CVS Pharmacy

Really Lauri? You’re reviewing a CVS? Yeah I am! Why? Because I had a great experience here.
It’s no secret that I’m proud to be a southern belle. The fast pace nature of northern cities is just not for me. Even though DC is just a hop, skip, and jump away from RVA, I don’t get up there too, too often because of the traffic. The stop/​start traffic from Fredericksburg up to the city is just excruciating to me. But, alas, I found myself in DC this week for work (via train, no less!) After lunch one day, I ventured into this CVS to pick up a few important things that I forgot this trip (razor, cough drops, hair bows!). Not expecting much (it is a CVS after all), I was surprised when the manager immediately asked me what he could help me with. I told him I was looking for cough drops. He was super nice and walked me over to the goods. Then, when I needed someone to unlock the specific razor I wanted, he was Johnny on the spot. Right there and more than happy to help. He also directed me to the hair section when I needed it.
I usually like to shop alone, but when you’re in a time crunch like I was, peppy customer service can really make trip a more pleasant experience.

This pharmacy is so unorganized and slow. Painful. I waited in line for 30 mins today and listened to everyone around me having bad experiences too.

How do you lose a prescription? I gave you the prescription and watched you scan it into you system, How do you lose a prescription? Lazy, rude and inconsiderate people work at this CVS! They did not take the time to look or check with other staff member and try to say that a floating staff member caused the error! «Just call your doctor and have them send over another prescription» What kind of customer service is that? Avoid this location!

There isn’t as large a selection of items at this location but I like grabbing items when I am in the area. There is nothing worse than finding expired CVS bucks in your wallet.

Meh. As most CVS locations, the store is messy with boxes everywhere, and the staff is less than helpful. Saving grace is the pharmacy which seems to be on the ball.

No problem with the actual store, although it is always busy and stock often times runs low (milk and various other drinks go quickly). This store strongly encourages self-​check out and often times one or two machines will be unable to handle debit transactions, not really an issue. However, it is the pharmacy has provided a consistently terrible experience.
No matter the time of day, I feel I am always waiting for prescriptions — possibly due to staffing issues. I have slowly transferred prescriptions here and while waiting for one such transfer, was told that the original filling pharmacy was «busy» every time they called, except the fourth time they tried when I was waiting in the store. I’ve given up on the waits and now use a pharmacy in a medical building on 19^th street.

Great neighborhood store!!! The staff is friendly and very helpful. You can tell they have really tried to out do their competitors by providing excellent customer service.

The associates are extremely friendly and helpful. They greet and even walk you to the item you are looking for! Most stores don’t walk you to the item it’s very considerate. The pharmacy is also very fast and efficient. I recommend shopping at this cvs location.

I would say this is a typical CVS inside and out. However it stands out (and thus warrants a review) for their overly rude pharmacy staff.
Both the assistant and pharmacist had a superiority complex that could make any human feel 8 inches tall. I was borderline going to give up getting an answer and go to Walgreens. Unfortunately I was staying at a nearby hotel and didn’t know the area well enough.
Advice… Avoid this location

I came in here my last evening here to pick up a card to give to a friend’s sick mother. Once I found the card I wanted I proceeded to use on of the self-​checkout machines. It rang it up twice. So I had to wait until I could get a live person to help me. That totally defeated the purpose of using the automated checkout.

The pharmacist who said his name is something like Derjay would not fulfill my doctor’s prescription. The new prescription was in place of one that had already been filled but which I had ost during travel. So my doctor called in another one. But this pharmacist said that the matter was up to him, not my doctor. It was too early to fill the prescription. I told him it was not a refill but a new prescription and you’d think that if he were really interested in helping he would call my doctor to check this out, but he refused, saying the doctor could do what he wanted but filling the prescription was up to him, not the doctor! Is this a bizarre sense of principle?

My review is strictly for the Pharmacy staff. I am consistently impressed and happy with how great and professional they are. Whenever I have a complicated insurance question, I know that I can call these guys and they will do their best to help me by calling my insurance directly. I also have received the flu shot there from a great pharmacist. I

I am writing this review because the pharmacist who helped me this evening was so amazing. His name is Ephrem (or so I think because it was printed on the label on my medication) and he was the friendliest, knowledgeable pharmacist I’ve ever had. He dedicated his full attention to me, and other customers too, and was quick behind the counter (less than 5 minutes!). i was so impressed that I felt like I needed to write this review.
I would absolutely recommend using this pharmacy, especially if Ephrem is working.

It’s best to conceive of this CVS as a somewhat thinly-​stocked Dollar Store, rather than as a pharmacy. The people who work in the front of the store, stocking shelves and manning registers, are generally warm and helpful – especially Sheila, who has worked daytimes at this CVS for some time and has become a real part of the neighborhood. (A few of the nighttime people are not so helpful – not rude, not ever, at least to me, but not always knowing even where specific merchandise is located.)
Let us turn now the pharmacy: Do not come here for prescriptions!!! Unlike the staff in the front of the store, the pharmacy staff is rude, belligerent, and endlessly put-​upon. It’s a scene out of Kafka, with the clerk who accepts prescriptions and rings the register standing high, high up, on a tier ABOVE the customers, disconnected and looking down. Even the design of the pharmacy area is a condescending insult to those who need the service. I’ve also on more than one occasion had this pharmacy make errors that I thankfully caught at home, including being given the wrong dosages and the wrong medication. If you do decide to come here for a prescription, you should be advised that your unpleasant contact with the pharmacy staff (and the aloof pharmacists) will be preceded by a long, long wait, with no chairs except one for those who are ill or elderly.
As for the self-​serve checkout machines at the front: horrible.

This is an old, relatively small CVS with self check-​out machines in the front (5, 4 of which are usually working), and a pharmacy in the back.
You’ll likely see a homeless man on your way into or out of the store. Don’t be afraid, he’s more polite (asking for money «only if you can») than the pharmacy department (which never seems to have anyone staffing the register– and whose employees seem to be surprised whenever they find someone waiting in line).
The photo printing station isn’t perfect. The customer-​operated photo scanner has a thin piece of grey tape along two sides, which, as the manager helpfully explained, have to be manually cropped out of each photo. The manager offered to do it for me, and she also expedited the printing of photos that had to be printed behind the counter.
Compared to a newer, larger CVSs, the store is poorly stocked, but for a small store, it’s not terrible. I can usually find what I’m looking for, but if I’m looking for a specific product and I’m in a rush, I sometimes have to compromise (thin plastic plates instead of thick paper plates, for example).

I was just in the store looking for a toothbrush. The aisle with the toothbrushes was a big mess, with empty boxes and piles of random junk in a messy pile on the lower shelves. I saw one toothbrush lying there. It was attached to some billboard thing. I picked it up, looked at it, and gently dropped it back in the pile. Suddenly, I heard someone yell at me.
The crowd waiting in line nearby all looked at me. «Can I help you?» the manager yelled from his location near the checkout counter. I couldn’t even believe it. «Me?» I asked? «Yeah YOU!» the manager again yelled.
At this point the crowd was watching.
«No. Why?» I asked and he said he just saw me «drop something» and he walked over to inspect what I had done. When he realized I was just sifting through a pile of junk, he stormed off.
Another customer was watching the whole thing and smiled at me. «Wow. That sounded like a serious accusation!» he said. I agreed and went back to ask the Manager if he had a problem.
The manager just mumbled something and walked away.
He made me feel very uncomfortable and humiliated in his store.
The CVS corporation is going to hear all about this. I am drafting various letters now.

Duplicate CVS deserves duplicate post:
The aisles in this CVS used to be really narrow and it would take forever to checkout. They remodeled the store, giving a lot more space in between aisles and adding several self checkout machines. Once people started to learn how to use the machines, checkout became much faster.
On Sunday nights (and other busy super market times), if I am picking up something quick, I go here instead of Safeway, so I can avoid the super long safeway lines.

This is a terrible CVS. The pharmacy is poorly managed. They always have difficulty finding my prescription because they are disorganized. When you place a prescription renewal over the phone it is ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ as to whether they will have filled when you arrive for pickup.
Unrelated to the pharmacy: I saw a mouse in the store.

This is a difficult review to write. On the one hand, the pharmacy tech who is seemingly there 24 hours a day had worked wonders with my fun health insurance — making calls, telling them I can get it early, bla bla bla. He’s gone above and beyond his job. My RX is always ready on-​time.
The front of the house staff, however, is the rudest lot of babies EVER. It’s always as if you are putting a burden on them to pay for your goods. Today I bought a card, and I remembered I had $ 1.50 on «extra bucks.» I handed the female cashier the coupon, and it wasn’t working. THEN she says, «OK WELL WHERE IS YOUR CARE CARD?» I said, «Oh I didn’t know I needed to do that too; here it is.» and she is all, «YEAH I mean it works with the card.» OH REALLY? Because you didn’t say shit about it when I handed you the coupon, so don’t act like some kind of brainiac. Then I got $ 20 cash back, and she made a «pfft» noise. WHAT? I used serious restraint to refrain from a) asking what the F@#$ her problem was or b) asking for a manager. I’m still debating calling the manager — this woman is a bitch.

Whether morning or night, it seems this CVS never has enough competent cashiers on hand. As such you can almost always count on long lines here.
Desperately seeking allergy relief in the form of generic Claritin-​D 24 Hour this morning, I waited in a line that extended out into the aisle as only one cashier was on duty. When it was finally my turn I handed the cashier a card with a picture of what I wanted so that she could fetch my allergy pills.
My generic meds, like all cough, cold, and allergy products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine are now on lock down behind the counter thanks to the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 (CMEA). She in turn handed me a log book (placement of product out of direct customer access, sales logbooks and customer ID verification are all part of the retail provisions of the CMEA) and asked for my last name and ID. Turns out the log book was missing the «W» tab. «V» was there, as was «X Y Z» but curiously, no «W». After a bit of confusion she turned to a blank page and there had me scrawl my name, address, (which, oddly, were not checked against my name for a match) date, time and 240 mg (the amount of pseudoephedrine sulfate, or nasal decongestant, in the box of pills I planned to purchase.)
Meanwhile I could feel the customers in the long line behind me groaning. Surely, I began thinking to myself, there must be a way to automate this process to not only speed it up but also more closely enforce the wisdom of the CMEA’s intentions. I was interrupted only by the annoyances of my runny nose.
Regardless of whether you come to this CVS to buy a Trojan Magnum 3 Pack like the guy behind me or check if the canned cat food is cheaper here than at the nearby Safeway like the guy in front of me (cat lovers everywhere: it’s cheaper at Safeway), one thing’s for sure, you’re going to have to wait.
In future, or in two weeks when my current supply of extended release tablets runs out, I’ll be trying my luck at another location.