CVS
reviews and complaints

cvs is selling prescription drugs they buy in foreign countries. I use zovirax. It came from India. The tube is so bad, I can't squeeze the product out. I should be on Crestor but I had a reaction from 10mg. In the past I've taken 40mg. with no side effects. This 10mg. product came from Belgium. These are 2 examples. I can give you 10. I was told it is illegal for drugstores to buy from foreign countries. I'm going to contact the FDA and everyone else I need to stop this from continuing. Safeway does this with drugs also. What is going on?

I've been working at CVS for a little over a year now. I was fully trained in photo, I'm a cashier, and I've gone through two store managers. My last store manager literally did not listen to me at all. I'm a full time student who went to school 4 days a week. He'd schedule me on when I was in class, making me leave class early or skip class just to be at work on time. I sat with him numerous amounts of time to tell him and he said he was sorry and fix it and never did. I would have to talk to my professors and go in on my own time to make up tests and work that i missed from leaving early or not showing up at all.

My new store manager is very odd. She never talks to her employees, she doesn't help out, she leaves early most days and leaves everything up to the shifts to do. The shift manager makes the schedules and helps out more than the manager does. I never call out, I'm never late. One day I really was not feeling good. I was shaking. I was in so much pain and I asked my manager if i could find someone to come in to cover half of my shift would it be okay. she looked at me and said "well i dont know who you can find." and threw a post it note with a new coworkers number at me. I never got to leave early that day and when I was off i went to the hospital.

Currently I'm going to school 2 days a week. I go to school from 7:45am (have multiple breaks throughout the day) but my last class doesn't end until 8:45pm. (i'm a nursing major...) I've asked them multiple times if the day after I have class if i could work a mid and not 7-3 because i am exhausted. I also suffer from insomnia, and have spoken to them about this. I'm lucky if i get 2-3 hours of sleep a night! I am constantly put down for 7-3 shifts.

My mangers also only put the girl workers to open and to ring. The boys who work at my job get favoritisim and never have to open or ring. I've talked to one about it and his answer was "i've been working here for a year, i've done my time ringing. i don't have to anymore." my shift also has said "the only person who doesn't have to ring today is ..." Are you kidding me? I'm lucky that I can get away from the register for 2 minutes. I'm usually chained up there for 8 hours. The least they can do is split it up, it isn't fair to someone to be ringing for 8 hours straight. After a while I can't even see straight!

The shift will schedule you and leave you alone for 6+ hours until a backup is scheduled on. I was on from 9-5. I was ringing the ENTIRE shift. I asked my manager if I could take my break and she looked at me and shrugged and said " I guess if you really want one." I was almost denied a break from her. After I got back from my break, my coworker was in, shouldnt he have been the main cashier? Nope. So I continue to ring and its now 5pm. I'm ready to leave... she comes up to me and says "the girl I scheduled on for 5 isn't coming until 6 i messed up the schedule, can you stay?" and smiles hugely at me. I was EXHAUSTED, denied a break (i took it still, but unless i said something i wasn't going to get one), and had been ringing since 9am.

Should I call ethics or HR? this favoritism crap is getting old.

CVS pharmacy at the Longview location has really stepped up their service in the past few months all employees are very polite and helpful. When I realized I was over charged I went to the front register, this was my big mistake!The manager Mandie Parker at the front of the store is a young female who is very very rude she was standing on a top display decorating for Christmas yelling down at me that I was wrong about pricing on Dr.Pepper..I told her it is tagged at 88 cents, she said No you are wrong over and over, she finally got down and walked over to the Sale Tag and said OH SOMEONE MUST HAVE MOVED THE TAG... Then she said that's just too bad and she would not honor the price, she said I could return it if I didn't want it, . Mind you we are on talking a total of $2 I had 2 bottles. After I said OK and asked for her name she said OK I will honor it this time since its only a few cents. No apologies and still very rude! I will NEVER step front back in this store! I will transfer all my scripts next week.. I will not put up with this kind of disrespect. As a former retail store manager myself, no matter what the complaint you still need to keep it professional!

I had a doctor send a prescription for Prednesone to CVS Caremark Pharmacy. The pharmacy checked my insurance administrator (CVS Caremark) and rejected the insurance billing. I was provided a rejection notice that stated 70-Product/Service Not Covered- physician -diagnosis required. Now mind you this was sent from a doctor with an EMR system (I know the code was in their system). But, CVS just rejected the insurance payment and didn't really explain why. I needed the medication and paid the out of pocket (a peasly amount). Perhaps that rejectiion code is a tipoff that it may be a drug covered by Medicare B. But as a consumer, how do I know. And, I was told that if it was covered by Medicare B, it would be handled by my signing an additional form. After two days of working with CVS Caremark Plan Administrators handling AT&T retirees, I'm still not clear why the insurance failed (company or Medicare). I know my doctor's system had the Medicare number. I know my doctor's system had the diagnosis code in it. Why wouldn't a company able to process a Medicare B prescription not have a fully functional EMR prescription interface? It makes me believe they have backroom problems with their systems (opinion). I'm still waiting for an answer. One today was maybe the pharmacist should have caught it. Maybe...but if we are all going to electronic records and drug ordering, should they have to when their focus should be on the correct prescription and not billing? I have no faith in the CVS Caremark backroom billing processes or their Administrative efforts. Why? Their processes are utter failures as discussed here. Unfortunately, as a consumer I'm locked into them as they are the plan administrators for AT&T (no real choice). Any company that goes with these guys, in my opinion, ought to have their corporate heads examined. Their processes aren't customer focused now. Just think when full EMR electronic processess gets really going! Even their website when you ask for a price of Prednisone, it comes back with physician diagnosis required. Unfortunately, there is no place to enter it on the site even if you do notice it. How does that help the consumer/your employees?

I asked at the CVS Pharmacy "Where do I get a flu shot. A clerk who was doing nothing told me I had to get in a line of four to fill out an application. I did and it took twenty minutes just to get to the clerk..(So much for minute clinic) After I told the one clerk waiting on customers that I wanted a flu shot, she took my medicare card and then told me they ran out of flu shots. Why didn't the first clerk tell me instead of making me wait twenty minutes? It seems like the advertised "Come in any time" has turned into "Come in many times".

I have read other post in reference to wrong medication given to patients from CVS, etc, etc. The people who bash them should keep their mouths SHUT! Until the situation happens to you and you know the whole story. I have had several situations with CVS with medication. #1 this is a pharmacy with so called license technicians and pharmacist, there should be NO error when dealing with medication for people.
I have received the wrong medication as well, I did bring it to the pharmacist, (Sampson) attention and I was told “It is a different manufacture” I knew I was feeling far different from usual, I again inquired about the medication, again I was told maybe the medication was changed by my physician, I then ask to see the prescription that was called in from the physician, and it could not be found. Hmmm amazing how did you fill the medication then? I went directly to my physician and after research I was given a total different medication, when the physician called the pharmacy the truth came out that they were out of the medication that was ordered for me so the tech filled it with a “similar” medication. AGAINST THE LAW! A tech should not be putting labels on medication with out a pharmacist verifying the medication and in this situation the tech in fact filled, labeled, packaged the medication and handed it to the clerk. No pharmacist ever verified the medication.
Most recent situation; I had enough of the mishaps and potential life threatening mistakes of this pharmacy from my self an MANY other patient, I transferred my medication to another pharmacy, I knew how many refills were to be on my medication and the pharmacy did not transferred the refills, and no it was not a controlled medication it was stomach medication. The pharmacy instead filled the medication. I NEVER gave them authorization to fill the medication. How do I know it has happened to other people besides me, I am a nurse and have had patients bring their medication to the physician complaining it is not working or many other complaints which the pharmacy wants to blame on the physician’s office but the insurance verifies different.
So CVS pharmacy or the state needs to step in and rectify the situation.
Use this and any other CVS pharmacy with strict caution, your life is a gamble and joke with all the technicians at this location.

Dear CVS:

I got a flu shot from CVS Pharmacy this Thursday around 6:30 pm. The Pharmacist who administrated the vaccine used a small alcohol pad. He took the wipe and made 1 narrow small swipe with the alcohol pad used on my left deltoid. Then he removed both of his hands (for a minute) away from my shoulder and then he gave me the vaccine in my shoulder.

I don't see how he was able to find the spot where he swiped my shoulder with the alcohol pad before he injected the vaccine. I know that the staph bacteria on the skin should not get into the skin. One reason alcohol pads are used is to prevent bateria from getting into the skin that could cause blood poisoning or inflammation of the heart lining before a injection. The pharmacist told me he could see where the wet swipe mark was so he could inject the vaccine. I don't think he injected me where he swiped the alcohol pad. Is this proper protocol to inject a vaccine? Please get to the bottom of this matter.

Sincerely
Roxanne Hatchett
[protected]@gmail.com

I am attaching a lawsuit which I filed a while ago. This will give you the explanation that I believe is the reason for the pharmacist act.

CVS Pharmacy Location (Main/Levita)

480 S. Main

Orange, California

Made complaint to NJ State Board of Pharmacy and no response. Had script copies, #'s, & dates. Like all the complaints listed...switched medication, wrong medicine in bottle, should have read take at 4 pm but label read take 4 times a day, Dr. said pharmacy called and said I requested my medication be switched and I never made such request and I would ask my Dr before I would ask a pharmacist to switch my medication! CVS Caremark is my insurance company and I can only go to CVS pharmacies; can't bring business elsewhere, this should be illegal! CVS and CVS Caremark are the same company and you get the same customer service. Try complaining to your State Board of Pharmacy and good luck.

I just wanted to know can a person fill a prescription if they want to travel can they get early fill if pay out of pocket

I have dealt with Silverscript for the past 2 years, before that I dealt with CVS caremark which is the same company just one is for medicare patients and the other is working patients. I have medication that is a controlled substance and need to have an approval each year for this medication. I also have to send prescriptions in every 3 months for this medication due to that fact that it is a controlled substance. I have been on this medication for the past 15 years.

I received a letter from Silverscipt CVS that I have an approval for this medication and it is good until the year 2022. I receive this letter every year and every year I have to go through this process. Well this medication that I take is taken in 2 pills 3 times a day. I sent the prescriptions in and 2 weeks later I get a letter in the mail that they couldn’t get a hold of my doctor for the approval of this medication. The same day that I receive this letter from them I also receive a letter telling me that this medication is approved until the year 2022. They can’t fill my prescription until they get a approval from doctor, they say that they contacted doctor and they didn’t return their phone call. I call them tell them I have this letter and where is my medication. I receive the 1 pill but not the other. I call they tell me they need and approval for this medication.

I tell them that they have an approval for the other one, they tell me that they need an additional approval for the other pill. These pills are dispensed in 10mg and 20mg. So I call the doctor they tell me they will call CVS. I wait 1 week and still no medicine, I call they tell me that since I didn’t have the approval when they tried to fill prescription they cancelled the prescription. I call the doctor and ask them to send a new prescription. I wait and other week and no medication. I call they tell me that doctor didn’t call. I ask for a supervisor and complaint to them about this and about the refill.So they go to some committee and they decide to reopen the cancelled prescription and fill it.

I call my doctor about the phone calls. They told me that they called back each time that they called, maybe not the same day but the following day. This whole thing took over 6 weeks to get the one 20mg pills from them. So in the meantime I had been using my 10mg pills to complete my daily requirements and now will run out of these before I can refill them. I filed a complaint with them and they call a couple of time and we weren’t home. They want me to make a long distance phone call and in return for their phone call.

I refuse to make a long distance phone call that could cost me a lot of money because I have no idea how long I will be on the phone. I now receive a letter telling me that my complaint is closed because they tried to contact me and I didn’t return their calls.

The letter list the wrong medication that I had all the problem with. I am so done with CVS after being with them for more than years.

Change in top for CVS styling gel - the previous top allowed the product to be stored on its top (upside down) allowing the product to be used without turning the "bottle"
upside down (old top allowed upside down storage to keep air from the gel.

The new top has a rounded top which will not sit upside down.

I was appalled by my recent service experience at CVS. I went there to fill a prescription for my daughter for a common acne antibiotic called minocycline and was charged $211! A few weeks before, I had filled a prescription for the same medicine for my son at a higher strength and had been charged only $21. Rather than telling me that if I got the prescription altered to a slightly higher or lower strength the price would be 90% less (because they had contracted reduced rates with my insurance company for those strengths), the pharmacist told me it had something to do with the deductible on my insurance. When I went back to complain, the lead manager in the pharmacy said she would talk to her supervisor and get back to me and of course she has not. I don't know how a company like CVS can charge consumers usurious rates for common generic drugs. It is outrageous!

This CVS store has only been here in Yazoo City, Ms. a few months. They bought out Essco Pharmacy and prescriptions were transferred to CVS. Most of the time it is impossible to get a prescription filled or refilled. My husband went today 8/23/2012
to get a prescription refilled and was told it could not be filled until the next day. A lady friend was told it would be a complete 24 hours before she could get hers' filled, She left and said she would not go back. The employees are walking around in the store eating food and drinking milkshakes and sodas in the evenings .You would think they are having a party instead of working. There is so much laughing and cutting up in the pharmacy it is awful. They are losing customers everyday. I really hope something can be done to correct this. Thank You

I filled my prescription early Friday morning. By the time I went to pick it up in the evening the pharmacist told me it was on back order and that I either needed to wait until Monday when it comes in or call my doctor until I get a new prescription. It was Friday and no doctor I see is in on Saturday. This was a medication I takee daily and is dangerous yo just stop abruptly. I am LIVID and plan on takeing this complaint further! Why couldn't one of the many people working in the pharmacy take a minute to inform a customer of such an important fact about their medicine...giving ample time to do something about it!

the pharmist was very rude, told me on phone, he gave my meds to someone else, cause, i wasn't there to get them, when in fact, I told a lady I had talked to Iady and told her I would get them at end of month, he argued with my boy friend, puting him on hold and not returning to phone, all my meds accept the tricor were ready for pickup, wen I transfered them, cause of how he was beaing, i found I had to wait for my synthroid cause he told them he didnt have it there, when in fact he told me it was there, I'm so sick of beaing lied to Im never doing business there again.

Customer Relations:
I am a regular customer at your pharmacy in Sunnyvale, CA. On 6/21/12, around 8pm, I contacted your pharmacy in Prunedale (Salinas), CA. I spoke with a pharmicist named David Duke, in regards to prescriptions to be filled for my mother as as a result of recent heart attack. I had requested that numerous prescriptions be refilled on behalf of my mother and that all expeneses would be paid on my behalf.
There must have been some misinterpretation on the pharmicists part that possibly the prescription wouldn’t be paid for - I’m not quite sure – but I was extremely astonished that the response from the pharmicist was “I don’t care what her condition is, she needs to pay her prescription fees up front!” Completely unacceptable!
I find it insensitive that the pharmicist didn’t care that my mother might actually be dying over the next couple of weeks; it seemed he was over-reacting as if I wasn’t going to pay for the pharmacy costs (although I believe this would likely be illegal on CVS’s behalf either way) . I encourage you to please check my credit record with CVS and my nearly perfect credit history – perhaps this is a problem in the Salinas area – I don’t know. In any event, I find that placing credit concerns over human lives is unacceptable – I don’t know what you teach your pharmicist’s in training but I persononally feel this is unethical and feel that others need to be informed.
I currently provide CVS with well over $200/month in co-pays alone (well over $1k/mo in actual RX costs) over at least the last 4 years (check your records). I would like to request that the pharmicist make an honest attempt to apologize to my mother, in my presence. Furthermore, I would recommend that he be asked to resign. After years of faithful service, I would hate to think that CVS is more interested in saving money than saving human lives.
This is a life and death situation (on my mother’s behalf). I ask that you please take this into consideration. This is something I will never forget.

Sincerely,
Tim Robbins

I informed pharmacy that I have a gluten allergy. When I requested that they check my prescription to make sure it did not contain the allergen. The pharmacist took two minutes to make a call to the manufacturer of the pills and then handed me the insert and told me to call myself. I called and there was no answer. Isn't this the pharmacists job? I am upset and angered by this lack of quality in care.

Two times in two weeks I have been negligently victimized by unthoughtful if not unethical business practices at this CVS. First with a 102 fever and a severe infection, I asked them on Friday afternoon to please call my doctor for a prescription (I gave them the phone number). On Saturday morning when I arrived... no prescription... no record of anything. The Saturday people simply blamed it on the Friday people and said they had no control and couldn't do anything. I couldn't start my medications because of this until Monday afternoon, by which time I was even more seriously ill. On Monday they said they had "faxed" a prescription request. Why they would fax when instructed to call, and secondly to a number that was obviously not a fax, and not check to see whether it went through or not seems unbelievably unprofessional if not stupid (obviously my doctor's office told me they never received a fax or even the sound of a fax coming in on their voice line).

A week later after that fiasco, my doctor (now treating me for a severe sinus infection which they feared might be moving to my brain) wanted me immediately on large dose antibiotics in order to hopefully avoid possible surgery. This time my doctor called into the same Pharmacy on Friday afternoon around 1:30pm. I couldn't arrange to pick up my medications until Saturday around 1:30pm. They hadn't filled the prescription (at least this time they knew it existed). She said they had probably just been too busy to fill it (this is 24 hours later mind you) and again blamed the Friday staff. She said the prescription would be ready in 20 minutes. I asked her if this was unusual for a prescription to take 24 hours to fill. She replied (with some attitude) that if no one said it was an emergency, yes, and she could either fill the prescription or argue with me about it. I went home and got a phone call about 20 minutes later (the first time they had called me, mind you) saying they were out of that antibiotic but they could send me to another store to fill it.

Okay, if anyone can't see how many kinds of wrong this all is I must be crazy. But if I am and there's a prescription to fix it, I'm certainly not filling it at CVS. I'm done with these thoughtless and unprofessional people who obviously are in some business other than health care.