Wal-Mart in Lynchburg, VA Review: Can Their Pharmacy Keep Up with the Demand?

It goes without saying that when Wal-Mart lowered the price on many prescription drugs to only $4 that there was going to be a lot of demand. But was Wal-Mart ready for this?

My mom needed to transfer her prescriptions to a different Wal-Mart. According to Wal-Mart policy, the location requesting the prescription must contact the pharmacy that has it and request the transfer. Aware of this policy, my mom contacted the Wal-Mart Pharmacy in Lynchburg, Virginia and asked them to contact the other Wal-Mart to have her prescription transferred. This was around 11am when she contacted them. Come 3pm, they still didn't have it so she returned home.

Considering one of these prescriptions was her blood pressure medicine, I contacted the pharmacy myself around 6:45pm. I was told by the lady who answered that the phone line to the other Wal-Mart had been busy all day and that he (I assume he refers to the pharmacist) has better things to do than constantly be on the phone trying to contact them to have it transferred. Then she placed me on hold. Returning to the phone, she said that he was on the phone with them now. It shouldn't have taken as many phone calls from us as it did to have the transfer completed, but I said nothing other than I would be there soon.

When I arrived at 8:15pm, I was told that it wasn't ready. She asked a man about it who I assumed to be the pharmacist. He replied with a smirk that he had just received the paper and added it to a thick pile. I looked her in the eyes, asking what that meant? She ignored my question. I repeated the question, adding how long would the wait be? She still ignored me. I told her that I would like an honest answer as to how long it would be.

It seemed she truly did not know the answer and wasn't going to ask him. When she eventually tossed a general sounding fifteen minute answer at me, it didn't sound genuine. I told her that I didn't believe that since it was added to a huge pile and that I would like to know the truth.

Only getting a blank stare in return, I told her that in the past, fifteen minutes was code for an hour and that I did not have an hour. All I was asking for was an honest answer, and not feeling I was getting it, I left.

I contacted a manager at the Wal-Mart location that the prescription was transferred from to inquire about the supposed busy phone lines for the entire eight hours that we tried to get these prescriptions transferred. He told me that he found it hard to believe since they have five lines in that store.

I find it completely unacceptable that the Wal-Mart pharmacy employee: lied about the lines being busy over an eight hour time span at the other Wal-Mart, said that he (referring to the pharmacist?) had better things to do than be on the phone to get my mom's prescriptions transferred, waited until I called at 6:45pm before getting it transferred, and then did not have it ready when I arrived about an hour and a half later.

I shared my experience with a manager at the Wal-Mart in Lynchburg. He told me that he spoke with the pharmacy before returning my call and that they filled about 700 prescriptions today (his point seemed to be that this was more than the ordinary), but admitted that was no excuse for what happened.

It seems that Wal-Mart is getting more requests for prescriptions than they ever have. This is no doubt partly due to the $4 prescriptions. It seems that extra staff is needed to deal with the increase in pharmacy customers. Hopefully, this will be something that they will improve in the future.