The Reality of Customer Service

I've been putting up with terrible pharmacy service for years.

My sister-in-law owns an independent pharmacy. She kept telling me to switch. But I always had excuses: [Big Brand Pharmacy] is open 24/7. They've got an app. There's a drive-through. Changing seemed like more hassle than it was worth.

Then things got worse. They shut down the 24-hour location. When I'd call, I'd get rushed staff who couldn't help. "The app says my prescription is ready." "Don't know what to tell you. It's not. Call your doctor."

A robotic voice would call me over and over if I didn't answer. I'd wait through voice recognition just to hear "your prescription is ready for pickup."

I drove to [Big Brand Pharmacy] multiple times just to talk to an actual person about why they hadn't filled my prescription in three days. I even wrote my congressman about it.

But I still didn't switch.

This week I went in because their app wasn't working. The pharmacy tech wouldn't look at me. He kept working on something else. "Don't know what to tell you. The app's broke."

No offer to help. No call to my doctor. Not even an apology. Just a cold response, like I wasn't even there.

So I finally took my sister's advice. Three minutes on Google: "independent pharmacy near me."

I called. No answer. But within 15 minutes, the pharmacist called me back. In one conversation, she transferred all my prescriptions and filled meds that [Big Brand Pharmacy] said would take a week.

My new pharmacy isn't open 24/7. They don't have an app or a drive-through. But when my prescription was ready, a human called me and explained what I needed to know. They were patient. They answered my questions. They made me feel like a person.

And they're actually more efficient for me than [Big Brand Pharmacy] ever was. Because I felt my concerns were taken seriously and I was helped immediately.

I talk to commercial property owners and managers about insurance every day. I hear "I have a guy" or "I don't need help" constantly.

I get it now. I really do.

I wouldn't switch pharmacies even after years of bad treatment. We all tolerate way more than we should before we'll change. We're lazy. We convince ourselves the devil we know is better than making a call.

But we should all demand better. And we should all provide better.

My guiding principle is simple: help people first.

Because I've been on the other side. I know what it feels like when someone treats you like you don't matter. And I know how it feels when someone actually cares.