RW, let us know what the response is to your email. I would have been livid, too.

My pharmacy did something similar with my HBP meds when I was taking them. Not only did they give me someone else's prescription (bottle and all) but it was the wrong dosage of the med! Same med, different mg and wrong person! What's so scary is the pills were very similar and had I not put on my glasses and looked at the bottle first I would have probably taken them!

I realize folks make mistakes and anytime a human is involved there is that risk.....but some jobs should require a double check system.

my mom got prozac once instead of prilosec. (at least she wasnt depressed about it HA!)

I ALWAYS check my pills BEFORE I leave the counter. I learned long ago that pharmacists make mistakes and then they get quite grumpy when you point it out later. I also learned that once I leave the counter with my purchase I lose the right to complain later. I have received generic instead of brand name, missed counts, missing pills, even got the completely wrong pills in the bottle. I dont care if the person behind me is impatient. I am not leaving till I double check my stuff. If I find I am constantly short on my pills, I will go to a new pharmacy. I cant sit and count all my pills, but I can make sure what is in the bottle is what I am expecting.

I don't think any customer LOSES the right to complain after leaving the store. An error is an error and must be corrected.

Pharmacists who grumble are only hurting themselves! (and that has been proven).

If you consistently have errors, I'd save those bottles and report to your state licensing board. An error here or there can happen to anyone. But consistent errors, is negligence!

The pharmacist in my old town said exactly that. "its YOUR responsibility to check your purchase BEFORE you leave. Once you leave my counter, I have no idea what you do to this stuff, and therefore you lose your right to complain." He really said that! So, from then on I made a heinie out of myself and stood to count and examine each prescription before I left. What a jerk! it was the only pharmacy for many miles around, and I had to watch him like a hawk. I put him on notice that I was not going to walk away quietly.

I do understand there are folks who tamper with thier stuff in hopes of tricking a pharmacy into a free refill or a settlement even, but you cant distrust all your customers, can you?

Luckily my pharmacy was quite gracious about their mistake and even offered to bring my correct prescription to me at home! I live less than a mile from the drug store but they didn't know that when they offered. They apologized forever and even offered me a store gift card. The pharmacy tech that made the error apologized, too, and didn't try to make excuses. Just said he got rushed and should have double checked his orders. I doubt it will happen again. I guess I could have been ugly about it but they corrected their error and it hasn't happened since. But I do check my meds. I think we all have a responsibility to make sure we get what we are supposed to.

The stories are reminding me of something that happened to a friend/boss of mine back in 1994.

I was working in a McD's. It was a franchise that was owned by a really nice couple. Mr and Mrs C were very nice, probably the best people I ever worked for. One morning, I got to work (it was the 6am opening shift on a saturday) and I noticed that the flag was at half staff.

I went inside and asked why the flag was at half staff and the store manager told me they put it at half staff because Mr. C had died unexpectedly the night before. We didnt know what happened at the time, something to do with his heart.

A few months later the story was in the paper and Mrs. C told us all what happened. She had picked up some prescriptions from a pharmacy that I wont name, was the same one I'd been using at the time. She got prescriptions for Mr. C and prescriptions for her daughter and her son. Her son was named for his father, so he was Mr. C III. Apparently the pharmacy, when filling the prescriptions had put the son's medication (not sure what it was) in his father's pill bottle, and C III got his dad's prescription in his bottle.

That night, when Mr C took his prescription, whatever the medication was caused him some sort of cardiac crisis and he had a MASSIVE heart attack and I think a stroke. The medication was found to be the cause.

Mrs C sued the pharmacy and won. (I think the pharmacist who filled the Rx's got fired and possibly lost his license too, since it wasnt his first mistake) Mrs. C also decided to not keep the McD's franchise and sold both stores that she and her husband owned to the slum lord that owned the rest of the McD's in town. That ended the fun times I had working at McD's. I quit about a year and a half after Mr. C died. (the slum lord of McD's no longer owns any McD's. He lost his franchising, so it's now safe to eat at McD's here again)

I try to always remember to check my prescriptions now, and if they change something, I always make sure to call the pharmacy and ask about it. I also will google the numbers and letters on the pills to see what they are too. I still use the same pharmacy that I did back then, but I switched to another branch. So far, I havent had a problem with getting someone else's Rx.

I did recently find out that there's someone with the exact same name as me who uses the same bank I do, and I'm pretty sure she's at the same pharmacy too. I called about a Rx about a month ago, and they didnt ask me any information to confirm who I was when I was asking about something, and they were confused for a minute because the med I was asking about wasnt on the account they were looking at. She asked me what my address was and then said "whoops, that explains it. I was looking at the wrong one". So, now I know to be really careful about my meds I pick up.

Good thing I've pretty much stopped taking everything but my migraine pills (which just changed because they dont make my migraine med anymore)

In 40+ yrs I only had ONE person tamper with a bottle... and I think she was getting Alzheimer's or just a tight wad.

She was so patently obvious in what she did...putting FiberCon tablets in an old worn pill container, that would hold tiny pills.

She just wanted a "refund"...the bottle was over a year old!

So the manager did it for customer relations, but we both knew what was going on!

But scamming tablet counts is a real thing, and hard to prove.

The dispensing robots often loosen up and start overcounting, and never did anyone call us to warn us of that. When you have a unit with 200 cells, you cannot catch every one!

Controls are usually double counted now. And I would count them myself when temping, because I didn't know the employees well.

Most places will fix a count error after the people leave the store. The place you describe is very backward and old fashioned. (if you live in a small community-- he is really holding you hostage). I'd make a production each time too just like you...so others can see this. It is more damaging for him to be that way in the end. His own worse enemy.

The problems in a busy pharmacy are the endless interruptions.
One cannot concentrate when interrupted every 30 seconds all day long! That and high volume with inadequate help...nightmares!

This has happened to me before with the same pharmacy. The last time it happened, they put some other med in a bottle labeled for a diabetes drug for the man. I knew what the drug looked like, the label describing the appearance of the med described that same med, and the pills in the bottle did not match it.

I called them and described the pill to them and they offered to come and pick up the bottle and bring the right med. It would have required a 50 mile trip through the snow so I told them I would drop it off after work the next morning.

The pharmacist who processed the medication originally was there early waiting for me, gave me the correct med, and a gift card. He told me he had accidentally given us a heart medication rather than a diabetes med. Scary stuff.

The person who packaged this med was a new pharmacist. I got a call this morning from the pharmacist apologizing and asking me to stop in next time I was in town to pick up a gift card for my troubles.

They are always responsive when there is a problem or a short on pills. One time they refilled a prescription for me and then a few days later I got a call saying I had forgotten my baclofen, and that I had only gotten a partial refill. I went in and they had the new bottle in a bag, stapled shut and I waited until I got home and went to put it away before I checked it.

They had refilled a 90 day scrip, but when I checked the bottle I had picked up a few days before, it was also a 90 day refill with all the pills there. I brought the bottle back and explained what had happened to them and they told me to keep the new bottle as thanks for being honest with them about it.

I pick up large orders all the time for both work and home, and I always check them, but often get delayed. They are NEVER used before being checked, especially at work, those get checked before my shift is over. At home it may take me a day or two to check them but I always do. I not only make sure it is the right pill and the right dose, but the correct count as well. They are used to me now and know I won't come in claiming a short order or keeping an overage. It's a pain in my rump sometimes, especially when keeping track of all the man's meds, he's a walking pharmacy all by himself!. I not only have to check his, but I have to portion them out in two weeks of night and day pills, in organizers, along with notes for shots and reminders to order refills on supplies, syringes, test strips, lancets and other injectables he is on.

Life used to be so much easier when all I had to do was to check the expiration date on a bottle of aspirin!