What a Difference a Pharmacist Makes

Yesterday I had a very frustrating day dealing with a pharmacist.  I thought a pharmacist is suppose to be helpful, knowledgeable and caring, especially when you are on a serious medication.  Not the case the with new gal at our Target. 
I went to get a prescription refilled for my daughter last week and I was given a coupon for a free trial offer since the medication is $250 for 14 tabs.  Who can afford that??  Well, I went to pick up the meds and the doc hadn't called it in yet.  I asked if they could call the doc but no can do.  No problem, I would.  I made the call on my cell phone and docs office was on lunch.  Now, when I'm 'down the hill' it's a long way from my home.  I had to go to work so back home to get ready and get to work.  I send Jack to pick up the meds at 5, since he had an errand to do down there and told him that the last time I was in there the gal said to just give our name and they had the coupon for us.  Jack followed my instructions and they, he said, acted like he was trying to get meds that weren't for him.  He gave them the info, didn't have our prescription card, which is on file in their computer, and yet they sent him away saying they couldn't help him.   Yesterday I go back with coupon in hand, and prescription card and speak to the guy on the floor.  His name tag said trainer so I knew this would be hard.  He got the mean gal to help and she basically looked at me and said that the coupon I had didn't have any information on it and shrugged her shoulders.  I explained that this was day 4 now that my daughter had not been on her medication and what are my options because I didn't have $250 to fork out waiting for samples from my doc.  Not her problem.  Shrugging shoulders again.  I asked if she could call my docs office and ask them if they had any info on billing and I was doing my best to get her help.  Nope.  She could not call the docs office because in her words, "they don't know."  I looked at her and stared waiting for her to understand that this is now becoming a power trip and she could care less about the well being of my daughter.  My eyes started to tear up and I was shaking.  I said thank you very much to her and walked away with her and her co worker staring at me with little smirks on their faces.  She just would not help me.
I called the docs office and she offered to call this into another pharmacist.  I went now to the other pharmacy and got a totally different treatment.  The coupon was the same issue but she was not about to let me go without solving this issue and her main concern was that my daughter didn't go another day without taking her meds.  She called my docs office and the Target pharmacy to speak with the pharmacist about the prescription, only to be put on hold for 10 minutes and they never took her call.  She was helping me and clearly had compassion for the issue that my daughter was out of medication and it was an exorbitant amount of money that I didn't have.  Given the fact I had a free coupon for a 30 day supply she was not going to let that go unnoticed.  She ended up giving me one dose for the day and said she would call me today after she made some phone calls.  She did and she couldn't have been more helpful. 
Bottom line is that the unhelpful pharmacist was just that.  Unhelpful and she could have cared less.  The helpful pharmacist was just that.  Very helpful and she definitely cared about what she was doing.  I am thankful for her.  I made mistakes in this and the holiday weekend was not something I planned for.  I take responsibility for that and I did call the company directly to get the info for the billing.  Easy enough when you have a computer at your fingertips as the Target pharmacist did. 

It's done.  My prescriptions are no longer being picked up at Target.