Shoppers Drug Mart
reviews and complaints

The pharmacist and cosmetic manager were extremely rude and no help from them at all! The pharmacist was yelling at me and told me to move out of the line so she can help others. I wanted to exchange a product and basically because it was opened she could not do anything. Consumers has to try the product and if it doesn't work they are able to exchange. It's a drug store product we are not talking About a prestige item...in that situation they still offer an exchange. They are accusing me of stealing this product?...this item is 5.99 and u cannot offer an exhange ?...that's pretty sad! It's no wonder that store is no business. The management team is useless and does not know how to direct a business. Shoppers drug mart is a terrible place. It used to be better than that. How sad!

Once I was at your store and your philipino cashiers were all speaking their language and I found that very disrespectful. I was waiting in like and one of the girl casheirs had someone she knew at her till and they stood there talking forever ! Tell me that isn't disrespectful. It hasn't only happened once it's been many times, believe me. It happens every time I come by.

On 17th Nov 2014, I went to shoppers near my house on 4827 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 4T6. I had an assignment from my marketing class where I had to take a selfie with a perfume product for the class project. The manager and other staff acted like i was there to shoplift . They kept giving me suspicious looks and basically just stood there staring at me the whole time to check if I was going to steal anything. It was so insulting and humiliating even after I explained that it is for my class project. I will never go to the kingsway, burnaby location again even though it is 2 mins from my house. You need to learn how to provide customer service and train the managers and staff. I have never exprienced such nonsense before.

Seriously, get your act together.

On the evening of November 14, 2014 I called ahead to refill a simple prescription. I had requested to pick up in a half hour and they requested an hour which I agreed to. I came to pick up 1.5 hours and it was not ready. In addition to this they informed me I would have to wait another 20min. What is the point of calling ahead? The prescription was for birth control pills, which from experience working in a pharmacy takes less than a min to prepare. Very disappointed in the service. The associate did not even offer to have it rushed.

At 5;50 p.m. on October 31 I walked into the store and saw a sign displayed for a flu shot. There were only two people behind the counter, a man and a young girl. I asked the girl if I could get the flu shot and told her Icould not complete the form . Itold her I was going to take the DATSbus home at 6;30 p.m. and wanted to do it quickly. While not stating this to the girl I had a brain injury three years ago to the date which caused a massive stroke that completely disabled the right side of my body. The girl looked at the man wh said 'Anyone who does not complete the form does not get a flu shot.Iasked who is the supervisor and he said he is. Icame back a few minutes later to gey his name and he grabs his name tag and says to me Cal vin as if he is talking to a two year old. He is rude, egotistical and should have no place amongst patrons or customers. Ihave been having my prescriptions filled at that store since about 1984 well before my massive stroke and after my massive stroke. Iwill never deal at that store again.

I went to the shoppers drug mart pharmacy to have a prescription renewed, The lady pharmacist was obviously having a bad, and she was helping a lady before me. The employee was quite loud with her and when it came to my turn she was quite rude and short with her words and became annoyed with me quickly. She turned to go up to the desk, where the phone was, to call the on call Dr. She looked right at me and maliciously began to say my full name as her voice was getting louder, she followed that with what prescription I was taken and followed that with what the issue at hand was. Now forgive me if I am wrong but I do have confidentiality when it comes to this type of info. Others were within ears reach and I believe her to have jeopordized my business reputation, I do not need my clients to know my personal affairs. I wrote a letter prior to this but have not received a response. I am quite traumatised the event and now feel apprehensive about visiting the store which supplies the very medications that are very important to my continuation of employment as well as up setting my home life. I suffer from an on going long term disease that is progressive and have had this diagnosis for many years. I wanted to change a prescription but was sent home with the meds that were very hard on my stomach and consequently ended up stopping that one for a couple of weeks and also missed a Dr's appt on the 16th of this month as I was intimidated by my last visit.

I purchased the HP Laptop from shoppers Drug Mart, when I start working on it, it was super slow, its take atleast 2-3 minutes to start it and its keep on freezing, when I went to return it to the Store, Shoppers Drug Mart refused to accept it, says I have to contact the dealer and it was under 30 days refund policy. On ther receipt there was nothing mentioned that its FINAL SALE.

When I called HP Tech. support, they were also surprised that why Shoppers Drug Mart is not accepting it as its against the HP Policy too,

Please be careful when buying electronics items with Shoppers Drug Mart

I have ongoing prescriptions that are written out on a 3 month or a 6 month basis by my Doctor. I've never had a problem filling them until March of 2014. I called my refills in a few days early as my husband had planned a surprise March Break getaway for us )the first in 16 years). The pharmacy told me that there was a 30 day hold on my prescription, and it couldn't be filled 4 days early. My daughter and husband went without me and I was heartbroken.
The next time I saw my Doctor, I explained what had happened. He said that he does NOT put a 30 day hold on my medication as my elderly parents live a distance away, and I volunteer in a role that takes me away for overnight. He assured me that there was no hold from his office on my medication.
Tomorrow, I was to travel with my daughter up to my parents for a week. I called in the prescription, and was told that one of them could not be refilled as it has a 30 day hold on it. I told the pharmacy that the doctor assured me there was no such hold, as my parents and volunteer work takes me away last minute, overnight. I have to wait until the 12th to fill the prescription instead of the 9th. I'm quite sure my doctor is correct in writing the prescription, and I know that the pharmacy has spoken to him, as the March prescription was released prior to the 30 days but still not in time to vacation with my family.

Re: manager..I am sure as far as doing his job description, he is ok, but he has
no people skills, and is not capable of resolving complaints to the customer's
satisfaction.
North Hill Mall, is becoming geared to Seniors..the area has many low cost
housing units..so it is important that the Drugstore knows how to conduct
business with these people. One cashier in particular is excellent in this
manner, kind, patient, and know most of her customers by name. BUT
she is older, needs the job, and is treated with disdain by the manager!
I have shopped there for a many years, and for the most I look forward to
going there..BUT the manager is the worst I have
dealt with..I won't deal with him, unless I have to, and he is aware of it!
I also feel that the cashiers are not happy with the work environment.
Good service, nice staff, but he should be reviewed, and questions should
be asked of the staff, as soon as possible. Thank you for providing a venue
to right some wrongs, appreciate it!

RE: Previous flyer promo Optimum points

Last Monday went shopping in order to take advantage of your optimum points promo "redeem 40000 points get 90$"

Got to the cash only to be embarrassed as to the cashier telling me that the promo only applied to cosmetics. She was very courtious in telling me that she also thought that it applied to all products and was not the first one that day to have been mislead as to the advertisement. We are I think very good customers of your store and enjoy your Optimum Points program however, if the printing on the flyer had not been so minuscule I would of understood and would not have made that special trip and would have waited for my next point level to redeem and would have been to my advantage but being there with a cart full of products I therefore had no choice but to redeem 38000pts and the loss was mine. Your flayers are usually very clear about your prom's but was not the case this time and that at my cost.

Sincerely

Therese Fontaine and Louis Leblanc

*******call center rep lack of policy and ingnorant to professionalism*********
*****my facebook comment on their site******
This year I had purchased items that I dont usually purchase from sdm... Electronics... Usually go to bestbuy or futureshop... But short to experience bad return & exchange policies. When I went to a store near by during the crazy storm week, I was advised by cashier and mgr on duty that even though item isnt open and only bought few days early that I must go to original store and exchange the item. This policy is not on the receipts, this was not expressed verbally or on store signs. But more so, this policy is different on receipt and their web return policy. After incident, I called and spoke with rep kofi in call center and claimed this is store discresion. When I went to original store, the magr there claims this policy was inaccurate and I could return it at any store with receipt. I followed up with corporate spvr who apologized and affirmed that this plractice will be addressed at store and call center level. Keep in mind all calls are recorded (Nice). I followed up with call center and with bad luck got same call rep that gave me incorrect return policy with attitude. Again he claims I was wrong and directed me to corporates legal department #... Believe all this from a large canadian retailer. Guess its time to shop more at walmart, target, and best buy... All responsible and standard north american retailer return policies. Its time to make an issue of this corporate unaccountability, retail sales illegal practices and then some.

5 hours ago

******shoppers drug mart facebook reply****

Hi mario. I am sorry to hear about the trouble you were having with returning your items to the store. Could you please provide us with your contact information so that we can contact you in an effort to get his situation resolved. We will be happy to look into this further. Thank you! Ac

2 hours ago · sent from web

****my facebook response****

The help would have been the spvr following up ner apologies and emailed or called. To add to this joke of an abuse. The same rep answered today and gave be the same product return rebuttal that the spvr agreed was corporate policy. He then abused the call by claiming no spvr available... And directed me to the legal department and smuggly claimed that they will not talk to me... Even if I called... Payback is a b**** when any person is treated with disrespect and mocked when abused... There are 100s of consumer, nonforprofit, government and social sites that love and feed, hand;e and help expose on corporate abuse... So really"""what will satisfy me today... After this reps laughs today... My email address is [protected]@me.com... I will have a few drinks with my collegues with this story and some reads. You want a laugh... I had one today with a females drama with bestbuy... On ripoff.com... She ended by saying... They f_ _ cked me.. Without dinner.. When I want to get f_ _ cked at least I would like to be wined and dined first... Lmao

I have been shopping at Shopper's Drug Mart at the 16th street location of Owen Sound for 19 years and I have seen some very good employee's there making shopping at this location pleasant and I have seen terribly behaved employee's still working there during the 19 years, who have been trouble causing and treating customers badly as though the customers were inferior and dirt spending their money in the store that in turn provides the dollars to pay for the wages of the employee's.
The other day I thought I have had enough! Every time one or two particular individuals are on shift, it is a terrible experience in the store for my family.
One individual goes beyond casual talk and pleasantry into asking deeply personal questions and making inappropriate comments. Her facial expressions are more degrading to herself as an adult than it is to the customer she is trying to bully and has targeted, but this doesn't dawn on her. She involves other employee's into her web of nasty treatment of others and seems driven by the need to be the center of attention and controlling every one else around herself. She is insulting, condescending, disrespectful, loud and obnoxious with the person she targets and involves other employee's in her little ego boosting nasty games, which isn't fair to the other employee's either.
These employee's are people who know nothing about the customers being targeted. Nothing about the personal life of "this" particular customer and this customer has no knowledge of the personal life of the employee/employee's working at Shoppers. Nor about who any parties spend time with and has had no personally negative encounters or association directly or indirectly away from the Shopper store environment in any way with any of the employee's working there. It would still be the responsibility for the employee to leave their personal feelings, personal relationships, gossip and/or personal problems out of the working environment and not effect customers or other employee's in the open to the public shopping experience.
If any employee/employee's are causing a problem for any customers and responsible for creating an uncomfortable experience for the customer, and are including other employee's in this type of sport, the proper training and getting help with learning how to properly treat the customer, how to conduct oneself, how to use appropriate interpersonal skills, how to use consideration and respectful treatment toward the customer and other employee's should be priority.
Hoping For positive change in this community.

Was in shoppers drug mart for a charity penny sale and a customer said you guys should put a sign out an advertise more. The manager Dave was very rude to customer and said he thinks things are fine and it's his store and to not worry about it I am very ticked off at how a Manger of a store can talk to a customer that is just giving insight

My daughter received an eos lip balm for her birthday that she already had. It was not opened and no receipt was provided as it was a gift. We went to exchange it for a different color one and could not exchange it. I don't understand why we could not exchange it. She didn't want her money back just a different one so she could use it. The staff at this location were very rude and said no we can't exchange. My daughter was really hurt by this. The staff did nothing to make the situation better and I will not shop here again. Way to ruin your reputation in a small town.

I use a laptop and am not able to print . So as a Shoppers Drug mart customer for more years than I wish to say, am so disappointed..
in this new print a coupon for your rewards. Spent the required amount and to my surprise did not get the 10 times the bonus Went back to my lap top and saw. I made a point of purchasing the amount for the reward. NO COUPON, did not get the reward. No coupon, no rewards .. MMM Is this not becoming a save the paper soceiety, so why the do you require the coupon in a paper form. MM
Then I talk to others at work and find that they receive coupons in the mail and I do not. I get every e-mail and flyer. Why do I not get the mail out coupons that I COULD USE. Are they only mailed to a selected few in Canada. Mail is a good thing when you cannot print. Have lost out on so much I could have used and that is a disappointment to me.
A Lepine

How do you decide who to mail these to? Am laptop user with no print abilities.

I purchased an Xpress Post envelope and accidentally put original documents in and realised it before the package had been picked up and delivered. It was the labour day long weekend so my package would not be dealt with until Tuesday so I wss relieved, thinking I would have time to fix my error.
I called the store and went through the automated system to reach the post office but got voicemail, stating their hours were 11:00-7:00 pm on Stat holidays. I called back a few minutes later and got the voicemail again so I decided to go through customer service. I got an employee by the name of April with the worst customer service skills! I explained my situation and she said the post office was closed and I would have to call Canada Post and that her manager was gone home for the day. It was only 5:00 pm and they are apparently still open until midnight so how come they don't have a manager on shift?
I tried calling Canada Post and guess what, they are closed too. I finally called the Shoppers Drug Mart post office back and left them a message along with my tracking number, name and phone number but am leaving it up to chance that they will check their voicemail before my package is picked up.
April was kind enough to inform me that Canada Post is not affiliated with Shoppers and that this is not her problem. Way to make fire out of smoke April. If I ever go back to that location again I intend to speak to a manager directly and complain about the misleading post office hours on their voicemail, the lack of a manager in duty and the lack of customer service I experienced with April. Maybe my bad experience will become her problem.

I had called for a prescription refill and when a week or so went by I called the pharmacy asking why my prescription wasn't ready yet. This was a prescription for diabetes medicine that needed approval from my doctor to be renewed.
As my doctor was on vacation I presumed this was the reason for the delay. I had been in to the doctor's office that week and saw the nurse practitioner during my doctor's absence.

It turns out that the nurse practitioner, unbeknown to me had taken me off the diabetic medication . . . but she didn't tell me she was doing that. My husband was in attendance and can verify that I was not informed. The pharmacist said that he would okay the prescription under his own license (whatever that meant). Then when I was in the drug store I went to the pharmacy to see if my prescription was filled. This is when the pharmacist lit into me telling me that I was not allowed to have that medication and that on my say so he had risked his license, his career ... and so on and so on and that I shouldn't have lied to him. I was so upset. I would never knowingly do that to someone. There were a few other things that were said previously, which he lied about then got into a verbal altercation on the phone with my husband. I left the store in tears. He made me feel like a horrible person. I'm not a liar nor a conniver and I certainly wasn't dealing drugs for crying out loud ... this was a diabetic medication!

This pharmacist owner is new to the store, the previous pharmacist owner was incredible and I have written to head office telling them how awesome their pharmacy staff was . . . but as soon as this new pharmacist took over we were noticing mistakes being made in our prescriptions and we began having trouble having our medication delivered. We've dealt at this particular pharmacy for over eleven years with nothing but kudos for the pharmacy & staff ... that is until this guy became the pharmacy owner.

The situation with the nasty pharmacist affected me so intensely that I cried every time I thought of it. I wasn't able to even go into the drug store to buy merchandise because I would choke up and burst into horrendous sobbing. Even writing this ... I'm crying. That pharmacist upset me so much. I don't like being unjustly accused and this guy really accused me of so many things that it has caused me a horrible depression.

End result, we transferred our considerable prescriptions to another pharmacy and we won't buy anything at Shoppers Drug Mart. We are treated so much better by Guardian Drugs than we were by Shopper's Drug Mart. I intend to write head office to let them know that they've lost a long time customer.

I had called for a prescription refill and when a week or so went by I called the pharmacy asking why my prescription wasn't ready yet. This was a prescription for diabetes medicine that needed approval from my doctor to be renewed.
As my doctor was on vacation I presumed this was the reason for the delay. I had been in to the doctor's office that week and saw the nurse practitioner during my doctor's absence.
It turns out that the nurse practitioner, unbeknown to me had taken me off the diabetic medication . . . but she didn't tell me she was doing that. My husband was in attendance and can verify that I was not informed.
The pharmacist said that he would okay the prescription under his own license (whatever that meant). Then when I was in the drug store I went to the pharmacy to see if my prescription was filled. This is when the pharmacist lit into me telling me that I was not allowed to have that medication and that on my say so he had risked his license, his career ... and so on and so on and that I shouldn't have lied to him. I was so upset. I would never knowingly do that to someone. There were a few other things that were said previously, which he lied about then got into a verbal altercation on the phone with my husband. I left the store in tears. He made me feel like a horrible person. I'm not a liar nor a conniver and I certainly wasn't dealing drugs for crying out loud ... this was a diabetic medication!
This pharmacist owner is new to the store, the previous pharmacist owner was incredible but as soon as this new pharmacist took over we were noticing mistakes being made in our prescriptions.
The situation affected me so intensely that I cried every time I thought of it. I wasn't able to even go into the drug store. End result, we transferred our considerable prescriptions to another pharmacy. We are treated so much better by Guardian Drugs than we were by Shopper's Drug Mart.

I was at Shopper's on Tuesday June 25th, 2013 at approximately 6:00pm. I went into the store to return a pack of the Nicorette Gum. I had bought it for a friend on Monday but I was informed by them that they are not in need of it. As I went up to the cashier, I had a few other items in my hand that I wanted to purchase. So I figured that we could return the one item and then ring in the other items I wanted to purchase. I believe her name was Jennifer that was about to help me.

I went up to her register and said I would like to return this item but I don't have my receipt. I know most store policies have a no receipt policy such as a store credit. I said I will take a store credit if you like. She wasn't very helpful in resolving my issue. She said no she couldn't return this item because for all she knows I could have just walked up to the shelf and taken the product and then come to the counter to return it. I understand where she is coming from but this isn't the appropriate response. There should be some sort of store policy for no receipts. She could have explained the store policy or better yet, call a manager to come over. Also I was a bit offended because I would never ever do that deliberately, as I am a honest person. I have absolutely no use for the Nicorette gum as I am not a smoker. I was in a rush last night and she went away for about 10 minutes to see if she could find the receipt. I had to leave because she was taking too long. I left my name and phone number. She did call me back and leave me a message.

I have worked in the retail/customer service industry for over ten years. I have learnt and have been taught how to handle customers properly and I'm sorry but this situation was handled very wrongly. I worked at Sears in St. Catharines for over 2 full years and we had a no receipt policy which was a store credit (no cash). This ensured we covered our butts and that they can't use this money elsewhere (whether or not they are returning a proper item). Also if the item wasn't from our store, it wouldn't scan in the system and we wouldn't return it.. especially not if there was no product barcode or tag on the item. If we had an unhappy customer, we would quickly resolve this issue by offering a store credit.

Further more to this, I called 2 different Shopper's to find out what they say about their return policy. Every manager said "no we don't return anything without a receipt". Yet the website says otherwise? I spoke directly to Darren (Lundy's Lane) and Chris (Victoria Ave)... so needless to say.. calling head office next !