Walgreens Manager Refused to Help Me

WellPatch Migraine is no longer carried by Walgreen's at all. Sorry,
chip.

Also, what did the manager's race have to do with this story?

Unfortunately the training there stinks. I was told by assistant
managers that there is no way to order something that is not on the
shelf and to tell the customer there was no way of getting it. A year
and a half later I was shown by the store manager how to look
something up to see if it had indeed been discontinued or was just not
available at our particular store. Also, I was told it IS possible to
connect to walgreens.com via the store computer and special order any
item that appears on their site w/ free shipping to the store.
Unfortunately, many assistant managers seem to think otherwise or else
just don't want to go through the hassle of placing the order. Next
time, go to pharmacy...they seemed to be the most competent when it
came to placing special orders (at least on that type of item.)

The Wellpatch for Migraines was discontinued at Walgreens stores last
year. No store would have them now. There is something called "Be
Kool" (I think) that does the same as the Wellpatch. It could very
well be that the Asst. Manager you asked didn't know how to look stuff
like that up. It would very clearly show that it was discontinued.
If you don't have a UPC to go by then you pretty much have to guess at
how it's listed under "Item Name". But this was listed as
"Wellpatch". Walgreens is getting more and more incompetent Asst.
Managers who aren't being trained properly because of Walgreens rapid
expansion.

This sounds out of line to me. In my optical retail days people would
break frames and want a new set to put their lenses in. Go to look for
frame and discover that it has been deleted from stock.

Next step is too call other stores to see if they have any on hand. If
not..then locate vendor to get one shipped. It usually took an hour or
so of phone calls and computer research but it was part of the job and
the customer appreciates the effort. (usually I should say..some were
impatient)

This manager should have done some research, I'm pretty sure it's in
his job description. We don't have a walgreens in my area and seeing
some of these letters looks like I'm not missing anything.

Inventory is PROFIT driven nowadays. It doesn't matter how popular an
item is. If it doesn't make a company money, they aren't going to
carry it anymore. At my last retail store, the company let us run out
of stock on plastic cutlery. The reason: my company's buyers and the
cutlery manufacturer couldn't negotiate a deal. The bad part: the
store staff are the ones getting chewed out because we were out of
stock on a top selling item. But we did have the decency to go into
the office and pretend to look up the cutlery on the computer to make
the customer feel better.

Thanks to Just-in-Time supply chain management, many companies set up
their registers to order the product. Meaning that merchandise is
ordered based on what the cashiers scan at the register when purchases
are made. The manager might get to order a few seasonal items, but
most ordering is done through the register (except those stores with
dinosaur registers). That makes it nearly impossible to backstock
items. Sometimes an item would sit on the shelf for a week and not
sell, then after the order cut off date, somebody would come and buy
all of that item that we had. Then we would be stuck waiting for
another week and a half to get that item back in.

Some companies will have an order person at the corporate office to
handle their stores' issues with hot selling items, special customer
requests, etc., but that person gets to work M-F 8-5 with an hour
lunch. And that person has voicemail that they can use to screen calls
coming in from the frontlines (the stores).

None of that excuses the manager's rudeness, though. While his
company's structure may have prevented him from actually trying to
order that product, he still could have acted like he was doing
something about it.

I used to work in one, and there is one left around here. The local
chain stores send people there when they can't get something
elsewhere. The first thing to do in this situation is check the
shelf. If there's a slot for the product, then they can order it. If
there isn't, they can't. Store managers at chains don't have much
lattitude any more. I worked in a place that if we didn't have it, we
got it or found it.

It's a little thing called customer service, something the big box
chains seem to have forgotten about.

And before anyone gets on the OP about the tone of the letter, let
them get a migraine or other intractable pain first. (I don't get
migraines, but I have friends who do.) Then make sure the only thing
that helps said migraine is well and truly out of reach. When you're
in that kind of pain, and someone's being an idiot, said idiot
deserves what he/she gets.

I know at our store,if something isn't in our set (which is determined
by corporate) there is no way to look it up because...well...it isn't
in our set.

To order an item, we need to have an order code/scan bar to input. If
there isn't one, because it's not in the set, it's not going to get
ordered.

You would have to take this up with corporate, not the manager as he
probably has nothing to do with the set.

I urge any customer that discovers their favorite product has been
discontinued to fill out one of our customer comment cards (usually
found at the checkstand) and write down any information they know
about the product and drop it in the mail. I have seen discontinued
items brought back from customers communicating this way.

Dear Scott,

I used to work for this company and for about a few months, the
managers would care and something like this WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN
ALLOWED

But in NOVEMBER 2002, things changed and now it is more of promoting
BAD EMPLOYEES who treat customers like you bad and to those employees
who try to treat the customer with a ounce of class GOT FIRED.

Instead of caring about customers, they worry MORE ABOUT PRODUCT and
PROTECTING $100,000 WORTH OF COSMETICS ALL WITH AN INANE POLICY CALLED
YOU WORK FOR THE COMPANY ERROR.

I SPOKE OUT AGAINST MUCH WORST GARBAGE (LIKE MANAGERS USING RACIAL
SLURS AND FOUL LANGUAGE AT CUSTOMERS) in 2005 and GOT FIRED BECAUSE I
TOLD THE TRUTH!

START TELLING EVERYONE, AND I ENCOURAGE YOU TO GO ON THE YAHOO MESSAGE
BORAD UNDER WALGREENS AND POST YOUR EXPERINCE ABOUT THIS STORE.

But Beware of the Walgreens Supporters, who think that you are lying
and that you are Yank.

ALSO, Spread the Word, tell everyone about your experience.

but the "snotty Indian guy" could have at least made a note that you
have purchased the item in the past, and would like to continue
purchasing it there.

I think a little honey would go a long way towards seeing that item
back on the shelf at Walgreen's. s is, I'm not sure that will happen.