Sam's Club, Sam's Club pharmacy Snookered into a useless membership Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I have been on a very expensive medicine for a couple years now and I have looked everywhere for a pharmacy that had decent prices for this medicine. I contacted Sam's Club because I was told by my doctor's office that a lot of their patients go there because it was $100 cheaper. I thought that that would help me immensly so I asked them if they carried them, and what the prices were. The pharmacist told me that they did carry them and that the price was $122 cheaper so I decided to apply for the membership.
It has been 3 months and I have still not got to use my discount card for my medicine. I have taken the precription there 3 different times and was told that they were out of stock, and that they sold out of them daily. I asked the pharmacist if I could order them because I get my prescription monthly and I was told no, that I could leave my prescription there for 2-3 days and when they came in I could get them then, problem is I live hours away and if I do not take it daily I will get extremely sick.
I feel like the woman lied to me to get me to buy the membership and that I am getting treated poorly becuase of the medicine that I am on. It is for opiod addiction, and although the ones that got addicted to pain meds do get a bad rap, I am not a bad person and I am getting help. Don't get me wrong, the card is great if you can use gallon jars of mayonaise or economy bags of chips but the real reason that I purchased the $100 membership was to use the pharmacy.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Batman
Massachusetts,United States of America
Get a refund
#3Consumer Suggestion
Tue, March 05, 2013
From the Sam's Club website...
"If at any time you are dissatisfied with your Membership, we'll refund your Membership fee in full."
If you haven't really used it, then you go to the service desk, turn in your card, and get a refund. I actually called my local Sam's Club and asked about this myself just to see how easy it would be. They said they'd like to have an opportunity to solve my problem, but if they can't or if I'm adamant about leaving for some reason, they'd be happy to issue me a refund and to stop in anytime and go to the service desk.
Given this, it doesn't seem like you've been ripped-off...
Though I can't speak much as to the issues regarding the availability of your particular prescription, I do know certain "controlled" substances require the pharmacies to follow very strict rules and guidelines and locations are limited in the amounts they're allowed to have in stock to dispense in order to prevent fraud. In other words, if they sold out, there's really nothing they can do until they have an authorized script on hand that allows them to order more. That can take a couple days and is perfectly normal.
Honestly, it sounds like they are willing to try and help, they just need your cooperation and a little time. That's not a rip-off by any stretch. If you don't want to work with them for some reason, then that's your choice, and they're more than willing to give you your money back. Frankly, it sounds like Sam's is doing all the right things here and you just want to complain.
How about you log off the computer, shoot over there this week, and just take care of it like a big boy? Either work out a way to get your script to the pharmacy so they can fill it for you and you can save some cash (whether that means making 2 trips and waiting, having your doctor send them the refill info directly, or whatever) or simply talk to the service folks and get your refund.
Ken
Colorado,USA
Tina, I don't think Sams or the Pharmacy are at fault...
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, March 04, 2013
I suspect your prescription is one on the FDA's limited list. Pharmacies only get a fixed amount each month and there's nothing they can do when they sell out.
I also don't know why your membership was $100, they have memberships available for much less.
They save us enough throughout the store to pay for our membership which IS the Business membership at $100/month.
Ask the pharmacist about the reason(s) they are often out of stock.