Tuesday, March 12, 2013

"You're a real jerk, man!"

That's what he said to me. And he yelled it.
 
I was at another pharmacy, working overtime. This guy comes up and asks for his prescription.  I go to the will-call area. Nothing is there. I ask him for his name. He rolls his eyes. He spells it for me. I type it in the computer. Nothing comes up. I ask him again. He repeats it back to me, louder this time. Obviously I'm the idiot so let's speak up. I ask for his birth date. I put it in the computer. There is only one patient in the computer with that birth date, and it is not him, unless he is actually a she and she is cross-dressing. 

I tell him that I can't find him in the database. He's getting visibly angry. I said, "This isn't my normal pharmacy, but I can't find you in the system. Is it possible that you go to another pharmacy to get your medications? There is a pharmacy right next door..." (There are three other pharmacies within 1/4 mile of this location). He cuts me off... "Listen up, Mister..." he says... "I've been getting prescriptions here at THIS pharmacy for TWELVE YEARS." Now I take people at their word and figure I must be doing something wrong, so I go back to the computer and I try his name, his phone number, date of birth again...  nothing is coming up. I cringe as I tell him again that he just isn't in the computer.

He yells, "You're a real jerk, man!" and storms off. I'm shocked and want to... you know, slam a hammer into his skull, but you can't just do stuff like that anymore, so I compose myself. A little later I'm still trying to figure out what happened. Just to satisfy my curiosity I call the competitor next door. Sure enough, he's in their database and has a prescription ready to pick up. I ask more questions, and the pharmacist there tells me that yes, this man has been doing business with them for a long, long time. 

So after awhile when it slows down, I pick up the phone and call the guy using the phone number he gave me earlier. He answers the phone and I tell him who I am, that he mistakenly came to our pharmacy, and that his medication is at the pharmacy next door. Do you think he apologized? No, he didn't. And somehow I'll bet he still thinks I'm the jerk. But I'm not a jerk. I'm just crazy for working retail.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My pharmacists must love me because I go out of my way to be nice, polite, never demanding (thanks to your stories of horrible people!). You also make me grateful that I teach university students. They can be rude, ungrateful, obnoxious, etc. but at least I can tell myself that their brains are still developing! Thanks for sharing your stories.

Anonymous said...

Oh geez.... If i had a $100 for every time this happened...I'd be typing this from my beach chair outside my condo in Hawaii.

Anonymous said...

I hope the medication he was picking up was for aricept or something

Aarushi Shah said...

Happened to me one time when a man in his 70s got annoyed at me because I couldn't find him in my database when in fact he went to our sister store . I just told him I was new there and didnt know how things worked... He miraculously calmed down after that!!