I Hate Coupons, Part II

I posted recently about how I hate coupons. Now I hate them even more.

My district manager just called me about a complaint filed against my store and another store in my chain. The patient was angry that we would only provide one gift card per person. The one-per-person rule is printed as a limitation right on the coupon. The lady didn’t even understand that she was bending (hell, breaking) the rules by getting more than one coupon at different stores in the same chain. She yelled and screamed at my district supervisor. And what does he do? Just what he shouldn’t do. He offered her another $25 gift card at my store. I was instructed to appease her.

This is so frustrating.

We pharmacist bloggers rant about how poorly we are treated by the public. It is understandable why this happens. The public learns, like above, that throwing a fit and acting like a brat gets them their way. Why can’t my supervisors back me up? It undermines my authority as a pharmacy manager. I try to follow the rules, but all it takes is one angry customer call for them to bend them.

It is going to be very difficult for me to be nice to this lady when she comes in for a third gift card this month (one for her, one for her husband, and this new one). But I am expected to.
All of this makes me happy that groups like The Pharmacy Alliance exist. There is nothing wrong with the profession. It is the job that sucks. We pharmacists need to step up and say that it is not okay to treat us like this.

My job is not to:
- ring out coupons for the Gap that you get for free with your prescription
- clean toilets (see recent posts on The Pharmacy Alliance’s yahoo groups webpage)
- check out your groceries
- direct you to the charcoal/ketchup/vaccuum bags/bologna- know everything about each and every one of my patient’s insurance plans
- work for 12 hours without a lunch or bathroom break
- etc, etc, etc

The Pharmacy Alliance promotes DIGNITY, SELF-RESPECT, and INTEGRITY for the pharmacist.

We need to STAND UP and demand to be treated better by the companies we work for and by the public. Rather than look in the mirror and say “I’m good enough, smart enough, and gosh darn it people like me” every day, we need to say “I am a PROFESSIONAL and deserve to be treated as such.”