A Customer Service Nightmare at Walgreen's

It is Sunday, May 10th at 5:25PDT and I have just returned from the
Walgreens Pharmacy at 6838 North 7th Street in Phoenix, Arizona. I was
there to pick up a prescription that I arranged to have transferred
from CVS two days ago, on Friday morning. I am an attorney from
California in town visiting for Mother's Day weekend. When I went to
the pickup window I was approached by a pharmacy employee who said his
name was "Serg." He told me that he didn't have my prescription and
that CVS must have "lost it." I replied that I found it frustrating
that I was not contacted about a problem so that I could fix it before
the weekend was over. He said that it was my fault for giving
Walgreens an inaccurate phone number. However, I made sure to double
check my contact phone number with the pharmacy employee with whom I
arranged to transfer the prescription on Friday. He then proceeded to
verbally accost me. He began raising his voice and other employees and
customers were witnessing the attack. I told him I wished to speak to
his supervisor and he told me I should just get lost and go to CVS.
His tirade continued while another employee, scared and visibly
shaking, told me that both the pharmacy manager and the store managers
were out of town. He began outright screaming at me and continued even
after I walked away. There is no doubt in my mind that I (nor ANY of
my family who were home when I returned from being attacked) will ever
step foot in any Walgreens again - However, I feel obligated to let
others know about the virtual lunatics employed by this company and in
contact with customers. I will also be sending written complaints to
the store's general manager, Walgreens corporate customer service
office, and Walgreens corporate legal department.

I just want to say that, as an employee for walgreens, you can't judge
a corporation by one bad experience. The manager you spoke to sounds
like a bad egg. I have never, in my experience, met a manager that
acted that way toward a customer. Don't knock walgreens just because
of one bad employee. I know the majority of us bend over backwards to
meet customers' needs. And we do it with smiles on our faces. I also
want to point out that in most of the walgreens weekly advertisements,
it does say that product availability varies according to which store
you go to. Some stores may not carry the same things as other stores.
It is that store's mistake for placing the ad tag on the shelf if they
didn't carry the CD-R data cds that the tag pertained to. Also, the
difference between data cds and CD-Rs is that they are both CD-Rs,
they are just designated for different types of files. You may use a
data CD-R for anything, but it is recommended that you use it for
programs or things like that, instead of music. There is a difference
between these two items in the Walgreens inventory system. So the tag
was in the wrong place, in fact it should not have been put up at all.
That doesn't mean that they were refusing to give you a sale price for
the item on sale. The item you had selected didn't match the item on
sale. There seemed to be quite a few blunders made by the Walgreens
manager that you encountered, but don't punish us all because of one
bad seed!

Walgreens employee in MN

My mother just had a very bad experience at her neighborhood
walgreens. She asked one of the employees if she could use the
restroom and the employee allowed her to use the restroom.Well, when
my mother came out of the restroom the manager was standing at the
door and started verbally attacking my mother telling her she was not
allowed to use the restroom. She followed her throughout the store and
kept screaming at her.My mother had asked the pharm. to call 911 but
they just stood there and watched. After my mother told them to call
911 the rude manager told my mother if she called the cops, she would
never be allowed in her store again. My mother is a 65 year old lady
who has very bad heart problems and it's not in her nature to argue
with people.I'm really mad. I really think she should sue the crap out
of this company!

the only thing i gotta say is, flip over a walgreens ad. look at the
bottom.

it CLEARLY says, and this is a direct quote, as i am taking it off
the paper in front of me:

Not all advertised items available at all stores.

first line in it. but it is not illegal to run out of an item.

and something else, while cameras show what you do and don't do, they
don't have recordings of what you said and didn't say. you might not
have pyhsically did something to threaten them, but you could have
said something.

Can you provide a quote and link to the law which states that it's
illegal for stores to run out of the things they advertise?

The manager was quite clear that you weren't going to get the $25 CDs
for $8.99. What were you hoping to accomplish by hanging around and
hassling her for her name?

Finally, and most importantly, did the manager ask you to leave? If
you stay in a business after you are asked to leave, they have every
right to call the police and have you removed from their property.

Methinks there is more than a tad bit of exaggeration here. No one
calls the police for no reason; I'm sure there was an aura of threat
around you.

Walgreen's fanatic? Give me a break.

Your alleged career is completely irrelevant, so I fail to see why you
brought it up to begin with.

I'm calling shenanigans.

OK, you started off OK, but by about the 3rd paragraph, you completely
lost me.

1) it's not illegal to be out of an advertised item - it happens all
the time. It is illegal to try and substitute the sale item for a
different item at a higher price. HOWEVER, either way you still have
the option of just not buying it.

2) I am not sure at what point the conversation between you, your
friend and the manager spiraled out of control, but at some point,
somebody there decided to take the "WalGreen's Fanatic" moniker to a
WHOLE other place! Something was said or done that made that manager
call the police on you.

3) My husband says I am longwinded (& I'm sure some of the other
regular PFB'ers might agree with him) but YOU, my friend, take the
longwinded cake!

4) WTH does Nordstrom's & Starbuck's have to do with an incident at
WalGreen's?????

5) How many times do letter writers have to be reminded that
companies don't give a crap where you work, how much you make, who you
associate with or what kind of freaking car you drive? The minute you
pull the status card, you immediately invalidate any argument you may
have had and become a big blowhard because no one cares!

At the end of the day, was it REALLY worth standing your ground and
going through all this drama over CD Rom's? I mean, seriously, you
and your friend nearly got yourselves arrested over CD-R's. Being
able to show your faces again in a WalGreen's should have been the
LEAST of your concerns.

I've found in MA especially there is a HUGE problem with people
switching tags so she was justified in thinking that. Does your
friend REALLY think the MA Walgreens took the time to call Seattle
(because they really know where you're from) and say hey don't let
this guy shop here? Maybe you should stay on the west coast with your
precious Starbucks and Nordstrom :)

There's nothing illegal about not having an advertised item in stock.
Things DO sell out.

It only becomes illegal if they advertise an item for one price and
are charging another for it. They were not doing this as they told you
the sale price was for a different item. You were being difficult, and
rather than accepting the fact that the one you wanted was not on
sale, you chose to escalate the situation and had the cops called on
you. All you had to say when you found out that the one you wanted
wasn't on sale is "I've decided against this."

You said that it is illegal to advertise items that are not in the
store, well it is also illegal for you to move the items, I bet you
are not being honest with your side of the story. She would never
have called the police on you if you were not being threatening.
Shame on you for picking on a woman.

I think these folks got bad service. If the manager felt threatened,
why did she she ask them (obviously with sarcasm), if they wanted her
home address too? Why didn't she just ask them to leave? I was a
retail store manager for years, if I felt threatened by a customer, I
wouldn't bait them by being sarcastic. I'd request they leave and if
that failed, THEN I'd call the police.

The bottom line is that no one commenting on this letter was there,
so its hard to make a judgement. Hopefully, Walgreens will
investigate and respond in an appropriate manner.

You say it's illegal to advertise things a store doesn't have. How do
you know they weren't sold out on them?

You have three books out? Can you tell me what they are? You just
don't impress me as a writer. Your style is hard to follow and I
counted a number of mechanical problems in your letter. Secondly,
while she did seem to over react, if I were a woman and two guys
started in verbally with me I would have called the police. These
days, you just never know and I would rather look silly than dead
because of a kook customer. I'm not saying that you were less than a
gentleman, I'm saying that these days it's better to err on the side
of extreme caution. Don't argue with the store manager. Leave
without the item you disagreed on. Go home and contact corporate.
That is the correct way to handle things of this nature. You will get
no where and once people feel threatened by you,you may find yourself
explaining things to a police officer.

Hi Ben Tousey,
Nice to make your acquaintence. I see you are using a computer to
e-mail. A short primer on cd, cdroms,,,, Basically the deal is this.
You get a computer and a rom burner (cd and or dvd) and it can read
and write at different speeds. Different types of file requre more
space (audio and video for examples) and others reqire less space
(data for instance) So the standards in the industry are basically
based on the speed (anywhere from 4x to 12x and even 24x and beyond)
So, companies make data only discs designed to work seamlessly with
different drives at much faster and efficent read/write speeds than
other purpose or multi purpose cd media) The standard amout of
information on most one sided cd/dvd burners are 700 mb for data or 80
minutes of audio (depending on type of file and level of compression)
and 650 mb storage for data and approximately an hour more or less of
audio (depending again on file type or level of compression) Not to
confused the issue, but rarely do you get exactly what's stated on the
box because there's some space on there for proprietary programs and
other reasons.Need to read the fine print.

Speaking of fine print.. pick up any walmard ad or circular. There's
things in fine print for a reason OTHER than to balance the look, or
take up space. "Limited Qantities, Not all merchandise available at
all locations, exceptions and exclusions apply, not responsible for
typographial errors etc.

On to the BRILLIANT letter. It's over wordy but well put. It clearly
shows that you must know of what you speak and are not just some
"ordinary" or "less than ordianary" consumer. Which for some reason
THIS college educated peon dosen't quite see.

Two men with a bone to pick vs one woman. Cameras, though well
meaning, cannot record the inner workings of the mind or the feelings
of anyone being taped. It simply records the events as it sees them.
Weapons or brute force or posture or body language are not the only
means of communicatiing threat. To quote another "peon" ,Cher, in one
of her songs ...."Words are like weapons, they wound sometimes".


Ben I just love your letter!!!!! I hope the "windy city" blows away
the aftereffects of "Beantown" hopefully not in my direction.

I am impressed with your writing skills and do feel bad this manager
felt threatened enough to call the cops. It's unfortunate she didn't
know you are Ben Tousey who's never had the cops called, is a
published writer of three books etc...Had she known maybe she'd have
treated you better. The National Guard instead of the Police.

Thanks for sharing this letter where you clearly sate how this
incident could reflect poorly on you and your career and writing, then
sharing your whole name. Thank GOD Romance Novel Writers uses
Pseudonyms or I'm guessing you'd be in really deep doo doo. (a word us
peons use that has less impact than "crap" or "poop")

Wish you all the best

Really

Sincerely

From a good place.

Honest

It sounds to me like several things may have happened here. Maybe or
maybe she did not know these items were not in the store. Lets say
she did know that they no longer or never even had them. You called
her on it. By stating to her that it was illegal, this may have come
across to her as "a threat". She was defensive with her remark (guilt
and fear) about you suing her. She could be in big trouble here with
the company and her job. (just suppose) It's possible she called the
police not only as a diversion but to put it on record that it was YOU
harrassing HER and deflected the attention away from herself. I'm
sure there was nothing on record about the CD's with the police so now
that isn't even documented. If you are to take her to court now for
this, there it is on record now, that YOU harrassed HER. She turned
it around on you. That is, provided that it happened that way. On the
other hand, she may have felt you were yelling at her and got scared
for real and called police. Who knows. Her sarcasm didn't show fear
though. Her accusation didn't show professionalism. If you are
threatened, you don't accuse and get sarcastic, as that would
exacerbate the mood of the customer, if in fact that customer was
actually threatening and she was afraid of you for real. I don't think
she was afraid of you, but afraid because you called her on it.
Maybe.........

"I'm from Seattle where we have companies like Nordstrom and
Starbucks. These things would never happen to me there."

I'm sorry, I don't understand that statement. Would you kindly
explain it to me.

Thank you.

First of all, I of course, wasn't there so I can't make any conclusive
judgement call and I'm certainly not going to go into the "assumtion
route". That being said, yes, the Asst.Mgr should of acted in a way
that didn't escalate the situation. That's the primary responsiblity
of the manager on duty in situations like that.

This was on July 15 which is the last day of the ad. This store
probably ran out of the item. They should have offered you a rain
check that you could use anywhere at any Walgreens. Was the ad tag in
the wrong location or was the item in the wrong spot? Who knows.

The difference between a stack of Sonys at $9 (ad price) and one at
$25 is huge. The main difference in the items is probably due to the
number of CDs in each stack. As far as data CDs are concerned they
are usually a slower speed CD whereas those that say they are for
music are usually higher speed. If you were to buy a CD that was very
slow speed (i.e. 8x) it would work in just about any computer but it
would take a bit longer to burn a CD for music than it would if you
were to buy a CD with 48x capabilities. That's why a manufacturer
might label it a "data CD". That's all that means.

Anyway, this sounds like an Asst. Manager that couldn't handle any
type of confrontation but then again, you didn't help matters either.
Your request for the store manager's name and store number seemed
simple enough. Why she acted the way she did is sort of weird.

And I'm glad Seattle is such a nice place to live and that no one in
Seattle would treat you like the mean ol' people there in liberal la
la land. Me thinks you're a bit "ethnocentristic" (after 30 years I
finally get to use that word in a sentence).

By the way what good is a written apology? You know the Asst. Manager
won't mean it (and believe me Walgreens DOES NOT make managers write
letters of apologies). Usually those that demand letters of apology
are those who want to have a sense of power.