Ever been scammed buying over the counter medicine from a pharmacy?

[LadyLazarus20]

I bought a pack of nurofen plus at an independent local pharmacy yesterday. Just opened the pack to discover 4 completely empty blister packs and 3 large metal nails taped together presumably to create weight.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

nope

Never. Have you returned to the shop?

No

That’s shocking!

Crikey! Did you take a picture?

No. What a bizarre theft

Sounds like they’re being scammed by their supplier.

Do you think it was one meant for display if it was branded? And the weight was to keep it still on display so it wouldn't jump off so easy?

No I haven't returned yet as only just opened the pack just now. I can take a picture but I suppose I can't actually prove that I'm not the one who has taken the tablets out!

I suppose that's possible but why would they put the empty blisters in? The only function I can see they have is that they are stopping the nails from moving around inside the box.

no - I've heard of online counterfeit drugs - but a pack of nails is outrageous.
It sounds as if the pharmacy has a dodgy supplier - in which case you can't be the only customer it's happened to - they'd be please to know I'd of thought, because it would put a real tend in repeat custom.

If they are really shifty about it, maybe they do know about the fraud - report to trading standards and/or the police.

Yes I've been wondering at what point this theft happened which made me think this might happen a lot so wanted to see if anyone else had experienced it.

I will go back to the pharmacy tomorrow.

All pharmacies source their medication (OTC and prescription) from the same wholesalers, regardless if they are independent or a large chain - Boots / Tesco/ Asda. It isn't an independent pharmacy issue.

You need to report this as there are certain protocols that must be adhered for instances like this.

Someone somewhere in the supply chain is stealing them for the codeine!

Report this to Trading Standards asap because they keep track of this sort of thing nationally and it’s extremely important!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/may/28/nurofen-tampering-codeine-addict-jailed

You definitely need to tell the pharmacy from the perspective that someone could be tampering with their drugs. Hopefully they have cctv and can take a look. Aren't these behind the counter ones? Could be a member of staff 😳

Someone returned it for a refund to make money?

I very much doubt that!

You were scammed buying nurofen.

You can't return meds for a refund.

Yes, indeed, considering that it's getting on for 5 times the price of standard ibuprofen, with the same active ingredient - and that's going on Tesco prices, so an independent pharmacy is likely to charge more for the branded stuff.

If somebody did want to deliberately deceive you by selling as Nurofen something that isn't Nurofen, they would be much, much more likely to get away with it unnoticed - and still very easily dishonestly make nearly 5 times as much - by simply replacing it with own-brand, over-the-counter ibuprofen, rather than empty blister-packs and/or random things like nails.

Nurofen plus also has codeine in it, so that's likely to be the motivation for stealing it

Ah, good point - but you can still buy much cheaper own-brand codeine too...?

You can buy cocodamol OTC which has 8mg codeine per tablet with paracetamol, but nutofen plus has 12.8mg per tablet with ibuprofen