Stubborn Eno man

A man walked into the pharmacy and wanted to know if we sell Eno. I told him we don't sell it. He asks me how much it would be?

From the top of my head, I said it should be less than $10. 

Him: How much exactly?
Me: I don't know because I don't sell it here.
Him: Can't you search up the price?
Me: I can't because each chemist sells it for a different price.
Him: How much?
Me: Less than $10.
Him: What's that mean? That could be $4 , $5, $9 ...... that could mean anything
Me: I can't tell you the exactly price because each chemist charges a different price, but it should be between $5-$10 from memory.
Him: No, you said it was less than $10.
Me: Yes, its between $5-$10.
Him: No it should be between $5-$9. It can't be $10 coz you said its less than $10.
Me: Well, if its $9.95, that would be less than $10.... 
Him: But......
Me: Look sorry sir but I really don't know the price. Its best to ask a chemist that actually sells it. If you don't mind, I gotta help these other customers here.


Waste of my time.  

Claratyne man being rude to my assistant

A man asked me where's the Claratyne Syrup and I told him its in the 3rd aisle on the right hand side.

Him: Why is it not next to to the tablets?
Me: Because Claratyne Syrup are for kids so we keep it in the kids section.
Him: Ok where's that?
Me: Its in the 3rd aisle on the right hand side.

My assistant was about to show him where and she says: "Its just overhere on the right, I can show you."

The egotistic man scolds her: "Did I ask you?!?!?! I'm talking to her (points to me) - I never ask you!"

Everyone in the store turns around and my assistant backs off all scared. I got so angry, I stood up and defend her.

Me: Excuse me sir! You cannot speak to my staff like that (me points finger at him). If you are going to be rude, I will ask you to leave.
Him: She should mind her own business!
Me: No. She is doing her job and trying to help you. You, on the otherhand, are being extremely rude and you are not welcomed here ok?

He gets angry and walks away. I shake my head and mutter 'what a rude man' - loud enough for other customers to hear so they know what a jerk he was.


Hate when men treat women like that. Lucky we have the power to stand up for ourselves. Do not let them ever to step on you. If they do, you stand up and step back down on them. After all, how is an uneducated man ever superior than an educated woman? Never.

Excessive sex enquiry

A random man walks into the pharmacy and asks me a weird question: "Do you have any medication to stop you from having too much sex?"

Me being professional: "You mean medications to reduce arousal?"

Him: "Yeh too much sex you know."

Me: "Could be too much testerone. There are some hormone tablets you can take. Or perhaps you need counselling. Just see a doctor and they will be about to help you."

Who complains about having too much sex?

Patient offended by me asking a simple question

A psycho lady came in probably forgot to take her medications - because she got offended by me asking if she wanted everything on the prescriptions she's given me. 

She gave me 3 prescriptions with 5 items on them. Ideally, we ask the patient first what items they want because they might not necessarily want all of them and if you just 'assume' they want all, you will have to do more work to cancel them in the end if they don't want them.

Me: "Would you like all these medications today?"

Her: "Did I say anything?" 

Me: "Excuse me?"

Her: "Did I say anything? I give you the prescriptions, I didn't say anything so you just dispense them all" (she snapped)

Me: Well that's why I'm asking you because not everyone wants everything they want on the prescription. 

Her: Well I would tell you if I didn't want them. But I never said anything, so you shouldn't ask.

Me: Excuse me? A lot of people just give me the script and don't tell me anything until the very end when I do everything. That's why I'm asking you first.

Her: Well that's some people.

Me: Look I'm just asking ok? You need to calm down.

So I walk off and do her script. 

When her scripts were ready, I didn't even talk to her or say thank you. I point to the bottom of the script and signal her to sign. 

All of a sudden she says: "Look I'm sorry for what I said before."

Me (rolls my eyes and stares at her like is this some kind of a joke look): Ok. 

She gets annoyed at my reaction and lack of response coz frankly I don't care if she apologises. She was rude and that's enough for me to give minimal service. 

Man wants to call cops for refund

A man was arguing and telling my assistants off because they wouldn't refund baby formula and baby bottle without a receipt. Which is true. No receipt, no exchange or refund. He was yelling so I had to go out and escort him to the side. 

Me: "Sir let me show you something." I tell him to come over. "This is our store policy. Have a read."
Him: No exchange on baby formula. Fine! But you must refund the baby bottle.
Me: Read down the bottom here. Exchange only with a receipt, purchased within 7 days and item/packaging is not damaged. You've got no receipt.
Him: You don't know anything. You can just scan your product and it will come and tell you where i've bought it from.
Me: You haven't worked in retail before? This is just a barcode. Big W sells these products too. You can go and check their barcode its the same.
Him: Well when I got to Big W, they will exchange it for me without a receipt.
Me: As you've said that's Big W. We are not Big W. Each store have their store policy.
Him: No this is YOUR policy. Fair trading says you have to refund even without a receipt!
Me: Where do they say that. Show me. I don't have to refund anything without a receipt because a) you can't prove you got it from us and b) when you bought it. 
Him: I can tell you when I got it!
Me: You can tell me any date you want. You can say today even. But that's what a receipt is for. 
Him: Are you saying that if I walk into Big W, they will accuse me of stealing because I don't have a receipt and I bought it somewhere else.
Me: Yes exactly. They will and they will have to investigate if you are telling the truth otherwise they will call the cops. 
Him: What a joke. Where country are you from?
Me: That's none of your business and its got nothing to do with thisw.
Him: Which country are you from?
Me: As a matter of fact, I was born here. You got a problem with that? 
Him: .....................
Me: What about you?
Him: Me too! (in a strong indian accent) 
Me: Oh realllyyyyy, I couldn't even tell coz you seem so clueless about store policies and legislation and you think that you can simply yell at me and my staff and expect us to help you when you don't even have a receipt. 
Him: Fine its my fault. I lost my receipt. 
Me: Well its certainly not our fault.
Him: I'm gonna call the cops.
Me: Yeh the police station is just across the road. Go tell them and see if they will do anything. Good luck. 


If you want us to help you, you are suppose to be nice to us. Don't demand this and that. Makes you look very hostile and arrogant and we don't like to help those type of people. Policies can be bended and broken as our discretion but when you act like that, policy is policy. 

Lady overly worried by a simple small rash

A lady comes in with a script from the doctor for Elocon Cream. Before I start dispensing, she asks me all these questions about the cream:
"Is it for 'broken capillaries' 
"Will it work?"
"What's the strongest cream you have to treat the same thing?"
"What else can you use for pigmentation?" 

I write down hydroquinone for her. She asks me: "What strength does it come in?"

Me: "The doctor decides the strength suitable for you and then writes a script before we make it into a cream. Its tailor made."

"What does it do?"

"Its a peeling agent for pigmentation and blemishes?"

"So it will help with this?" and then she proceeds to point to her face or nose area where a small rash is there...... 

Me: "That's just a rash. Dermatitis. That's not pigmentation."

She: "Its not?

Me: "No its not. Pigmentation is different to a rash. They're not the same."

She: "So you think the doctor won't prescribe me hydroquinone?"

Me: "No why would they? Its not pigmentation. Its just a rash. So his prescribed you Elocon cream which is for rashes. Use a thin layer and it will go away in a few days. You've got the right cream ok?" 


She seemed so worried. And she thinks its pigmentation. Its not! Just get over it. Its just a rash, cortisone cream will help, though I think Elocon may be a bit strong for the face. 

Pharmacists furious with Chemist Warehouse dodgy Medscheck practices

http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/news/latest-news/chemist-warehouse-s-medscheck-push-sees-store-do-3

http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/news/latest-news/pharmacists-furious-with-cwh-medscheck-push

Chemist Warehouse (CWH) is at it again! News recently broke out about how one CWH store claimed 319 Medscheck in 2 weeks. And bragged about it. Head office pushing their stores or actually their underpaid pharmacists to do low-quality Medschecks. Easy $20,000 in their pocket.

This news made a lot of pharmacists in the industry furious. Furious because CWH is clearly doing a dodgy and getting away with it. One Medscheck should take about 20-30min to do. If you do the math, the pharmacy would have to be open more than 24 hours and employed a lot of pharmacists to do this.

I recently met someone who works at CWH and that's what they told me too. They had KPI they had to meet - they must do 10 Medscheck PER DAY. Wow, that's probably what I do in a month! Don't understand why Medicare still paid CWH without even auditting them. Its so suspicious but its like noone's doing anything!

Honestly, I think the the pharmacy industry is screwed and here's why:

• Medscheck has no benefit to us pharmacists. It only benefits the pharmacy owners. It just means more work and pressure for the average pharmacist. Not like they get paid anymore. Same wage. 
• CWH paying their pharmacists only $24 per hour. Casual rate, long hours, night and weekend shifts. Cityrail ticket person at the train station gets paid $60,000 per year salary with paid annual leave, sick leave and other benefits. 
• Pharmacists don't even get a proper lunch break. On call means we eat while we work. And some stupid law stating they must close the store if there is no pharmacist on the premise. 
• Employers talking about generics all the time. Lying to patients that we don't keep the brand anymore, made in Australia when its made in India, better quality not necessarily, less expensive when we charge them the same price as the original. Must have 80% generic conversion or your job is on the line. 
• Employers talking about Medscheck. Doing 5min Medscheck, and them getting the patient to sign. They don't even know what they are signing for.
• Discount chemists charging so little for medications. Amoxil Syrup is $6.50 at CWH. That's cheaper than the concessional price. Dispensing FEE zilch! Patients thinking other pharmacies are ripping them off as CWH charging so low. 
• Customers expecting everything in pharmacy is free. Free blood pressure checks, Free blood glucose checks, free weighing scales, free medical advice, free Webster packs........ We don't get paid by Medicare for each consultation we do. 
• Abused by customers who don't want to pay a surcharge for original brands coz other pharmacies are not charging me. Either they are lying or they really do that we don't know for sure. Patients think the pharmacies set PBS prices. Its Medicare but they don't believe us. 
• Very weak governing body The Guild. Hasn't done much. Their negotiations are crap. They don't know how to negotiate. Lets Medicare and government step all over us. Just not powerful enough. Look at the nurses union. They walk out on their job, protest and government gives them a payrise. What about us? The Guild puts out a stupid petition, gets everyone to sign it and gives it to the government who chucks it in the bin. No change. Problem is still there. Just forget about it and move on.