I'm done with Boots (the shop)

[Tempertamtrum]

Ahhh, annoying lunchtime visit to Boots. Told prescription would be five minutes. So I tried to find No7 Gradual Face Tan - couldn't find it and No7 assistant would not help because No7 self tan not next to her.

Went back to Pharmacy - stood there for extra ten minutes asked pharmacist twice (who was VERY BUSY stood in front of my bagged and ready order) who said wait due to needing signature - so told her will come back tomorrow.

Pharmacist then said she would need to put note on ticket - I asked why not just sign it? Which she did!

This isn't the first time such weirdness has happened to me in Boots - all other Chemists I've used are not so odd. I have repeat prescription so regularly use (mainly friendly in store) Pharmacies without any bother.

Anyone else have such annoying encounters in these places?

Yes can’t stand it - I’m another one who couldn’t buy shampoo because the pharmacist hadn’t turned up. They shut the shop despite it being full of staff, I was told to come back 3 hours later when they’d drafted in another pharmacist - I wanted shampoo not a prescription!! This was a pretty big store too.

Also the pharmacist going on lunch when everyone is on their lunch hour wanting to collect prescriptions is just ridiculous.

Ooo, you've reminded me!

I needed to buy some incontinence pants for a lady I looked after. Went into Boots, saud what I wanted, thought all would be groovy.

The look of horror and distance on her face was immense. They should've given her a badge to wear saying, 'Please don't talk to me about urine." if she really found a bit of piddle that offensive.

Mine is dire as well, last couple of times have waited nearly two weeks for my prescription, when I chased it up script had been sitting there for over a week hadn’t bothered to text me, very unhelpful when I telephoned & rather than look to see if the script was filled, told me to ring the Gp, err no go & look you are far less busy than the the surgery

Well that's just so not true. I've worked in pharmacies for years and years(never Boots though). People with your attitude used to drive us nuts. Less busy than the surgery? Um no. Just because there might only be a few people 'waiting around' in the shop doesn't mean it isn't extremely busy in the dispensary.

There are the prescriptions coming in over the counter, medication boxes for care homes, medications for daily patients, medication for weekly patients, methadone prescriptions, piles of prescriptions to make up from the (sometimes several) local surgeries for collection, phone queries coming in all the time, customers asking to speak to the pharmacist every 5 minutes...But you want them to phone you to come and collect your prescription that you left lying for a week. Very entitled attitude.

I had a problem with Boots and repeat prescriptions for myself and my son last month. They were due to be ready midweek but I couldn't get in until the following Saturday so off I went first thing, to beat any queues, only to be told that their computers were down and they couldn't check if the prescriptions had been sent through from the GP. By then they should've been made up and ready for collection.
As I left the store the pharmacist came running after me, my paper prescription had been found in a pile in a drawer but they couldn't find my son's.

I'd actually swapped to them earlier in the year too as my local independent pharmacy was even worse!

Our local pharmacy always has at least three staff at the counter. Getting a prescription filled takes five minutes max, this is in a very small town. Pharmacists also have to able to identify any foraged mushrooms you take in. Vive la France.

I don't mind Boots generally, but had a frustrating experience when they were unable dispense the full quantity of a run of the mill item. They gave me half the quantity and a ticket to come back for the rest another time. I did, and they said I was too late! A timescale for return had not been previously mentioned. So that a very expensive prescription and a needless additional consultation for the GP. When I mentioned that it would've been better for to have flagged up the cut-off point to pick up the rest of the order, they weren't very receptive.

Boots isn't really Boots anymore. They no longer do own brand stuff. I had their camomile shampoo and bath stuff for years. And toothpaste! Likewise half the stuff we used when DS was small was Boots. Now, it might as well be any old high street store. It's ruined.

I go to the opticians and that's about it. Prescriptions I get from a little chemist. And I still have no replacement for the shampoo given the modern fad for fruit smells not flowers.

@BlueRoses28 that’s a bit rude, I am not entitled in any way shape or form, my prescription goes electronically to boots, up until a few months ago they always texted me to let me know that script was ready, but the last couple of times they haven’t texted me, I have had to chase them up even though script has been ready for a least a week.
As I was on the phone to boots, I don’t think it was unreasonable to ask them to check if it was ready it took a few seconds, for me to get through to the surgery who take anything up to an hour on a good day & based on my recent experience with boots, pretty certain it wasnt the surgery not forwarding to boots, so I would have then had to contact boots for the second time, how was that an entitled attitude?

I love my local Boots Pharmacy. They’re really good and so friendly; always willing to help with any problem or query.

If they see me in the queue they get my prescription ready to hand to me. Can’t fault them; they’re lovely.

Boots often have one pharmacist manager for every 3-4 stores, more outside London / big cities. They aren’t ‘hiding’ in the back, but often preparing prescriptions and calling customers across multiple branches. They then have to train staff and are responsible for their pharmacies as if it’s their business. It’s only in big cities where they have the luxury of one pharmacist to each store.

It’s one of the shittiest professional level jobs it’s possible to get; you really don’t get paid enough for the work you do (outside London Boots tends to cap pharmacists on 40k; this used to be topped off by their generous bonus scheme but that has now been scrapped). Most Pharmacists I know do the job for a few years and then either retrain or go into banking.

I was in Boots today, one that was modernised about 6 months ago. There were metres of empty shelving, no assistants away from the till, and the prices of staple items like cotton wool were ridiculously high. I'd rather go in Wilko or Superdrug for everyday toiletries, and I always use my local chemist for anything more involved. Boots own brand stuff used to be excellent value, but it seems like they're doing away with it.

There was a documentary on ITV recently about how Boots is struggling to cope with its pharmacies. A whistleblower reckoned it was actually dangerous. They always seem overwhelmed in my local Boots and there's no way they'd have time for advice. Yet the pharmacy beside my GP surgery (part of a small chain) manages to cope wonderfully and are very approachable.

I learned to avoid their pharmacies a long time ago, all branches are very slow.

My main issue with boots is not being able to part pay with advantage points!

This is a BBC programme:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-41468171

My local Boots is always really annoying; NEVER enough people serving.

That was probably it then, the amount of paracetamol

Unbelievable waste of NHS money.

Do you actually realise that paracetamol costs the NHS about 100x the price you could buy it off the shelf?

Anyway, sticking to topic yes Boots near me also don't serve POM during the pharmacists lunch break - which also happens to be mine and a lot of others lunch break. It's not the staffs fault but without emailing head office nothing will change.

Aah ok a BBC documentary. Oh and their opticians are awful too.

Last time I went in, I was told off by an assistant for not having a contactless debit card and told that it was illegal fpr the card to be non contactless. I asked where she had heard that from, and that if my bank was happy to send me a a non contactless debit card at my request, it evidently was legal. I also suggested she makes sure of her facts before she said anything.

I have worked for Boots in the past. They were horrible to work for and, in my opinion, obsessed with making profits regardless of the impact on patients, their staff or the NHS

I highly recommend Pharmacy2U. I no longer have to collect repeat prescriptions and wait aeons for it to be ready. Order online and it arrives in the post. I love it.

Cheers olderthanyouthink, I will use that app now :)

My local Boots is great and the pharmacy stuff are lovely. My repeat prescription is always ordered on time and there’s never a long queueing time. Also very helpful when I was prescribed an item that they didn’t stock.

I don't have an independent pharmacy that I can get to easily. I've had trouble at both boots and the chain pharmacy based out of the large Sainsbury's nearby. I've had too little or too much medication dispensed and the wrong dosage. I use the large boots where I live just for convenience of location, but always order my prescriptions myself (which GP sends electronically to Boots)

Have seen a flagship store refuse to let people in, to walk through the store to their cars, ten minutes in advance of the advertised closing time.

Mine is shit too. We lost a lovely independent chemist only to have it replace by a tiny Boots that has hardly any stock. It's a standing joke in our town that you don't go to Boots unless you have nowhere else to be for the next hour.
Staff ignore customers and continue to faff with the shelves, while the queue is heading towards the door, it takes them forever to fill a script, the make up displays are ratty looking. And it's overpriced.