originally tested with Poundland tests, but didn't quite believe it, and kept thinking I was seeing things, so I bought the digital ones. No doubt with those :P

Lip_Stick

I once had bad back pain and got ushered into the little room to show him exactly where. I realised once I left that everyone thought I was a smack head.

VfM4meplse

coldcazzie wrote: »

Shame really - the Asda pharmacy near me is very good, in fact much better than the Lloyds nearby. Lloyds have to their name a string of !!!! ups including informing me that a brand of insulin is "no longer being manufactured" and that "there's supply problems with these test strips" both of which were subject to the appropriate amount of ridicule from the Asda pharmacy.

These are supply chain issues - the LLoyds pharmacist would have been acting on the information he had (there have been a number of insulin discontinuatiions). Or more likely the Asda pharmacy had a lower turnover, so just happened to have the items in stock.

whitegoods_engineer

What a miserable person the op is.

The sales assistant was trying to advise her and save her money but instead gets berated for it.

Complaining busybody!

MrsBartolozzi

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

What a miserable person the op is.

The sales assistant was trying to advise her and save her money but instead gets berated for it.

Complaining busybody!

The sales assistant may have been trying to advise her, but the advice was wrong!
Perfectly good reason to berate someone imo, for not doing their job. What if the OP was buying the pink Migraleve for someone else and didn't know about the added ingredient? The sales assistant would have sold them useless medication. Hardly moneysaving is it?

pulliptears

Support your local independent pharmacy I say!

A few months ago I needed some tablets for my dog and my vet struggled to obtain them. The tablets in question are a little strange in that they are a human arthritis medication that has the benefits of working as a copper blocker in dogs, they are called 'Distamine'. Anyway, as the vet couldn't get them from their veterinary supplier she gave me a script and I took it to the nearest pharmacy - Sainsburys.

The woman behind the counter was probably the most unhelpful, disinterested person I've ever met. She looked at the prescription and barked 'havent got it, cant get it'. I pointed out she hadn't even spoken to the pharmacist. She marched in the back and returned still insisting she couldn't obtain this very popular drug.

I nipped across the road to the independent pharmacy, pharmacist came, had a look and made some calls. They didn't have them in stock but could get them that same afternoon. I thanked him and relayed my experience to him, he smiled and informed me that Sainsburys use the same supplier. Had they have been bothered to help they could also have made a call and got the pills that afternoon.

Never given them business since.

coldcazzie

VfM4meplse wrote: »

These are supply chain issues - the LLoyds pharmacist would have been acting on the information he had (there have been a number of insulin discontinuatiions). Or more likely the Asda pharmacy had a lower turnover, so just happened to have the items in stock.

Any discontinuation in insulin would have been known about in advance by the hospital as they would have had to change all their patients on that insulin onto a different brand in advance of the discontinuation. Being that there was a distinct lack of such an appointment from the diabetic unit, you can safely assume that this was simply a poor excuse for not having it in stock. A much better response would have been "sorry, we don't have any in stock".

As for the Asda pharmacy having the items in stock due to lower turnover, this is also not the case. When I first started using them (which is when this occurred) they regularly only had 1 box of test strips in, but never once failed to order the other 3 in for a) later on in the day or b) the following day. They used the same supplier as the Lloyds pharmacy, who apparently had supply issues and couldn't get hold of them for weeks at a time, yet Asda managed to get the strips ordered and delivered the same day over the same period. A turnover problem? I think not.

Regardless, we since moved further afield and now use a local independent pharmacy, who I have to say are awesome :T:T:T

goodz

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

What a miserable person the op is.

The sales assistant was trying to advise her and save her money but instead gets berated for it.

Complaining busybody!

Well done for complaining OP. I wish had the time and energy to complain every time I get stupid and rude and unprofessional service. Probably, what, about 100 times over the years so far.

No, whitegoods, you're wrong plus you have a bad attitude, if you read the OP's explanation you'll see that she needed the anti nausea one and that the shop worker's attitude was rude, unprofessional and unacceptable, and this was not for the first time. Inferior shop workers with bad attitudes is a common problem.

You need to read posts properly before you post incorrect unpleasant nonsense such as this.

Azari

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

What a miserable person the op is.

The sales assistant was trying to advise her and save her money but instead gets berated for it.

What an ignorant dork this poster is.

whitegoods_engineer, how would you characterise your intervention here?

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

Complaining busybody!

Self knowledge is a wonderful thing.