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Frontier Pharmacies - Drugsforcost.com Ripoff misleading and unethical practices Internet
After reading all of the testimonials here regarding people's experiences with Frontier Pharmacies and its affiliates, as well as the almost automated responses of their employee Denise, I am compelled to add my own experience and insight here. As of this moment, I do not consider myself so much ripped off by Frontier as misled, which is legal but unethical.
A week ago, I ordered weight-loss medication through drugsforcost.com, an affiliated website to frontierpharmacies.com, and I was indeed aware at the time of the non-refundable $19.95 processing fee. However, since it was noted on the shopping cart page (under About Your Shopping Cart) that the company may need to contact the primary care physician to verify this prescription, operative word here being may, I did not think it was absolutely necessary that my physician give approval I figured that must be the case for certain high-risk medications. And frankly, I don't think my doctor would want to do any work for free, which is why I tried ordering medication online in the first place.
Since there is no other information (FAQs or otherwise) on the drugsforcost.com site to indicate what they need to fill the order, what happens after orders are placed, etc., I went to the checkout form, thinking that I would get more of an indication of what was to happen after I filled in some information, but before I finalized my order. I was directed to a single form and it was here that Frontier took over, though at this time I didn't yet notice the company name had changed after filling in everything asked of me, including what seemed like a medical questionnaire, I pushed the Review and Confirm button. Well, I was not allowed to Reviewat all! The button confirms your order without letting you go over anything! And I noticed finally on my receipt that the company I was dealing with was in fact Frontier.
At this point I was nervous and I went back to the drugsforcost.com home page indeed, at the bottom of the page, they inform you that they are not a pharmacy but an affiliated website to frontierpharmacies.com and the order process, customer support and any other user interaction will be handled by frontierpharmacies.com. So I went to Frontier's completely separate webpage and it is here, in their FAQs, that they explain they need your doctor's approval. Okay, I thought, I'm out $19.95, unless my doctor decides to say yes and not demand that I come in for yet another physical! This is why the medications are so cheap here.
Well, after reading some people's stories on this website today, I decided to check my order status, just in case, and saw something that was NOT on my receipt Order in Progress FREE membership active: Your FREE trial membership to the discount rx club has been activated. What was this?!? Sure enough, at drugsforcost.com, two lines under We may need to contact the PCP it states that This order includes your FIRST Month FREE to the discount rx club (Save 30% on Select Pharmacies)3 and the footnote to the latter says that at the end of the 30 day trial period the membership continues at $19.95 per month. It should also be noted that at Frontier's own site, they have the same latter footnote under About the Shopping Cart, even numbered 3, but it actually doesn't go to any preceding comment, so a customer would have no idea to look for the footnote and, if they found it, wouldn't know to what it was referring.
So Denise from Weston is correct Frontier does not have recurring charges. But when you order from them or through one of their affiliates, you are signed up for something you do not ask for, cannot opt out of at the time of the order, and that is not listed on the receipt. That along with the misleading language on at least one of their affiliate's sites and the lack of a review step in the ordering process suggests to me that this company is trying to fleece at least some people, albeit through legal means!
Melissa
Albuquerque, New Mexico
U.S.A.