Complaint Review: Walgreens - Paducah Kentucky

Prescription medication, particularly controlled substances, must be verified in the presence of the pharmacist before leaving the counter. How in the world can you prove that you were truly "shorted" and didn't just pocket 30 methadone pills between the time you left the pharmacy and the time you returned? That's right, you can't. If it were really that big a deal to you, and if it had truly happened before, you would have counted the pills before leaving the pharmacy.

Prescription medication, particularly controlled substances, must be verified in the presence of the pharmacist before leaving the counter. How in the world can you prove that you were truly "shorted" and didn't just pocket 30 methadone pills between the time you left the pharmacy and the time you returned? That's right, you can't. If it were really that big a deal to you, and if it had truly happened before, you would have counted the pills before leaving the pharmacy.

Prescription medication, particularly controlled substances, must be verified in the presence of the pharmacist before leaving the counter. How in the world can you prove that you were truly "shorted" and didn't just pocket 30 methadone pills between the time you left the pharmacy and the time you returned? That's right, you can't. If it were really that big a deal to you, and if it had truly happened before, you would have counted the pills before leaving the pharmacy.

Did you call your insurance company? You need to.....or when / if the doc calls in a new script you'll have trouble filling it because the insurance company has a script that shows a refill every so many days on 90 pills. Calling in a new script could set you off on a review for drug seeking for trying to fill a script too early. I cant see Walgreens being off by that many pills in ONE script. It would be tooooooo evident what was happening. Usually the thief wont want to highlight whats happening by swiping that many from one person. They aim for a few here and there instead

Others have commented that because methadone is a schedule 2 controlled substance it requires and receives VERY specific storage and handling in the pharmacy. It does not leave the store in the wrong quantity often or easily. It is counted several times by multiple people for the purpose of ensuring accuracy. A log book, called a 'perpetual inventory' is kept of all CII meds to ensure accurate dispensing. Mistakes can happen, pharmacists are human after all, but these mistakes are discovered when the 'on-hands' do not match the perpetual inventory. Methadone is used for pain, but it is also used for detox by people suffering from heroin addiction. This makes it a hot commodity with a high street value. My first suggestion to anyone not convinced that their pharmacy is dispensing the correct number of pills is this: Ask the pharmacist or technician to double count your meds in front of you. The pharmacy (any pharmacy, not just Walgreens) should have a consultation window that offers privacy from other customers. If there is a shortage (or overage - funny how people never report being given too many pills, though the law of averages dictates that it happens just as often) it is best discovered before you leave the store with the meds. Anyone who calls back later to say they were shorted is immediately suspected of 'drug seeking'. When you make your request, be prepared for very busy pharmacy staff to sigh at the inconvenience, but you can remind them that it is better to find a miscount now versus later. My other suggestion is that if you want to be taken seriously, check your spelling and grammar before you post your complaint. Otherwise you come off sounding like a backwoods meth addict upset that you did not get away with scamming the pharmacy for pills you are not entitled to.

If you believe a pharmacy shorted you on your medication, intentional or not, & it's a Schedule 2 drug & you report it to the police -- THE POLICE ARE REQUIRED TO WRITE A REPORT ON THIS! It is a FELONY to steal, take (if it wasn't prescribed to you), or sell (like on the streets, etc) a Schedule 2 drug! And Methadone is a Schedule 2 drug. The police officer is refusing to report a possible felony! It's like if a car was stolen from a car dealership & the police said they won't write a report for it because there's no way they can prove who stole it. Ridiculous right?!? Even if there's no way the police can prove your case, it still needs to be reported. This way, if other customers of this Walgreens report to the police that they were shorted on their medications, then there will be multiple filed reports of this happening & THEN the police will take a closer look at the Walgreens employees & possibly find the culprit. NEVER let a police officer go without making a report on issues like this! It's their job & RESPONSIBILITY!

I work for Walgreen's in the Pharmacy Dept. and wanted to give you alittle insight on how I've seen CII's filled. I am not sure how these Class II's are stored in your state, but in mine, they are kept in a LOCKED cabinet. When a CII is filled the Pharmacist (the only ones with keys to the cabinet) get out a log book. The log book show how many pills should be in the cabinet. They then count out the pills for your script (that's the FIRST count), they then recount the pills (that's the SECOND count of the pills) the THIRD count come when the verify how many pills are remaining in the cabinet. For example if they start out with 300 pills and fill a script for 60 pills than there is only 240 pills left. The Pharmacist can look in the log book and the computer files to confirm when and how many pills are in the cabinet at any given time. I can only speak from my own experience & I can attest that at my location the CII's are tightly controlled and would NEVER be counted out by a machine.

Did anyone stop to think that maybe they changed the dosage amount? I understand that there are a lot of issues with people's prescriptions at Walgreen's, but personally I have never shopped there, so I won't be able to address that at all. However, I have heard of places getting different mg pills, in which case you would get a different count. For example, if you normally get 100 pills at 100mg each, and then the company decides to make a 200mg version, you would now only get 50 pills. This happened to me several years ago with a pill that I ended up having to cut in half every time I took it. Again, I've never shopped at Walgreen's, and I don't have any prescriptions. I just noticed that no one mentioned this, and depending on how close you looked at the package, it is a possibility.

When I go to any Walgreens the staff is overwhelmed with filling prescriptions. And yet this particular Walgreens has the time for three -- count 'em! three! -- different employees to count the very same prescription. And they counted it with the machine, too! Does anyone really believe that three different employees counted out these pills? You know, the methadone? The pills with a street value? The ones that are so tightly controlled in the store that you can't steal them but easily pocketed instead of going into a pill container? I guess the lesson here is that if you have a prescription for a controlled substance to count the pills before you leave the store.

My drug bill is $2200 monthly, 2 of my meds are class II. Earlier this year I picked up a number of refills and noticed one bottle didn't look correct. I counded the pills. Should have been 90, counted 60. Contacted Walreens pharmacist. Luckily he told me to just come in and they would give the the remainder. This was one of my cheaper meds. I asled him what if this happened on one of my narcotics? They now have "Double Count" on each of my meds, but I also count the narcotics before I ever leave. So far no problem.

Based on all the typing errors, I would say you are plenty high on methadone right now!!! All kidding aside, the machines that walgreens uses are terrible, and the pharmacies are understaffed....no matter what the company tells you. I used to work for walgreens, but the way they understaff the pharmacies is almost criminal, and I had to leave. I think they have better staffing at McDonald's, and they can't kill anyone. So at times things may get miscounted. That being said, I find it ridiculous that you automatically assume they are selling methadone. Of course they probably got the idea from you. You have made an accusation that comes with no proof, just like if I said that you are an addict because you take methadone. It's one thing to be upset by the situation, which may simply be an oversight made by pharmacist who is overworked so walgreens can make a few extra dollars, but another to make criminal accusations.

Just google Walgreens shortaging of drugs and look at all the complaints or search here. It is a frightening number I used to go to their pahrmacy and I do not anymore. I've had them short me meds, not have the meds despite they knowIneed the same med every month on the same day. I would be their and of course they were pit and hadn't bothered to order any more. My point is they barely did the minimum job and did not go the "extra mile" as their ads would have you to believe. Heck if they got the job done right I woulf have been happy, but that got too hard as well. So I know mail my orders into a mailorder pharmacy, which is down right excellent. I recive 3 months at a time for $& a script. Most of my arthritis meds are thousands of dollars a month. So this is the only way I could afford them. I love it and have never been shortage. Why would employees short drug? Easy dumbo. My Oxy meds and worth a whole lot on the street and if you don't think the lowly paid techs don't do this you have your head stuck in a tail pipe. Same reason you have to order my Oxy because of theft. So if you think that it does not happen you address is at Disneyland. Cat

I wanted to let it be known that no matter who counts the meds whether it be a person or persons or even a machine the same thing happened to me with my meds but with a different well known pharmacy. I normally got 180 tablets in a very tall bottle but for some reason this one was a shorter yet fatter bottle. I noticed when I got to my car. The bottle was full but I counted while sitting there. It was 60 pills short. I took them back in and they gave me the same spill it was counted by a machine and by a person. Thank goodness the bottle was full there was no way another 60 pills could have fit in the bottle for me to have taken out in the first place. They gave me my meds. I am just writing this to say it can happen I was just lucky in my case that no more pills could even fit in my bottle for them to say they were there in the first place

Tom- I am a current employee of Walgreen Co. Inc. in Massachusetts, and I am responding to your ripoff report regarding missing pills. Typically, from my knowledge, Walgreens Pharmacies are aware that pharmacy techs and/or staff at times steal medication from the store, which is why all Walgreens use closed circuit camera systems as well as employing machines to count pills and multiple technicians to double check the counts. While I understand that your surgery has caused for you considerable pain, I cannot see a reason why employees of Walgreens would be running a racket nor would anybody intentionally take your pills. If you have any questions regarding your specific problem, or feel that your store, its employees, and/or its responsible management, pharmacy or otherwise has not done a sufficient or acceptable job in regards to solving your dispute, you should consider contacting the Walgreen Co. Loss Prevention at their headquarters. The number is: 1-800-666-5677. As this is the hotline at the main headquarters, they may be able to provide you with some additional information and tell you how you might proceed. As for the police, I understand that theft of narcotics is a crime, but it would be hard to prosecute due to the fact that the pills were counted 3 times (possible again by the pharmacist if necessary), and thus there would be no way to determine whom, if anyone, was responsible for the theft. Thank you for submitting your report, and for providing feedback to the company and its employees. Walgreens Employee Walgreen Co. Inc. Massachusetts District 220

Tom- I am a current employee of Walgreen Co. Inc. in Massachusetts, and I am responding to your ripoff report regarding missing pills. Typically, from my knowledge, Walgreens Pharmacies are aware that pharmacy techs and/or staff at times steal medication from the store, which is why all Walgreens use closed circuit camera systems as well as employing machines to count pills and multiple technicians to double check the counts. While I understand that your surgery has caused for you considerable pain, I cannot see a reason why employees of Walgreens would be running a racket nor would anybody intentionally take your pills. If you have any questions regarding your specific problem, or feel that your store, its employees, and/or its responsible management, pharmacy or otherwise has not done a sufficient or acceptable job in regards to solving your dispute, you should consider contacting the Walgreen Co. Loss Prevention at their headquarters. The number is: 1-800-666-5677. As this is the hotline at the main headquarters, they may be able to provide you with some additional information and tell you how you might proceed. As for the police, I understand that theft of narcotics is a crime, but it would be hard to prosecute due to the fact that the pills were counted 3 times (possible again by the pharmacist if necessary), and thus there would be no way to determine whom, if anyone, was responsible for the theft. Thank you for submitting your report, and for providing feedback to the company and its employees. Walgreens Employee Walgreen Co. Inc. Massachusetts District 220

Tom- I am a current employee of Walgreen Co. Inc. in Massachusetts, and I am responding to your ripoff report regarding missing pills. Typically, from my knowledge, Walgreens Pharmacies are aware that pharmacy techs and/or staff at times steal medication from the store, which is why all Walgreens use closed circuit camera systems as well as employing machines to count pills and multiple technicians to double check the counts. While I understand that your surgery has caused for you considerable pain, I cannot see a reason why employees of Walgreens would be running a racket nor would anybody intentionally take your pills. If you have any questions regarding your specific problem, or feel that your store, its employees, and/or its responsible management, pharmacy or otherwise has not done a sufficient or acceptable job in regards to solving your dispute, you should consider contacting the Walgreen Co. Loss Prevention at their headquarters. The number is: 1-800-666-5677. As this is the hotline at the main headquarters, they may be able to provide you with some additional information and tell you how you might proceed. As for the police, I understand that theft of narcotics is a crime, but it would be hard to prosecute due to the fact that the pills were counted 3 times (possible again by the pharmacist if necessary), and thus there would be no way to determine whom, if anyone, was responsible for the theft. Thank you for submitting your report, and for providing feedback to the company and its employees. Walgreens Employee Walgreen Co. Inc. Massachusetts District 220

Tom- I am a current employee of Walgreen Co. Inc. in Massachusetts, and I am responding to your ripoff report regarding missing pills. Typically, from my knowledge, Walgreens Pharmacies are aware that pharmacy techs and/or staff at times steal medication from the store, which is why all Walgreens use closed circuit camera systems as well as employing machines to count pills and multiple technicians to double check the counts. While I understand that your surgery has caused for you considerable pain, I cannot see a reason why employees of Walgreens would be running a racket nor would anybody intentionally take your pills. If you have any questions regarding your specific problem, or feel that your store, its employees, and/or its responsible management, pharmacy or otherwise has not done a sufficient or acceptable job in regards to solving your dispute, you should consider contacting the Walgreen Co. Loss Prevention at their headquarters. The number is: 1-800-666-5677. As this is the hotline at the main headquarters, they may be able to provide you with some additional information and tell you how you might proceed. As for the police, I understand that theft of narcotics is a crime, but it would be hard to prosecute due to the fact that the pills were counted 3 times (possible again by the pharmacist if necessary), and thus there would be no way to determine whom, if anyone, was responsible for the theft. Thank you for submitting your report, and for providing feedback to the company and its employees. Walgreens Employee Walgreen Co. Inc. Massachusetts District 220