Longs Pharmacy / Jared Kumamoto What is the sense of calling in an order, and two hours later it's still not ready?! Ewa Beach Hawaii

Johnna,

Thank you for posting the apology. I agree that while you had a right to be frustrated you did go over the line in your behavior. It takes a big person to admit when they are wrong - you get my respect for doing so.

Have a great day!!

first of all, the pharmacy is an outpatient service. if you are having as asthma attack or a true emergency, go to the er. after all, that's what it's there for. and you'll probably have to wait even longer at the er. secondly, if you know you have a condition which requires you to use your medication asap to relieve symptoms, then you should have the medication readily on hand and not wait until the last minute when you are experiencing symptoms, running to the pharmacy and hoping there is absolutely no one waiting ahead of you. that's just plain retarted on your part.

my favorite is when an idiot is completely out of medication AND refills and they expect the pharmacist to (1) get the doctor authorization for additional refills right then and there and (2) get the prescription filled in 0.2 seconds. And if the doctor doesn't respond to the refill request immediately, guess who the idiot patient blames? forget that it's the doctor's responsibility to get back to the pharmacy. but nope, the pharmacist gets the blame. why? cuz people are uneducated and lack any common sense.

just the same way that the idiot patient blames the pharmacy when their insurance doesn't cover a medication or they have to pay some outrageous copay. who's fault is it that you don't know what your copays are? after all, you signed up for the d**n plan. who's fault is it if your insurance company didn't tell you they raised your copay? but again, somehow and someway it's the pharmacists fault. we have nothing to do with your stupid copays. in no way during the filling process is there a place for the pharmacist to price your med during the adjudication process. we send the claim online to the 3rd party and they send it right back with the copay. so listen all you idiot patients....cry and b***h to the insurance company, not us. cry and b***h to your doctor for not responding you our refill request in a timely manner. or, better yet, look at yourself in the mirror, and say to yourself, "i guess i'm the dumbass since i signed up for a policy and i didn't care to know what my copays were or i didn't care to bring my formulary list to the doctor office so he/she can prescribe me something that's covered on the list." and then, after you crack the mirror with your ugly face, go to another mirror and say to yourself, "i guess i'm the dumbf**k that should've called for more refills a few days before i ran out of medication so that i wouldn't unreasonably expect the pharmacist to get it ready in 15 minutes during rush hour when 20 people are waiting in line ahead of me." amazing how idiots lack basic common sense.....

and last but not least, if you come at me all rude and shitty, i'm coming right back at you all rude and shitty. and that 15 minute wait time just turned into a 1 hour wait time. if you really piss me off, that prescription is going right back to ya and you're gonna have to go through that whole process over again somewhere else.

so the moral of the story, be polite and reasonable and don't piss off the pharmacist or he/she may accidentally drop your drugs on the floor and scratch my a*s and count your pills one by one with my fingers. =)

My actions towards the Longs Pharmacy and the Pharmacist and staff was uncalled for. I do agree with those of you who rebutted me. Thank you for your comments.

It could've been handled in a more civil manner. There is no excuse for my behavier. My only regrets is that I messed up a good day for these people.

I go there all the time to pick up mine and my son's meds. They are always nice and have excellent customer service.

I was frustrated from waiting and took it out on them. And after the confrontation I took it personal and made up my mind to report it here.

After a few days, I cooled down and realized that I should've been the one reported.

Marc, being white has nothing to do with it. You make the rest of us in Hawaii look prejudiced, which you may be, but I am not.

Now Johnna, I have had similar service at Longs. Not at Ewa Beach, but at Pearl City. Repeatedly.

The most recent frustrating experience was when I got to the store and the line at the pharmacy was halfway through the store. Like your case, the doc had called the prescription in at least two hours before. Instead of waiting to get to the counter, I went to the customer service counter and asked them to call to make sure the prescription was ready. They said they were working on it. Returning to the line, I found it was now two-thirds of the way through the store. Unbelievable. I decided to leave, and come back an hour later.

An hour later there was still a long line, but I needed the meds, so I stood there patiently. When I finally got to the counter, they said they were working on it. I was angry. But did I swear? No. I waited for 15 more minutes, and they finally called me, and said there was some kind of question and they needed to call the doctor. I left and went back later, and they were still not ready. I went home, and they finally called to say it was ready. With all that waiting I only got ONE dose. (it's one dose per month) How crazy is that?

But in all of my anger and impatience, I also knew that there was nothing they could do to make it any better. And there was nothing to be gained from yelling or swearing or threatening. And I'm not white Marc, so the lack of good service had nothing to do with my color. I didn't get tossed out of the store.

Jared Kumamoto should NOT have reacted to your misbehavior with his own. He should not have lied to you. Next time, show some class, and maybe they'll show some back.

Let me guess, you are new to Hawaii? You should know that Hawaiian time is double the time for normal people. Two hours=four hours. Get used to it or you'll get ulcers. I'll take a stab at it and say you must also be white. That automatically adds an hour on to your waiting time.

Well considering the fact that my mother has severe asthma (she's suffered complete respiratory failure due to it before.) I know that the doctor will give them the samples they keep in their office just in case the pharmacy is over loaded and cannot fill their prescriptions right away.

It's kinda funny, my mother will call in to see if her prescriptions are ready before leaving the house. (I did mention before that she almost died due to this condition, yet she still calls to see, why can't you?) Even when she calls in refills she calls again to inform them that when she intends to be in and asks if the perscription is ready. If it's not she will wait, she won't go to another store. (Maybe that's because she doesn't think that she is the only person in the world who needs a perscription.)

For those who rebutted, yes you are right. I admit that I was very much out of line as a consumer. Don't get me wrong, because I do know what goes on behind there.

I have a few relatives and friends that are pharmacists and techs. So I do know that when it get busy it really takes its limits.

But I was sitting there and watching them while waiting the last fifteen minutes.

What got me upset, was why could'nt they just be STRAIGHT UP in the beginning and tell me that they did'nt start on it yet. Be HONEST! Don't lie and then try to cover up the lie. That's was my point of argument!

Instead I was told that they were working on it when I first got there. I wasn't upset then, cause IF in TRUTH they were ACTUALLY working on it, how long would it take to complete once it's started? One prescription?... thirty minutes?

Get real! Back at you! Sorry if the truth hurts and you can't handle it, like I could'nt handle being lied to.

If the pharmacy opens for business at 7:00am and closes at 10:00pm and it takes thirty minutes to fill one prescription each, they would only complete thirty scripts?!, then you got some sorry people working behind there.

With hundreds of calls coming in and only thirty scripts. HAH! Are you one of those liars that make up sorry excuses and then can't back it up without lying.

The point here is HONESTY to consumers. All that other stuff was just an explanation of what lead to getting me ticked.

And a g a i n what's the sense of calling in twice?! The first call to ORDER, so TWO HOURS later the SECOND call would be to see if the order was ready? TWO Hours!!!

What if it was for an Asmatic who needed it right away? How are these prescriptions being processed by type of emergency or as it comes in?

Of course if I saw one for asmatic I would get it out as urgent.

Just be HONEST. Don't rip off anyone from trusting those that we so depend on as far as prescription.

Key word here...HONESTY is the best policy. Saves you from disappointing consumers.

You are not the only one calling in a prescription. In 1 hours time there could be as many as 100 prescriptions called in. That's more than one a minute. You should have called the store first to make sure the prescription was ready. Insurance filed through the computer takes time. It's not a grocery store. It's a serious business in which speed can lead to carelessness. If they had hurried and made a mistake on your son's prescription, would you be mad then? Bet you Won't mokes that same mistake again.

You go to pick up a prescription, don't bother calling to see if it is ready and then give them all kinds of trouble and curse at them like that? Good lord, you are lucky they didn't call the cops on you. If it were my store I would have booted you out on your butt. I'll give you that two hours should be enough time but what if they were short staffed that day? What if the flu was going around and they had call in prescriptions from a number of doctors? There are valid reasons it may not have been ready. Your behavior was WAY over the line. You weren't ripped off, the STORE was ripped off by having to deal with your abuse.

1) For the love of god, don't swear at the staff. That's really classless.

2)When we recieve callins, the doctor's offices rarely if ever let us know when the customer is coming. We put them at the back of the line to work on so that we can take care of the people that are physically in the store.

Therefore, if you want something at a specific time, call the pharmacy BEFORE YOU COME and let them know when you'll be in.

3)Don't even assume that you know what's going on back there, unless you've spent time behind the counter, you have no clue how stressfull it can be back in a pharmacy.

All things considered, it sounds like you got what was coming to you. Your behavior was no better than that of the employees.