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I don't get to post on this board a lot because I generally don't deal directly with customers (fellow employees are nearly as bad, if not worse, believe me) so I'll share the few stories I've had the last couple days. I've been supervising in our call center a bit in the last few days; generally I don't supervise, but when the supervisors are short-staffed, or exceptionally busy, or they have to attend a meeting, then they ask me to fill in. I actually really like doing so, it's a change of pace from what I normally do and the time flies when I'm on the call center floor.
Prescription Woes #1
This customer really wasn't all that sucky. She wanted to talk to a supervisor because she had placed an order over the weekend for a prescription item, and knew she had a prescription on file with us, so was expecting the order to ship on Monday for delivery by Friday (note: I talked to her last Thursday, so she was talking about previous weekend.) Except, the pharmacy, for some reason, sent her vet a prescription request, and had to wait to get it back before they'd release the order.
Now, I took a look at her file, and she did have a prescription on file, for the same medication she ordered, with the same animal name/species, with an expiration date of October 2009, and she was not out of refills. So I couldn't see why the pharmacy needed a new prescription. And, they were closed at the time she called. So I apologized and told her I'd have the pharmacy look into it and call her back in the morning. And, for good measure, I threw in a credit on her account for the inconvenience (for all I could tell, we HAD made an error, by delaying her order when it wasn't necessary. And she was actually really nice through this whole thing.)
I checked her file again the next day (which is not required because I had already left a message for the pharmacy and knew they would take care of it, but I was curious) and apparently the call got escalated to the head pharmacist. Apparently a new rule (or law, not sure) is that prescriptions expire after 1 year, even if the vet writes an expiration date that exceeds 1 year. Her prescription had been written in October 2007, so it expired October 2008, even though the date in the system was October 2009. We USED to be able to hold prescriptions for up to 2 years, but not anymore. But, the pharmacist talked to her and gave her ANOTHER credit on her account. I had clearly documented that I'd already credited her, so...either she got super-nasty with him, or...I dunno.
Prescription Woes #2
This one happened today, and it was my last one before I was done supervising! What a great way to end my shift...customer demands to speak with a supervisor because he wants to know why he can't fax his prescription to us himself.
Quick lesson on prescriptions: It is state and federal law that to accept a prescription, we either have to have it faxed or call in by a licensed vet, or an original prescription, signed by a vet, mailed to us. We cannot accept a prescription that is faxed to us by a customer, even if it is signed by a vet, the reason being because a customer could fax it to us...and 5 or 10 or 50 other online pharmacies, and get the medication filled multiple times. This is not just a rule that our company made up, it is a state and federal LAW.
So, customer wants to know why he has to mail us his prescription. The agent who was talking with him had already told him that it was the law, but she didn't know the reasoning behind it, so when I talked to him, I told him. Not that I was implying that he himself would fax 5 different pharmacies! But, we have no way of knowing that, so we can't accept faxed prescriptions from customers.
He still wouldn't buy it.
"Why would I want to fill this prescription multiple times? You think I want to over-medicate my dog? It'd probably kill him!"
"No, sir, but we don't have any way of knowing that a customer would not fax a prescription to multiple pharmacies and fill it multiple times, when it was only intended to be filled once."
"But my vet could fax it to multiple pharmacies! What would you do then?"
"That's your vet's choice, sir. If he wants you to fill it with multiple pharmacies, then he is, in essence, writing multiple prescriptions for the same medication and authorizing that medication to be filled more than once. The way the prescription is written now, is only for one refill. If a customer were to fax that prescription to multiple pharmacies, they would be filling that prescription more times than the vet intended it to be."
"Well, that's a stupid policy. I don't understand this. I'm just never going to order from you again. *click*"
*sigh*
I can't read, give me a discount!
We have some kind of promotion going on where certain bulk quantities of our pet food is half off, but only if you order it in the bulk quantity. For example, if you order a 25 pack of canned dog food, you'll get it half off...but not if you order the 10 pack. Well, a customer placed an order and when she received it (why do they never notice the price difference until they receive an order? Do they not pay attention to what price the agent tells them on the phone, or what is displayed on our website?) she realized that she didn't get the half off discount. After I looked at the order, I realized it was because she had placed an order for a 10 pack of food, not the 25 pack. And she had ordered multiple packs, too...I think 4 or 5. I found a copy of the coupon that the customer was ordering from and it states VERY CLEARLY "Save 50% on our 25 packs of dog food! Item #ABC and XYZ." It even gives the item#s. Which were obviously different than the item#s she ordered. After the agent saw the coupon, she tried to (gently) tell the customer that it was only for the 25 packs, not the 10 packs, and that it says that right on the coupon, along with the item#s...and the customer actually told her, "I should still get the discount, even though I didn't read that!"
Yeah, I like supervising, it's fun to listen to the dimwits, but I can tell that someone could get burnt out really fast by dealing with these people all day every day!
Prescription Woes #1
This customer really wasn't all that sucky. She wanted to talk to a supervisor because she had placed an order over the weekend for a prescription item, and knew she had a prescription on file with us, so was expecting the order to ship on Monday for delivery by Friday (note: I talked to her last Thursday, so she was talking about previous weekend.) Except, the pharmacy, for some reason, sent her vet a prescription request, and had to wait to get it back before they'd release the order.
Now, I took a look at her file, and she did have a prescription on file, for the same medication she ordered, with the same animal name/species, with an expiration date of October 2009, and she was not out of refills. So I couldn't see why the pharmacy needed a new prescription. And, they were closed at the time she called. So I apologized and told her I'd have the pharmacy look into it and call her back in the morning. And, for good measure, I threw in a credit on her account for the inconvenience (for all I could tell, we HAD made an error, by delaying her order when it wasn't necessary. And she was actually really nice through this whole thing.)
I checked her file again the next day (which is not required because I had already left a message for the pharmacy and knew they would take care of it, but I was curious) and apparently the call got escalated to the head pharmacist. Apparently a new rule (or law, not sure) is that prescriptions expire after 1 year, even if the vet writes an expiration date that exceeds 1 year. Her prescription had been written in October 2007, so it expired October 2008, even though the date in the system was October 2009. We USED to be able to hold prescriptions for up to 2 years, but not anymore. But, the pharmacist talked to her and gave her ANOTHER credit on her account. I had clearly documented that I'd already credited her, so...either she got super-nasty with him, or...I dunno.
Prescription Woes #2
This one happened today, and it was my last one before I was done supervising! What a great way to end my shift...customer demands to speak with a supervisor because he wants to know why he can't fax his prescription to us himself.
Quick lesson on prescriptions: It is state and federal law that to accept a prescription, we either have to have it faxed or call in by a licensed vet, or an original prescription, signed by a vet, mailed to us. We cannot accept a prescription that is faxed to us by a customer, even if it is signed by a vet, the reason being because a customer could fax it to us...and 5 or 10 or 50 other online pharmacies, and get the medication filled multiple times. This is not just a rule that our company made up, it is a state and federal LAW.
So, customer wants to know why he has to mail us his prescription. The agent who was talking with him had already told him that it was the law, but she didn't know the reasoning behind it, so when I talked to him, I told him. Not that I was implying that he himself would fax 5 different pharmacies! But, we have no way of knowing that, so we can't accept faxed prescriptions from customers.
He still wouldn't buy it.
"Why would I want to fill this prescription multiple times? You think I want to over-medicate my dog? It'd probably kill him!"
"No, sir, but we don't have any way of knowing that a customer would not fax a prescription to multiple pharmacies and fill it multiple times, when it was only intended to be filled once."
"But my vet could fax it to multiple pharmacies! What would you do then?"
"That's your vet's choice, sir. If he wants you to fill it with multiple pharmacies, then he is, in essence, writing multiple prescriptions for the same medication and authorizing that medication to be filled more than once. The way the prescription is written now, is only for one refill. If a customer were to fax that prescription to multiple pharmacies, they would be filling that prescription more times than the vet intended it to be."
"Well, that's a stupid policy. I don't understand this. I'm just never going to order from you again. *click*"
*sigh*
I can't read, give me a discount!
We have some kind of promotion going on where certain bulk quantities of our pet food is half off, but only if you order it in the bulk quantity. For example, if you order a 25 pack of canned dog food, you'll get it half off...but not if you order the 10 pack. Well, a customer placed an order and when she received it (why do they never notice the price difference until they receive an order? Do they not pay attention to what price the agent tells them on the phone, or what is displayed on our website?) she realized that she didn't get the half off discount. After I looked at the order, I realized it was because she had placed an order for a 10 pack of food, not the 25 pack. And she had ordered multiple packs, too...I think 4 or 5. I found a copy of the coupon that the customer was ordering from and it states VERY CLEARLY "Save 50% on our 25 packs of dog food! Item #ABC and XYZ." It even gives the item#s. Which were obviously different than the item#s she ordered. After the agent saw the coupon, she tried to (gently) tell the customer that it was only for the 25 packs, not the 10 packs, and that it says that right on the coupon, along with the item#s...and the customer actually told her, "I should still get the discount, even though I didn't read that!"
Yeah, I like supervising, it's fun to listen to the dimwits, but I can tell that someone could get burnt out really fast by dealing with these people all day every day!
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