The indefatigable JPac is one of our best tipsters, sending us off dozens of links per day. We love him, but he’s a mystery: his prose is terse, his commentary spartan.

Oh, but he has a voice, and he sent us a great little rant about Walgreen’s pharmacies. The opening line is just killer:

So I and my parents go into Walgreen’s for some prescriptions and overhear the pharmacists talking about how their customers are all B*tches, and how they wish the people would just die…

That’s certainly the sort of attitude you want to see people parcelling out medication, isn’t it? By comparison, JPac thinks the CVS employees are effusively delightful, the model of excellent service.

His email, after the jump:

So I and my parents go into Walgreen’s for some prescriptions and overhear the pharmacists talking about how their customers are all B*tches, and how they wish the people would just die… Now you can still get your medication but they would rather see you die than provide you with something I like to call customer service. When I walk up to the counter to give them my prescription slip they are more than happy to take my slip, pretend they can read the writing on the slip and say okay, it will be ready in 30 minutes or whatever. so it makes it all that much more fun when you go back 30 minutes later and find out they still haven’t found the time to fill my prescription let alone anyone else’s who is standing in line… sure it could be that they just totally suck at estimating time, or from what I have been overhearing the pharmacists in the background cursing all of humanity, they just want a break, or have way too many prescriptions to fill, or way to few pharmacists. And the story is no better with their automated phone system, even if you give them a day, they would rather ignore the phone refill system entirely than give you your prescription than actually fill them for when you need them.

Now it could just be the only problem Walgreen’s has is rude pharmacists, but its not. now if you try to find some employee in the store to help you find some items in the store.. you might as well buy a lottery ticket, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than finding an employee anywhere to help you, and you better avoid the pharmacists even if they aren’t busy they will basically just tell you to go to Hades. Usually at the Walgreen’s in my area there are only 3 employees you can see, the 2 pharmacists and the poor person massively overwhelmed at the cash register, all who would rather you go away than ask them for any sort of customer service.

However there is a completely different story when I head over to my local CVS pharmacy, I quite literally have never seen better customer service, its like an ACE hardware store, there are always employees wandering the Isles checking to see if you could use some help or even advice, something I never find in any Walgreen’s that I have ever been. The pharmacists are incredibly nice too, they will make sure you have everything you could possibly need, and won’t hesitate to help you with anything you need, even if its not prescription related. The people at the cash registers are friendly too and when they ask you if you were able to find everything you were looking for they mean it. If you tell them there was something you could not find, they will go out of their way to help you and see if that item/items are in the store or recommend places where you could find what you are looking for. I have switched all my prescriptions over to my local CVS Pharmacy, what they say about customer care in the commercials they have on TV is 100% true, they really do have superior customer service.

In conclusion I say
Walgreen’s you suck!!!
CVS Pharmacy You Rule!

Thank you.
John aka JPAC

(Thanks for listening to my little rant consumerist, I just had to get this off my chest)