Written
complaint brings out hostility from Costco Website executive... |
Subject: Prescription for Rusty Robinson
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003
Your order has been
cancelled with Costco online pharmacy. If you have any questions
in regards to this, please contact Vic Curtis (425-427-7206) at
our corporate office for more information. Thank youCostco Online
Pharmacy |
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This site is the result of bad experiences with the Costco Web
Pharmacy.
When written complaints were mailed and faxed to the local
Costco store manager, he was very concerned.
But the Web Pharmacy is not Costco. Apparently it is another group, or
another company, as it does not seem to represent in any way the
excellent customer service that Costco is so well known for.
As an avid, loyal, and highly enthusiastic Costco shopper I came to
realize that the Web Pharmacy sucked. In fact, my experiences
convinced me that their policies might actually kill someone.
My local store manager was concerned by the written complaints I
filed. He forwarded them to the people above him to make them away
of the issues I was uncovering. But then something horrible
happened.
Would not refill, with 2 refills left
The Web Pharmacy did not refill a prescription, even though it had
two allowed refills on it. After a week of fighting with some
anonymous Web Pharmacy person via email, I made a written demand for
my refill. The manager realized this was serious and it was out of
hand.
The manager asked me to discuss my well documented 5-page complaint
with the "powers that be" who run the website. On his request I
accepted a phone call from a man who introduced himself as "Vic
Curtis, Assistant Vice President of Pharmacy for Costco."
Denial & anger from management
What happened next was like a nightmare. Expecting that this was a
person who was concerned and who wanted my insights I allowed Vic to
put me on a speaker phone with "Craig" and possibly others in his
office. But instead of any genuine interest in my situation Vic
launched into a highly reactive negation of my 5-page written
complaint—he defended everything about the Web Pharmacy while
explaining how I was absolutely wrong about everything in my letter.
I hung up. As I sat in my office, stunned by his hostility, the
phrases that emerged in my head were "denial, justification, blame
the customer, defensive, cover-your-ass, anger..." That assistant
Vice President, in my opinion, had only one concern; to express his
anger that I would dare to document the poor performance of the Web
Pharmacy.
Failure to refill could kill someone
That assistant Vice President made this website a necessity, in my
way of thinking, to reach someone who will fix the Costco Web
Pharmacy before it kills someone. A Pharmacy has one purpose—to fill
doctor's prescriptions—not defy the doctor's prescriptions.
Rusty Robinson, March, 2003
Follow up June 9, 2003
After this site had been up for several months the man named Vic
Curtis (mentioned above) had the Costco WebPharmacy cancel the
refilling of one of my prescriptions. Isn't that unbelievable? When
I tried to reorder diabetes medication I received this email. Here
is the evidence.
Return-Path: <webpharmacy@costco.com>
Received: from ns01.costco.com (ns01.costco.com [170.167.6.20])
Mon, 9 Jun 2003 10:37:01 -0700
From: <webpharmacy@costco.com>
Subject: Prescription for Rusty Robinson
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003
Thank you for using Costco Online Pharmacy.
Your order has been
cancelled with Costco online pharmacy. If you have any questions
in regards to this, please contact Vic Curtis (425-427-7206) at
our corporate office for more information.Thank youCostco Online
Pharmacy |
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