First of all, I love Medco for so many reasons, but the fact that all the annoying things they do basically annoy me sometimes makes me wonder if it’s worth it. I’ll list what I like:
I’ve been very fortunate and pay virtually nothing for my prescriptions, at a local store I pay $5 a month and with Medco I pay $2 (total) for 3 months. Now that’s my current insurance plan and not Medco so it’s not a plus just for them (and my co-pay is about to go way up).
I can call with a drug question at any time and they can get an answer for me (I’m not sure if they’re 24 hours, but I know I’ve called close to midnight on a holiday before).
I can renew on-line and see my history of everything they’ve mailed to me for a long while.
They give me postage paid envelopes to mail in prescriptions.
So this is where my “What I hate about Medco” rant starts, it’s everything else they kind of make as annoying as possible and it’s got to cast them money and time (mine too!). It’s really strange considering they’ve got the normal part perfect from a customer service standpoint (see above). It’s the odd things that they handle strangely, for example:
They called me the other day and left a message so I had to call back and they had to transfer me to two other people to figure out why they called me (plus they disconnected me once). Here’s what it is: the off brand of something works better for me ansod the doctor wrote it that way, they were actually calling me to tell me that they’re shipping me what I ordered and next time I should check to see if they have it in stock. I’m sure I’ve been using this for several years and had it written the same way every time and it’s never wasted 20 minutes of my life on the phone before. Besides the doctor wrote it for the drug I want (DAW=dispense as written), they shouldn’t ship me anything but that, I shouldn’t need to call them for them to ship me the correct drug, right? Big huge waste of my time and theirs.
Most calls that I’ve had to return to them over the years go that way, it takes them a whole to figure out why I’m calling (and I have the ref number they gave me) and it just takes forever and it’s usually on something odd.
They don’t handle multiple addresses very well considering they do ship out drugs that need to be kept cold (in the middle of summer I ship that stuff to work). So you have to change the computer address when you have them refill that medicine so it goes where you want.
In the mean time if you mail in a prescription with the other address pre-printed on the form and circle it in red and write in big letters “ship here” they still call you to make sure that’s where you want it shipped (duh!).
And then all paper-work notifications go to the work address since you had to change your address to that location. They need a way for you “billing”/paperwork address to be a different address.
When you go on-line in February and they list drugs they can be refilled in March if you click “refill now” for many of them you will get mailings or phone calls (I can’t figure out how they choose) that complain that “you filled them too soon” even though they told you to!
Today, I got a phone call for some prescriptions that the doctor sent in electronically on Monday and they’ll ship on March 3rd. For one thing if I needed it today, I wouldn’t have mailed it in, but why did it take them until Saturday to not know they won’t ship it until next week?
The other big annoyance is everything they leave you a message about is useless since none of it mentions the drug name. It’s all some prescription number which means nothing to me. I understand they don’t want to violate HIPA, but it’s simple enough to check the file and see that it says: this guy wants us to leave him his information in a message this would be convenient to him and not any kind of violation since he requests it. This seems like a pretty simple process for them to impalement for the sake of customer service (it’d be like locking or unlocking your domain name).
They do e-mail me some information (generally on shipment) but it’s also lacking the drug name, which is silly since I assume most of the population (not me) uses the same password for their e-mail as they do for the medical website it’s probably not protecting anything. But I don’t understand why they just don’t mail me everything.
So as I said, I normally pay $5 for a prescription and I can get 3 months from mailing in for only $2. But when my insurance changes that’s going to go up to $10 a month and mail-in will be $20 for 3 months. I’m still saving money, but can I do better (or just as well) with local stores and coupons or with bonuses that they always offer to switch stores? Sure that’d be an annoyance but at least they’d be annoying me on my terms…
I just started to get my prescriptions from medco and I already don”t like them. They charged me full price for one of my presciptions. The reason being there was no cheaper drug when I have been geting it from another pharmacy for two years, They also charged me double for another presciption because the doctor wrote it out wrong. [ Instead of paying $80 for a 3 month supply I was charged $80 for 1 month] I was only paying $40 before I went to medco.After being on the phone for most of the day and hanging up on a supervivor a manger called me back to take care of the problem.I feel they should of called me when the problem happened. I tried to save myself some money but it was not worth it. I will be gong back to cvs where I get phone calls if something is wrong,
your all ignorant. as a customer service rep for Medco I would like to tell all of you that your dumb shit solutions are not unique we’ve already thought of that. if your dr writes your rx wrong guess what…. that’s your drs fault. I know your doc never makes mistakes & you think he’s really smart but he/she isn’t… obviously. another thing… if we would like to continue to provide you the medications @ all we have to respect hippa… calling in & saying its ok does not satisfy the law. grow up & be happy w/ the benefits your getting
I warned Medco that their online practice of displaying an expired medication when they have a current script (not displayed) is a dangerous practice. I did not ask for a refill. How did they respond? They sent me the medication at the wrong dose based on the expired script. If I had taken it, I could have had an overdose of as much as 3X that prescribed. Just what I was trying to warn about. Unfortunately, my physician gave them a new script for the incorrect prior dosage. I already had a 3 month supply of the correct dose. It’s now 3+ months later and Medco still can’t get it straight. I have told them a gazillion times the correct dose. Every time they say it is corrected. Then, they send me another message about “it”. Each time I call , it is just like Gary said, they deny making the call. When they eventually admit they left a message they say that they don’t know what dose I want. I tell them the same thing I told them the last 5 times I talked to them. Instead of correcting their first error they keep asking for another new script for the incorrect dose. They have just sent it to me for the second time in the incorrect dose. The first time, I did not order it. When I refused delivery it took 2 months for them to acknowledge the return and provide credit.
It is not the first time that I felt that they had unsafe practices. — Typically, they will fill as many scripts for the same drugs as a doctor submits, without questioning the customer or the doctor.
As others indicate, all problems are caused the doctor or the customer.
HAHA, What an amazing customer service rep. Why am I not surprised that Medco hires borderline illiterate scumbags to work with their customers. Thanks for the suggestion that I be happy with the benefits I’m getting despite the fact that you and your company are profiting off of my misery. Also, thanks for the prodding to grow up, I’ll remember that the next time I need to tell someone I’ve never met that they’re ignorant and all of their ideas are “dumb shit” (however I will, like you, use “dumb shit” in adjective form despite that not making any sense at all).
CSR, you’re a moronic parasite
To All Unsatisfied customers of Medco,
I to have experienced *Great Disatisfaction* My phyiscian will not even deal with them. I know know what it means to be a Victim of our health care system and know what its like to be squashed and taken advantage of. Is this anyway to treat your customer.??? The better business bureau any help to anyone? or is Medco’s pockets greedy like some of our banks that were bailed out from our government who we hired. To all the workers that ask , I have 3 questions? It sounds like a riddle from the movie saw. Please have common courtesy, and if your not happy in your job get together with other kinfolks and stage a walkout, you deserve better and so do we.
Unhappy with your customer service, delay in delivery and
not cooperating with my doctor.
ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMPLAINTS OF MINE IS REALLY A SIMPLE PROBLEM , THE WEB SITE WOULD NOT ACCEPT MY PASSWORD. DID YOU EVER TRY TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD ON THEIR SITE ? YOU HAVE TO PUT IN A 36 CHARACTER SITE JUST TO GET YOUR CHANGE OF PASSWORD ! NOW TO ME THAT’S FOOLISH , WHY DON’T THEY JUST HAVE A CHECK BOX WHERE YOU CAN GO TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD SIMPLY ? THEY MAKE EVRYTHING A CHORE . SMARTEN UP , MEDCO !!!
Medco refused to send needed and approved medication and I was crippled for seven months. Enough said ..
I HATE MEDCO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing but trouble with them. No one in their customer service department has a clue. Pay the extra money, go to your local pharmacy.
That pharmacy tech really is the problem, im sorry the customer service rep, who is all on medco’s nuts. The customer service issue has just been proven with the way she reacted. Since the pill mill situation in fl i have been using them for my meds and they just always screw something up. Then when you call you get customer service who wants to just give you robotic answers that you already know. That customer service is the main issue,they have lost the idea that the customer is always right.
Regarding Medco and problems that you are having with them. When I was under my wife’s health insurance that had Medco, we had nothing but problems.
Problems like them cancelling orders because I had an Accounts Receivable balance of about 50.00.
We had other problems with them. I notified them that they were not placing a warning on a medication as ordered by the FDA.
Was advised by the FDA to contact the State Pharmacy Board for the location that was filling my prescriptions.
Found out that my and my wife prescriptions were being filled in Texas.
Contacted the State Pharmacy Board for Texas.
The Pharmacy Board was nice enough to investigate Medco and then send me a reply letter telling me about the investigation.
It seems that Pharmacy Boards like the one in the State of Texas have the right to pull the license of Pharmacy’s like Medco for illegal practices that they may find.
I understand that Medco does not like it when a State Pharmacy Board comes a calling as they might soon be shut down in that state.