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Was CVS Pharmacy right or wrong?

Was CVS Pharmacy right or wrong?


  • Total voters
    42
They behaved disgracefully. They should be fired for it.

They did exactly as their jobs required them to do. It's foolish to expect them to get fired for doing their jobs.
 
If someone needs emergency medical care, the correct course of action, unless you're a member of the medical profession, is to summon an ambulance.
Not to traipse around a drugstore offering the sufferer prescription drugs for which they do not have a prescription.
It sounds like a good way to get someone killed, and end up in prison.

I agree with what you are saying.. the clerk should have called ambulance if he wasn't willing to do anything else. Arguing with somebody over the payment isn't helping in a crisis situation.. and is a really stupid move in a crisis situation.

This woman had a prescription.

Inhalers can be life saving and can end an attack.. but sometimes it might not be enough.. If the attack was minor it would have ended it. Going to the ER isn't always necessary. I have gone to the ER three times in the same day for asthma attacks.. and all three visits ended in the same results.

They just put me on oxygen or gave me a breathing treatment. They always prescribed medicines to help control it, and said it needs to be controlled at home. You can't just depend on the ER for asthma.. I also had an upper respiratory infection and was close to passing out, so I needed extra care.. but I understand the process well because of that.

If she went to the ER they would have given her an albuterol treatment, and then prescribed her the inhaler she was trying to get at the pharmacy.. and the inhaler she was probably trying to get was albuterol, so that is the funny part.
 
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On a human compassion level? It was the wrong thing to do.

On the other hand? Where does it end? I do not have that extra penny so cannot get my pack of gum. Give me that penny cause "I" matter so much. Honestly a business cannot just hand out freebies like that.

The couple was not asking for a freebie.. they were willing to get the extra 1.50, they just wanted her to be able to take a puff of the inhaler so her situation wouldn't escalate..
 
I agree with what you are saying.. the clerk should have called ambulance if he wasn't willing to do anything else --

Either the clerk or the boyfriend should have called for health professionals - the incorrect action was to walk into a business premises and expect the business to act like a health organisation - especially if her asthma had now escalated.
 
Either the clerk or the boyfriend should have called for health professionals - the incorrect action was to walk into a business premises and expect the business to act like a health organisation - especially if her asthma had now escalated.

Why did she not go to the hospital?
 
The responsibility for people's health goes to that person - not businesses who supply medication for the illness.

I wouldn't be surprised if their mission statements or values statements say something different..

Fact is if they are in the business of supplying medication, so they are expected to be responsible for their customers health involving those medications and supplying them. Likewise a doctor who is care of your health and guiding your medical decisions, takes some responsibility over your health and it's progress..

I don't see this in absolutes on either side.. We have to take some responsibility for our health, but we naturally expect the institutions we trust with our health to be responsible too.

But this issue isn't really about responsibility over health.. it's about money and being short a 1.50.. And up to a certain point you were mostly focusing on capitalistic arguments and then switched to this responsibility argument.

You also even said at one point, that you would be willing to pay the extra 1.50 yourself for her..

So what I'm saying is that the woman and her boyfriend should be better prepared. She should either carry her medication all the time since it's factual that she can have an attack at any time or make sure she always carries enough money to buy medication should she ever need it. She needs to be better prepared. And CVS isn't in the wrong because she isn't prepared.

You can't just walk into a pharmacy and buy an inhaler over the counter.. You need a prescription, and she had one.. so there was some planning and preparedness on her part.

But I am not going to argue that people shouldn't be prepared, they should.. The thing is, if she didn't even have a prescription and just went to ER, we would have never heard about this story. The only reason this story is in the news is because of a 1.50.

All of this is over such a small sum of money, and this couple offered collateral and didn't even expect to get the inhaler for free, or for less than it really was. They just wanted her to able to take the medicine to stop the attack so it didn't get worse or life threatening. I don't really see how that violates any supposed capitalistic structure as you claim it does.. They were paying customers, and they didn't expect anything for free or less than it's market value.
 
Either the clerk or the boyfriend should have called for health professionals - the incorrect action was to walk into a business premises and expect the business to act like a health organisation - especially if her asthma had now escalated.

There is nothing wrong with what they did.. An inhaler can stop an attack completely, unless she is severely chronic or had a respiratory infection.

They didn't expect the pharmacy to act like a health org either, but like a pharmacy.. When I had my respiratory infection, I sent my sister to the phram to fill my prescriptions instead of going back to the ER for a fourth time. The ER will eventually send you back to the pharm for the same prescription anyway.
 
Personally, you're allowed to do that. However, they aren't compelled to do that. So the clerks still did nothing wrong.

There is a whole lot more to right and wrong beyond allowed/compelled.
 
If other people were in the store, what does it say about them to not come up with a dollar. Why no mention, yet CVS is being looked at by some as wrong. Technically CVS was within their rights. I would have liked to see some person step up and help.

Amazed it took almost 50 posts to get to this.

First, I don't blame CVS for in general having a policy that says you can't "come back and pay the extra money" or "no haggling". You don't make policies with 100 billion different exceptions. However, you also should be giving your managers and such leeway to potentially trump policy in extreme situations where it may be better to do so. CVS, as a COMPANY, I don't really blame specifically.

Second, I do blame the manager on duty or the employee a bit, moreso any manager that is on duty. This is a case where you trump policy and act intelligent. From a humanity stand point, its one dollar and you've obviously seeing someone is in medical need. From a business stand point you don't have to worry about precedence as this is a very specific and unique situation AND you can get some damn good press for doing the deed.

Third, I'm ashamed at the people in the store, cause you can't tell me it was empty, and a bit at the people on this board who obviously it seems care less about the situation and would care less about the woman and has MUCH more care about "OMG OMG OMG Attack big business and capitalism!" Like no other person in that ENTIRE store could've had a single solitary dollar to pull out and say "here let me help"?
 
@ SheWolf
I concur with you also, thus why I mention the rounded part.
 
There is no mention of other customers being present as witnesses.
It's highly likely they were the only ones there at the time.
 
I'm not qualified to judge the employee... neither are most of you.

I know that if it were 'me' behind the counter, I'd have simply given her the damned inhaler and worried about payment later. If I got fired, then so be it. My job is not worth someones life.

yes, we can judge the employee's actions. it was a buck, for god's sake.
 
There is no mention of other customers being present as witnesses.
It's highly likely they were the only ones there at the time.

I disagree, I think its highly likely that customers weren't the target of the article written on THE CONSUMERIST that is focused on "shoppers biting back" and is dedicated to attacking corporations.

I think its ridiculous to assume that a store like CVS was absolutely and completely empty of any customers during this, as more often then not SOMEONE is in a store like that. And my comment about the customers would go equal to every employee in that building as well. Its ridiculous to think one of them didn't have a dollar or an ATM/Credit Card on hand.

I am much more annoyed at people on an individual level...from managers to employees to customers...then to a Company or Corporation that has a perfectly logical and reasonable guideline.
 
I disagree, I think its highly likely that customers weren't the target of the article written on THE CONSUMERIST that is focused on "shoppers biting back" and is dedicated to attacking corporations.

I think its ridiculous to assume that a store like CVS was absolutely and completely empty of any customers during this, as more often then not SOMEONE is in a store like that. And my comment about the customers would go equal to every employee in that building as well. Its ridiculous to think one of them didn't have a dollar or an ATM/Credit Card on hand.

I am much more annoyed at people on an individual level...from managers to employees to customers...then to a Company or Corporation that has a perfectly logical and reasonable guideline.

Ok - is there another article that discusses it from another view?
 
I wouldn't be surprised if their mission statements or values statements say something different..

CVS Mission Statement

OUR MISSION

We will be the easiest pharmacy retailer for customers to use.

OUR VISION

We help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.

OUR VALUES

Respect for individuals
Integrity
Teamwork
Openness to new ideas
Commitment to flawless execution
Passion for extraordinary customer service

Given the above, it appears that CVS and its employee(s) have one massive :failpail: on their hands.

Third, I'm ashamed at the people in the store, cause you can't tell me it was empty...

The population of Garwood NJ is 4500. It's entirely possible, and possibly even likely, that no one else was in the store at the time.

Like no other person in that ENTIRE store could've had a single solitary dollar to pull out and say "here let me help"?

Sure. The guy at the counter and/or the manager could have easily pulled their heads out of their asses and done so. But they didn't. Apparently their "Passion for extraordinary customer service" in "helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives" was on a break at the time. :roll:
 
The population of Garwood NJ is 4500. It's entirely possible, and possibly even likely, that no one else was in the store at the time.




Uhm it's a suburb of Newark, it's pretty much an urban area. Jersey is not like montanna, there is no open space between towns around here. :prof



garwood.jpg


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=garwo...code_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q8gEwAA
 
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This part intrigues me...

Brown told the Fox station that he attempted to give his cell phone or wallet as collateral for the inhaler but was rebuffed.

I mean...really? They couldn't accept collateral until he could come up with a dollar? I was at a local convenience store once and was 2 bucks short and the cashier just told me to bring it to him later in the day. No collateral, no life or death struggle, just $2 short for a lunch at a freakin gas station and they had better customer service.
 
Uhm it's a suburb of Newark, it's pretty much an urban area. Jersey is not like montanna, there is no open space between towns around here. :prof



garwood.jpg


garwood, nj - Google Maps

That doesn't mean that there were necessarily people in there. I lived in Raleigh, and walked to the CVS when there was no one in it at the time. Is there a WalMart in the area? That would certainly cut business for them. It could also depend on the time of day. Had they just opened? Were they about to close? Was there anything else going on in the area?

Now, if there were people in the store, then certainly, they were certainly wrong for not offering the money up to help pay for the inhaler. However, the pharmacists/clerk was the first person to do wrong. They could have prevented this bad press by simply giving them the inhaler (once a prescription was verified) and worrying about payment later since it was probably pretty obvious the woman was having an attack.
 
That doesn't mean that there were necessarily people in there. I lived in Raleigh, and walked to the CVS when there was no one in it at the time. Is there a WalMart in the area? That would certainly cut business for them. It could also depend on the time of day. Had they just opened? Were they about to close? Was there anything else going on in the area?

Now, if there were people in the store, then certainly, they were certainly wrong for not offering the money up to help pay for the inhaler. However, the pharmacists/clerk was the first person to do wrong. They could have prevented this bad press by simply giving them the inhaler (once a prescription was verified) and worrying about payment later since it was probably pretty obvious the woman was having an attack.


WE do know what time it was:


, Katherine O'Connor was turned away from the Garwood CVS on North Avenue on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 14 when she was having an asthma attack because they had only $20 for an inhale






also



garwood 6,292.9/sq mi

Raleigh 2,841.7/sq mi



Your density isn't even half of Garwood. This is on a main road, it most likley wasn't empty..


the pharmasist was wrong and was an asshole, but thems the facts.
 
WE do know what time it was:

I didn't remember that, but I was referring to more specific time. So, had the place just opened up? How was the weather? There are many reasons why there may not have been anyone else in the store.

also

garwood 6,292.9/sq mi

Raleigh 2,841.7/sq mi

Your density isn't even half of Garwood. This is on a main road, it most likley wasn't empty..


the pharmasist was wrong and was an asshole, but thems the facts.

The CVS I walked to was on Highway 70/Glenwood, the main road in the area of Raleigh I lived in. The highway was bigger than the road in your pic, and there were more businesses in the area from what I see in that pic, including a McDs across the street and a Wachovia bank, a Walgreens on the opposite corner, and the last corner had an auto shop. There was a FedEx next to the CVS. There was plenty around it and a lot of traffic, doesn't mean that there was always going to be someone shopping there.

There is no real way to determine if there were more customers in the store at that time without more information. But it doesn't matter, because, as I said, the
 
I didn't remember that, but I was referring to more specific time. So, had the place just opened up? How was the weather? There are many reasons why there may not have been anyone else in the store.

it was sunny and nice. I was close by. ;) its a 24 hr CVS


The CVS I walked to was on Highway 70/Glenwood, the main road in the area of Raleigh I lived in. The highway was bigger than the road in your pic, and there were more businesses in the area from what I see in that pic, including a McDs across the street and a Wachovia bank, a Walgreens on the opposite corner, and the last corner had an auto shop. There was a FedEx next to the CVS. There was plenty around it and a lot of traffic, doesn't mean that there was always going to be someone shopping there.

There is no real way to determine if there were more customers in the store at that time without more information. But it doesn't matter, because, as I said, the



nah there's not. But Glinda was out of her gourd thinking that the population of garwood meant it was likley the CVS was empty. ;)
 
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