Is this just bad customer service

Ben22536 said:

I recently visited my family, and once there, realised I didn't bring enough blood test strips with me. I decided to visit one of the larger pharmacies in town, who I thought were more likely to stock the strips I use.

This is probably more of a feeling of bad customer service. And I would preferred not having to pay out of pocket for them, I accept it may have to be.

The assistant I initially approached was pleasant, but wasn't sure if I could get them, so spoke to the pharmacist. Who then spent a couple of minutes with a calculator, and only came out to take the money and give me the strips

Could I have obtained them on an emergency prescription? Or any other way? Or am I being overly critical?

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not sure why this constitutes bad customer service?

I'm not sure where you stand on this, But when I worked away a lot, I forgot my meter and strips, and bought a new one. Can't put a cost on my health.

without a prescription you have to pay so no not bad customer service this has happened to me

My new Libre was reading crazily high when I was in Cornwall and I didn't have enough glucose testing strips packed, so bought a single container of 50 from a pharmacy. I could have theoretically phoned my surgery but you have to allow two days for the doctor's signature, electronic email to the pharmacy and the pharmacy processing it, so as I was moving on, it was easier to buy them. I certainly will be overpacking next time.

You can get an emergency prescription at my surgery, you have to go the surgery and collect it in person at the end of the working day. Your surgery may have different rules. This wasn't an option for me as I was away. You could also pack repeat prescriptions when travelling, just in case.

Is it bad customer service? No! Does it matter that we sometimes have to pay for stuff we usually get for free? No! What price health!
When I go away anywhere, either close or further away I take a shed load more stuff than I would need in my daily routine. I always work on the basis that I may be ill/have to stay somewhere far in excess of what I was intending.

My FastClix lancet broke last week whilst changing the drum whilst away from home at night. Fortunately, as I was in a large city I was able to travel to a pharmacy which was open after 10pm and pay out of pocket for what they had available to allow me to carry on pricking my finger whilst away. I wouldn't have expected them to hand one over to me for free.

As an aside, Roche were very good in sending me a brand new one out when I called them the next day for when I got home.

Hello, I wouldn't go as far to say that is bad customer service. Without a prescription, I'd be expected to pay for it which I have done in various emergency situations. However in other situations where I had 2 days of strips left and couldn't get any more until my next prescription, I have been able to go to an out of hours doctor for a prescription for strips. However it meant I waited over 3-4 hours to be seen by a doctor and he couldn't provide a full prescription, only enough until my next prescription. On the other hand, the pharmacist back in London, we ended up being friends and he was a diabetic himself, he was able to give me strips before my prescription came and when my prescription came, he took it out of my prescription. I agree you can't put a price on your health.

Ben22536 said:

and only came out to take the money and give me the strips

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Exactly what were you expecting from this interaction Ben? That's how shops work.

Were you expecting a nice cup of tea and a cosy chat or perhaps an invitation round to dinner or an offer to wed the pharmacists first born child.


I

Ben22536 said:

I recently visited my family, and once there, realised I didn't bring enough blood test strips with me. I decided to visit one of the larger pharmacies in town, who I thought were more likely to stock the strips I use.

This is probably more of a feeling of bad customer service. And I would preferred not having to pay out of pocket for them, I accept it may have to be.

The assistant I initially approached was pleasant, but wasn't sure if I could get them, so spoke to the pharmacist. Who then spent a couple of minutes with a calculator, and only came out to take the money and give me the strips

Could I have obtained them on an emergency prescription? Or any other way? Or am I being overly critical?

Click to expand...

You would need an emergency prescription from your GP , or, in your case an out of town GP, probably your families.