CVS
reviews and complaints

On Monday, December 27, 2021, I was in CVS Store 771

My access card wouldn't scan after several attempts DEJA the cashier asked me to enter my access card number.

I explained that I would have to find my glasses. My glasses were buried in my bag instead of her helping me by inputting the number into the machine She let my hold up the line while she stood there with her hands in her pockets.

If she would just have taken the time to input the information in for me. She chose to let me stand there holding up the line for 10 minutes or more.

Sincerely
Shervon Leonard

I visited the location at 1100 N. Military Trail Palm Beach Gardens Fl 33410 to pick up a couple of items. I was ready to check out and there were two cashiers behind the counter talking with each other. I asked the cashier if she was open. The cashier responded in a very aggressive tone telling me that I could check myself out at the self checkout. I told her that the light was not on, so there was no way of me knowing that that lane was open. I would really like to speak with someone from corporate office regarding this incidental at this location.

I requested information on the Corporate web site and I never heard a reply. My question was: I am a member of the RX rewards program where I can earn money based on the number of RX I have filled. I have all my RX converted to 90 day supply so I can limit my time required to go to the local CVS to receive my RX. I wanted to know if when I fill a RX do I receive credit for filling three thirty days RX or do I only receive one credit. If it is only one and I would convert my RX to a 30 day supply and thus receive 12 credits for each of the five RX I have filled each month.

Now you know what my complaint is will some one supply me with the requested info as we are about to start a new year and I am going to lose the points earned as I can not carry them over to the New Year.

Thank You in advance and I look forward to a response.
Fred Von Bargen
[protected]@aol.com

I have called every day for three weeks. Nobody answers the phone. Got a Bill for a vaccine for my 13 year old. They billed an insurance company that is not ours and no idea where they got this insurance company from. Now they want payment for a claim the insurance company rejected. Well of course they rejected because it's incorrect. Now I can't get a hold of them. Not to mention the bill has the wrong child's name on it. It's impossible to reach this company. Horrible. Don't know what to do.

Dear CVS,

My wife and I fill all our prescriptions at your CVS facility in Sun City.
We do our grocery shopping at Safeway which is in the same strip mall, which also has a full-service pharmacy. A pharmacy that we drive by to reach the CVS pharmacy.
I am an old fart with heart problems, my wife a cancer survivor with lingering issues, so pharmacy service is no small thing.
I also routinely purchase a boat load of CVS OTC products and Covid tests. I am what you would call a loyal, high volume, customer.
But here is my complaint: It involves 3 similarly priced items valued at approximately $5 apiece. The other day I purchased 3 items for my wife. They were purchased under a "Buy 2 get 1 free" program. They were similar but not Identical facial products, each of about $5 value. I asked and confirmed that I did not need to purchase 3 identical products but rather 3 similar products on the shelf advertising the "Buy 2 get 3" program. I purchased 3 items and paid about $10 and got 3 items of roughly $15 value, as the program "3 for the price of 2" specified. I was happy.
At home I discovered that 2 of the 3 items were not as expected or desired as they had different product characteristics.
On 12/23 I returned to the store to simply swap out the two unwanted items for two similar, and similarly priced, items that I did want. I assumed that this could be a simple 1 for 1 trade with perhaps a minor cost or refund involved.
The clerk processed the "return/exchange" and said that there would be an additional (approximately) $5 charge. I re-explained the original 3 for 2 pricing ($15 value for $10) and did not understand that because I was only exchanging 2 unwanted products for 2 similarly priced products, that it should be a wash, with little or no money changing hands. She jumped through hoops proving me wrong and I kept explaining the obvious. Finally, with Christmas shoppers stacking up in line behind me apparently affecting me more than her, I took the high road and folded, and paid the $5 to keep my wife's Christmas gift intact. I was not happy.
So, in summary:
I bought 3 products under the "3 for price of 2" ("$10 for $15 value")
I returned 2 products and picked up 2 new products all of similar ~$5 value.
I was presented a bill for ~$5. And paid that amount, under protest, to avoid a prolonged argument/scene.
The "sale" that I originally purchased under was negated by a short-sighted clerk.
I present these facts to you to let you know that at least this clerk might benefit from additional training on "how to handle an exchange under the 3 for 2 program, " or advise customers that any attempted exchange would negate the offer etc.
This is obviously not a big deal. But it certainly leaves me with a nasty taste in my mouth and a new onion of CVS.

Sincerely,

Tom Kranda

On 12/24/21 from 5 pm to 5:30 pm, I was at the CVS Pharmacy at 249-257 First Ave., NYC 10003, & two employees were not wearing face masks. When I asked them to properly wear face masks, they refused. One woman was a cashier clerk who worked directly w/ customers, and the other woman was taking care of medicine behind the counter. Each wore the masks below the chin. Several times, I asked the manager to advise the workers to wear masks. The manager was abrupt, and did not do so. This Is outrageous -- A pharmacy should mandate all employees to properly wear face masks.

Deshell Tillman, NP
Cvs north Bryant ave
Edmond ok
Would not respond - when a family of 5 tested for Covid. Deshell - had 2 family member results posted & then decided to leave & left us without results!
That cost us thousands of dollars. Missed elder parents.
Why put 2 results through & not the family?
Finish the task before you walk out!

Horrific stuff..

A brunette, Samantha at the cvs in brooksville seemed to be high and looked like putting something in her nose while in her black car. I would look into it, it gives a very bad look. Next time I am there I will try to get a picture or video being it's happened multiple times.

I went to the location on Main St in Alpharetta twice to get a COVID test. The first time, I deduced that the pharmacy employees have not seen the instruction video. I was unable to get further instruction on the test and ended up giving to them incorrectly. I returned to find that I somehow did the test incorrectly again. How is this possible and with no explanation?
So then, Kelsey Smith sent me a letter in a red envelope delivered to me by a rude UPS driver on Christmas Eve morning, informing me of what was already in my voicemail.
Finally, I spent 30 minute trying to get in contact with an agent to inform them of my experience. Upon being transferred to a higher up, the call was dropped, and I was not called back.
I immediately went to Walgreens for my next COVID test, and it was negative. CVS has time and time again disappointed me, and I don't know why I ever decided to try and trust this company again.

Masks are not required to walk around inside the store etc. . However when I went through the drive-through to pick up my medication a very rude employee named Janette, refused to serve me unless I put on a mask. So I had to go park and go inside and pick up my medication without a mask. This employee should absolutely be fired for her ignorance and for being a [censored]ted Democrat

As a frequent customer of pharmacy services, I shopped long and wide for a pharmacy highly responsive to customer needs. I've been filling my prescriptions at the CVS located inside a Target Store on Eastshore Highway in Albany, CA for at around 5 years. It was a!ways well-run, VERY infrequently out of stock on my long-term prescriptions and always were happy to help with anything special that came up. Because of this, I was willing to drive across town to patronize this pharmacy. Sadly, someone made the decision to transfer all the familiar staff, including the pharmacists, and the result has been a crash-landing of my once-reliable go-to pharmacy. Once again, second month in a row, they are out of stock on a medication I have been taking for 10 years, so needing refills is an ongoing process. Because it is a scheduled drug, I have to request a refill from my doctor every month, but it should not be a surprise that I will be in for refills every month in schedule. This is a mystery apparently, despite conversations I have had with staff. The wait time on the phone has gone from 1 minute to 5+minutes, and today I couldn't reach the pharmacy at all until late in the day - too late to address my needs. I don't blame staff, however, because the last few times I was in the store to pick up meds, they were "short-staffed", yet another new development. Again, obviously, staffing had changed so the remaining staff barely has time to breathe, while customers could just ferl free to hang around and wait. GREAT PLANNING, just as the need for extra staff to cover an uptick in Covidvid and other seasonal vaccinations was arriving.

For anyone who has spent a few decades in business, it doesn't take a genius to recognize short-sighted "reorganization", otherwise known as " cost-cutting" behind the failure to maintain quality services. To whatever desk-jockey who made their bones pinching those pennies behind the scenes, you can relay my goodbyes. Losing regular, loyal customers who are guaranteed to return every month, and who also purchases all those other OTC products while at the pharmacy is precisely what happens when the customer is no longer a priority. For me, I'll be switching to a mail order delivery service that is not dependent on a shifting availability of my regular prescriptions (in an effort to control monthly inventory expenses) and I'll purchase my OTC supplies and sundries at the non-CVS store right down the street. Sounds like a win-win for everybody at least in the long run.

So now because of the long Christmas weekend, I'll be out of my meds until at least next Monday...and no, I will not follow pharmacist recommendations to call AGAIN Monday morning, as I confirmed that the resupply does not reach the store until 11 or 12 am! Nor was there confirmation that the drugs would even be available on Monday. Frankly, my experience is that if refills are not ordered by 10 is in the morning, it's a 3-4 business day turnaround. So glad my time is so much less valuable than everyone else's! I've given this several months to shake down, and now I'm just plain furious. Goodbye, CVS...and I hope those eager executives enjoy those Christmas bonuses. And have a few minutes to be at least a little shameful.

Sincerely yours,

Danielle Donovan
3945 Huntington Street
Oakland, CA 94619

[protected]

It has been a nightmare every time I requested a refill online. They hardly kept any record of insurance pre-authorization, got address right or processed payment right. Your shipment would delay without any obvious reason unless you call.
Their system is full of bugs or hacked - last month I received like 9 statements in mail.
Their automated emails contain tracking pixels, usually used by hackers to secretly collect your personal info such as IP address and device details, and that too from a third party.
Avoid by all means.

I am FINALLY writing to complain about this constant problem at this location. This has been going on since I moved to Toms River, NJ, and started using the CVS located at 51 Bananier Drive, Toms River, NJ. Every single time I need to pick up a prescription, the drive-thru window is ALWAYS backed up to the end of the back of the building. When you finally make it up to the window, the person who was helping the person before me, is nowhere to be found, they just disappear into the store, so I'm stuck there waiting for another person to show up. It is VERY frustrating. Yesterday, I had to go to the doctor, turned out I have Bronchitis. The doctor called the prescription in because it was an anti-biotic, and I needed it in my system ASAP. When I went to pick up the prescription, the drive-thru line was all backed up, so knowing I needed to get started on my anti-biotics, I went into the store. The store was even worse! The line went from the back of the store's pharmacy, to the front doors. On top of my bronchitis, I am also disabled, so I knew I couldn't stand on that line long, so I went home, and tried calling the store to have them deliver my prescription. I could not get through, as "the mailbox was full". I even tried calling on the "Doctors/Prescribers" extension, to the same end. I was feeling terrible, and I told my husband what was going on, and he tried to call too, only he finally got through. He asked them to deliver to the house. They were supposed to deliver my prescriptions then, but I didn't get them until the next afternoon (today, 12/22)! At 12:30PM, I got a phone call from a CVS representative telling me that she was very sorry, but my prescriptions must have somehow been left to the side, and I would receive my prescriptions in about an hour. Two hours later, still no meds, so I tried to call the store to see where they were, and I couldn't get through to save my life! Finally, at 2:45 I got them. I needed to get on this script ASAP as I couldn't breathe, I was feeling terrible, and to add to my worries, my younger sister died of Bronchitis last year! I decided to write this complaint to you because this is not my first bad experience with CVS! This store is constantly backed up regarding their lines, and especially at the drive-thru. When you get to the drive-thru, it's ALWAYS backed up to the end of the building because they take endless time with each car that pulls up just retrieving their prescriptions and transacting the money paid. When you finally get there to the window, no one is there. They always just disappear from the window and don't return for at least 5 minutes pretending not to notice you, so I press the button for service to no avail. Last week I went there, and the girl at the window finally showed up. THEN before even asking me my name, she answered a phone call from some customer about their prescription, and she held her finger up to me and said, "one minute", I said alright, but that one minute turned into 15! After waiting frustrated, and on that line for almost a half an hour, she held me up for 15 minutes longer (I have this problem all the time and always meant to complain about it but never did... until now!) while chatting and laughing away with this customer. I was furious and I told her I was mad when she finally did return to me. Why would they have the person at the window answer the phones as well? That in addition to what occurred today, and I am fed up! IT IS RIDICULOUS! I am fed up with your lack of customer service, and will look for a new pharmacy. Even when you go in there for a simple flu shot, they keep you sitting and waiting for an hour at least! In my old home town of Pearl River, NY, I hear they even shut down the drive-thru window at the CVS for lack of employees! A big corporation like CVS is going to go under because they're too cheap to pay people a decent salary and benefits! This is not just what is happening now due to covid. Bad customer service, will make your company go belly up, as it's been going on for long before covid came along! If you need to hire more people (and you do), maybe you should consider giving employees full-time options so they can get benefits, and you can get happy employees AND customers for once!

I have been on hold with the Waterloo Road store in Columbia Maryland now for 31 minutes. This is my second attempt this afternoon to call. Disgraceful! I want to know what their hours are on 12/24 and 12/25 but there is no message that addresses the holiday hours. It is impossible to speak to anyone at the store or the pharmacy. Just now, after a 32 minute hold, they disconnected me AGAIN! The first time they disconnected me after 22 minutes. Shame on you all! I asked for store hours, got transferred and then disconnected. Asked to speak to a member of pharmacy staff, was disconnected twice. God forbid someone in my household wasn't having a reaction of some kind to a medication. Is this what you call customer service?

To begin, I have been a loyal customer here for over 20 years and have enjoyed the past 3 pharmacists through those years as well as the staff. Recently the pharmacist retired (quit) after being there for many years. What we have gotten as a replacement leaves so much to be desired. I went there this past Thursday and turned in a new prescription, because the dosage changed. Spent an inordinate amount of time explaining the prescription because its on auto refill and the auto refill needed to be updated to reflect the new dosage. At the same time I asked to have another prescription refilled. I refreshed her memory that the new updated dosage prescription still required the syringes and needles to take the prescription.

I returned on Saturday to be told that the one refill, the old prescription was ready and that they could not fill the new one, because it was too close together. I explained that I purposely went in to the pharmacy to explain the dosage change and NOT to fill the old dosage. Then of course there were no syringes or needles. I guess she thought I could shove the glass vials like a suppository. Next the other prescription was not filled because it now required a doctor's renewal, when on Thursday there was one renewal left?

Today I called on three different occasions and never once did anyone answer the phone. I listened to the music for 40+ minutes each time. The last time I stayed on the phone and went into the pharmacy and to my amazement there was 2 people behind the counter and no one in line and my call was still on hold. I stood there listening to the phone system saying Pharmacy Call. I asked the pharmacist why she couldn't pick up the phone and was just ignored. No one even would come to the counter. The two of them just stood there and stared at their feet.

I went to the front of the store to see the store manager only to be told She had left for the day. It was just 4:00PM.

Things have gotten so very bad here and no one seems to care. The good people that have been here for years quit because there is no teamwork or real management. Sad... I wish I could say someplace else is better, but Florida people have no ethic and Boca People are worse.

US law requires that any retailer who requests a driver license as identification and who retains information from that license must have a written policy for consumer review. CVS has no such policy available and goes a step further in scanning the magnetic, law enforcement only, strip on the rear of a NH license.
NH State law makes it illegal to scan or copy NH driver license information without probable cause, i.e. law enforcement purpose and then only by a law enforcement agency. CVS routinely scans and copies personal information from a driver license in violation of NH law, RSA 260, and then uses that information for unknown and unidentified purposes.

i was just on hold for 45 minutes at the pharmacy at cvs on lincoln ave haverhill mass. always long wait at drive thru window also and when you finally get there they say its not ready even though the recording says it is . continuance long waits at pharmacy for every thing and some workers very rude when you say that you have been waiting a long time for your prescription. this is my second time writing and i am getting ready to move scrips and my entire family to walgreens . this is extremely stressful and unacceptable thank you steven ring

I'm petitioning HBO's John Oliver to do a segment on PBMs, antitrust law violations on the part of chain pharmacy corporations, dismal working conditions in chain pharmacies, corporate chain pharmacy employees staffing state pharmacy boards, and so on. The petition has garnered 7800+ signatures in 6 days as of my writing this.

https://www.change.org/p/a-plea-for-john-oliver-to-do-an-expose-on-working-conditions-in-retail-pharmacy

I'm doing the petition completely anonymously so as to not be at the center of a PR storm. I think the only thing that will instigate pharmacy reform is extreme media pressure.

Thank you for reading and for your consideration,
Emily C Prichard