n 27 March 2009 my Fiancé and I went to the Walgreens store in Des Moines, WA to purchase a prescription for our daughter. The Pharmacist, Tang Tran, provided inaccurate information regarding the supply length of the drug we purchased. When we heard how much the prescription was going to cost $69.99, and that it was not covered by our insurance we informed him that this cost was too high. We then asked him how long the supply we were purchasing would last and he said one year. We thought that was a fair price so we decided to purchase the prescription. When we arrived home we read the box and it said it was a one-month supply. Because of this we had to go back to point this out and request a refund.

When we returned to discuss this, on 28 March, Mr. Tran treated us very rude and condescending and would not refund our money, even though he had made a mistake (he was adamant that we should pay for his mistake). He was very unprofessional and emotional, and accusatory towards us. Examples of things he said were “You should know that it would not last for one-year”. Why would we know this, and why would we ask him in the first place, if we had this knowledge. He also said “I [he] will go to jail if I take this prescription back”. This was a lie. The WAC of Washington State does not state this. It states that it would be illegal for him to take it back from us and then to resell it. He continued in this tone of accusations until one of the other employees asked us to return when the main pharmacy manager was in.

The pharmacist should have simply stated that he is sorry, that he cannot authorize a refund, but we will need to speak to the manager when she is in. Also, initially, when we indicated the price was high he should have suggested he look into a replacement that our insurance would cover and speak with our Doctor.

We will not be able to continue to support a company that employs this level of unprofessionalism in their employees.

We did return tonight (30 March) and discussed the matter with the Pharmacy Manager, Bessie Ament, Pharm D. Initially she seemed reluctant to refund the purchase. She made it sound like we had misunderstood; likely due to the prior conversation she had with Mr. Tran. After seeing that we had not misunderstood, that Mr. Tran had treated us unprofessionally, and had given us false information, she finally refunded us the purchase price.

This entire incident was completely unnecessary; it caused undue stress due to the derogatory and unprofessional treatment from Mr. Tran, caused my fiancé to become ill, took up much of our time in two unnecessary trips to the store, and has taken our time to write this complaint.

Mr. Tran should treat all customers fairly, equally, and professionally. In addition, he should understand the Washington State laws regarding his profession (in reference to him making the statement that we were asking him to do something illegal that he would go to prison for).