The most bizarre, otherworldly event happened the other day.
The store I work at allows prescriptions that are not a controlled substance or over $100 to be checked out at the front registers and don't have to be paid for in the pharmacy. Sometimes, for WHATEVER reason, the scripts that get taken up front don't always get paid for. Maybe the customer stuck it in her purse and forgot about it by the time they got up front, maybe it fell into the very bottom of the trolley, maybe the cashier didn't realize they had to scan it or they scanned it and it didn't work ... maybe they ARE trying to steal it, who knows? The computer keeps track of when a prescription is scanned out of the pharmacy, and whether or not it gets scanned and cleared out of a register. If the computer sees that something that hasn't been paid for after a set amount of time (like 48 hours or something, I'm not sure) it pops when the pharmacist logs on in the morning.
Usually, the pharmacist will then try and call the customer and be like, "hey, it looks like one of our cashiers forgot to scan one of your prescriptions the other day, do you happen to still have the receipt by any chance?" If the phone number we have on file doesn't work or the person never responds, eventually we send them a letter. It's basically the same thing, "our computer says this prescription didn't get scanned at a register, please contact us" blah blah.
I answered the phone recently, "Land of Pharmacy, this is Princess, how may I help you?" The woman on the other end says, "YES, I got a LETTER from you guys saying I didn't pay for my prescription!" "Okay," I say, "Did you take it up front to pay for it with the rest of your groceries?" "WELL," she replied, "my daughter picked it up for me and she KNOWS she paid for it!" "Oka-" I start to say, when she interrupts, "And I don't save receipts! I threw it away already!" "Um, okay. It happens sometimes, maybe the cashier didn't ring it up or didn't ring it up right. It was eight dollars." "OH," she continued, "So you're saying I owe you guys eight dollars?" "Yes ma'am, if you would like you can just stop by the next time you're in the store and pay it." Keep in mind, the whole time I have a calm, happy tone of voice. "SO you're saying that either the cashier ripped us off eight dollars, or I ripped you guys off??" she demanded. "Um.. no, just that for whatever reason it didn't get rung up at a register." She laughed sarcastically and said, "Oh, well, that's fine! I UNDERSTAND. I guess this is just a new way of accusing people of being a thief?!" "No, ma'am; I feel that's a little unreasonable ..." I started to say, and she cut in, "NO! YOU'RE unreasonable! I'm being accused of being a theif!!!"
At this point, I was really, really ticked off. Like, I was about to lose. it. I don't know what it was exactly - I deal with angry people all the time, usually with grace and aplomb - but something about our exchange was really pushing my buttons. Like, I could feel my chest and high on my cheeks getting really hot and my hands started shaking. I felt like I was about to turn green and start busting out of my clothes (except for the pants, of course) , OR about to pop open a value-sized bag of swear words at this lady. Sooo I just hung up the phone on her, mid exclamation.
I tried to shake it off, but then I was paranoid the rest of the day. Was she going to call back and tell the pharmacy manager that I was rude? Would she just say that I hung up on her, or would she lie and say that I had cursed at her or something like that? It weighed on me, along with still being kind of pissed off. I avoided answering the phone.
Later, one of my co-workers called out, "Hey, who talked to a Ms. Doe earlier?" I took a deep breath and said that it was me. "She said she wants to apologize." Whaaat? I thought maybe my co-worker was winding me up. "Um, what? Seriously? Is she saying I was rude?" "Noo.. she said she was mean to you and wanted to aplogize." So I picked up the phone and answered in a even, firm yet polite voice. And guess what? SHE APOLOGIZED! She said that she flew off the handle and it wasn't my fault, and she was wrong. W. T. F.
It's kind of sad that I was so shocked at someone attempting to be a decent human being.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
the undead? in MY pharmacy?
I'm just going to come out and say it: I am deeply paranoid about zombies. Most people wouldn't know it just to look at me, but I'm extremely nerdy. Somehow this progressed from an interest in 'fantasy' and my never-dying love of science-fiction to science-fact mixed with mad science, and boom - zombies. I'm not a fan of horror films as a whole (Saw, Hostel, things like that - no thanks) but for some reason I'm just entranced by zombies. What started as a fun hobby has turned into fear and paranoia. I have a very active imagination, so it's easy for me to imagine that it's possible for some catalyst (black magic, alien radiation rays, evil scientists) to make the dead come back to life and want to eat my face.
Everywhere I go, I look around at my surroundings and make a quick plan as to what I would do if a zombie were to come lurching onto the scene. We're often told (especially women) to be aware of our environment and of anyone or anything that seems out of place, but I think they want us to look out for like, muggers, and not the undead, necessarily.
Working at a pharmacy, especially one in a large 'big box' store known for its low prices and even lower-class clientele, me and my co-workers are pretty much boned in case of zombie attack. Where do people go when they're sick? THE PHARMACY. Either they don't want to a) stay home, or b) spend the money to go to the doctor, so they come to the pharmacy to ask the pharmacy to diagnose them (can't do it!) and try OTC meds. Or, they did go to the doctor and bring their sick selves to the pharmacy with their prescription and then mill around the OTC area for half an hour. I can easily someone keeling over in the waiting area, then moments later rising and shambling to the counter, dirty hands extended and hungry mouth full of rotten, snaggled teeth agape. Actually this is how most of our customers approach the counter anyway, so it might be harder to tell than I think. I get a chill down my spine whenever I'm on the opening shift and walk into the pharmacy in the morning, and the crowd that has been there since 8:30 or earlier (you know, an hour before we open) looks at me with those soulless, hungry eyes. I dread opening my metal gate thingie.
So, I know it's just a bunch of hype, but the swine flu thing freaked me OUT. And I in turn slowly got my co-workers freaked out. "You know what the final stage of H1N1 is? You BECOME A ZOMBIE." It was mostly in fun, but we had a customer yesterday who genuinely made us afraid. He looked rough. Like, really really rough. His eyes were deep set with dark circles, slack-jawed with poor dental hygiene, stringy uncared-for hair. He didn't walk, he shambled. He looked like he could barely stand. He swayed, and leaned heavily on the counter, while breathing heavily and MOANING. I know I should have felt bad for him as he appeared to be in a lot of pain, but honestly? He looked like he was already on quite a few drugs, of varying stages of legality, and was here to get more. Also, he looked like he was ABOUT TO TURN INTO A ZOMBIE. He looked like he was pretty well into the transformation, actually.
Everyone, especially those who must frequently deal with the public/sick people, should have a zombie plan.
Everywhere I go, I look around at my surroundings and make a quick plan as to what I would do if a zombie were to come lurching onto the scene. We're often told (especially women) to be aware of our environment and of anyone or anything that seems out of place, but I think they want us to look out for like, muggers, and not the undead, necessarily.
Working at a pharmacy, especially one in a large 'big box' store known for its low prices and even lower-class clientele, me and my co-workers are pretty much boned in case of zombie attack. Where do people go when they're sick? THE PHARMACY. Either they don't want to a) stay home, or b) spend the money to go to the doctor, so they come to the pharmacy to ask the pharmacy to diagnose them (can't do it!) and try OTC meds. Or, they did go to the doctor and bring their sick selves to the pharmacy with their prescription and then mill around the OTC area for half an hour. I can easily someone keeling over in the waiting area, then moments later rising and shambling to the counter, dirty hands extended and hungry mouth full of rotten, snaggled teeth agape. Actually this is how most of our customers approach the counter anyway, so it might be harder to tell than I think. I get a chill down my spine whenever I'm on the opening shift and walk into the pharmacy in the morning, and the crowd that has been there since 8:30 or earlier (you know, an hour before we open) looks at me with those soulless, hungry eyes. I dread opening my metal gate thingie.
So, I know it's just a bunch of hype, but the swine flu thing freaked me OUT. And I in turn slowly got my co-workers freaked out. "You know what the final stage of H1N1 is? You BECOME A ZOMBIE." It was mostly in fun, but we had a customer yesterday who genuinely made us afraid. He looked rough. Like, really really rough. His eyes were deep set with dark circles, slack-jawed with poor dental hygiene, stringy uncared-for hair. He didn't walk, he shambled. He looked like he could barely stand. He swayed, and leaned heavily on the counter, while breathing heavily and MOANING. I know I should have felt bad for him as he appeared to be in a lot of pain, but honestly? He looked like he was already on quite a few drugs, of varying stages of legality, and was here to get more. Also, he looked like he was ABOUT TO TURN INTO A ZOMBIE. He looked like he was pretty well into the transformation, actually.
Everyone, especially those who must frequently deal with the public/sick people, should have a zombie plan.
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