bizarro world

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.