Written in 2001, why can't I fill it now?

Corporate prints these fun little coupons in the newspaper.  Bring in a new or transferred prescription and get a $30 gift card to use in the store.  All the major pharmacy chains are doing this now and we're no different.  Every time they print one of these people scramble around to find some way to take advantage of the coupon.  Despite clear wording in the coupon itself that it is one per person per promotional period and other limiting factors, people will work and scheme and do everything they can to get these gift cards.  Hey, it is basically $30 free dollars to spend, right?

I now hold the new record for the oldest prescription submitted for a $30 gift card. This lady must have torn her house apart trying to find it.  She handed over to me, in all honesty, a prescription dated March 15, 2001.  I squinted and turned the script around desperately seeing if there was anyway the 2001 was actually supposed to be 2012.  It just wasn't possible.  So then I asked and she confirmed, "Yes, it is from 2001."  Upon rolling her eyes when I told her that it was expired (non-controlled prescriptions are only good for one year from the date they were written), she demanded that I call her doctor.  Well, I did... the people waiting at the other window would just have to wait, you know, because this $30 gift card stuff is serious stuff.  The doctor agreed to update the date to the present (I'm sure he did his own eye-rolling on the other end of the phone).  So then of course I find out that the patient has no insurance anymore and she was completely surprised to find out that the price is not the same as her old co-pay.  Yes, she was really surprised, and no, she didn't want the medication anymore (even with the possibility of getting the $30 freebie).

I love wasting time like that.