Chemist gave me the wrong canesten, who is to blame

[Dontfeedthemaftermidnight]

Rushing around with young dd yesterday late afternoon and nipped to the chemist to get her medicine and some Canesten for me as I’ve been itchy down below and suspect thrush. I got called to the counter with a young, not friendly guy, who seemed to be training a young woman. I asked for the medicine for Dd and the canesten, paid etc whilst dd was whinging for things. We drove home and I noticed when I got in that he’d given me a box ot Canesten for toes/feet. It was too late to go back so I texted to ask dh to pick up from a different chemist near his work on the way back.
Today i took the box back with the receipt, all
unopened and explained it to the same guy on the counter, all a bit embarrassing talking in front of others about vaginal thrush!
He was pretty rude to me, no apology at all and really quite put out about me requesting a refund, saying they don’t usually allow it. He had an awful manner, no please or thank you and actually made me feel quite embarrassed
Who was in the wrong here?

@Dreamskies Exactly and then to be rude about it too

It's up to the pharmacist to ask what type you want.

I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure the active ingredient in thrush cream is the same as athlete's foot cream (sometimes) because they are both fungal. I used athlete's foot cream once for thrush because it was Christmas and everywhere was shut! I did check it was the same first.

Is there any difference?

Same drug, same strength just different marketing

Doesn’t sound like you were being served by a pharmacist and the guy that did serve you obviously doesn’t have a clue or he would have asked which one.
Also For privacy he shouldn’t be asking what’s it for out loud he should show you both boxes as discreetly as possible and ask you to chose.

You are not in the wrong here.

If you literally just said 'canesten' he should have asked or if trying to be subtle, shown you the couple of different ones. Most people do usually say their ailments when buying it. But that's not to say you were wrong. They should obviously refund or replace it. Even if it was opened. The foot one won't harm other parts of the body. So it's not a really bad error. I think it's worth mentioning it so they can give training on offering different types of medicine with the same brand name.

The chemist! Imagine if they gave the wrong medication that had dire consequences.

How old is your DD? Thrush is unusual in young girls, see the advice here

www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/vulvovaginitis-in-children-information-for-parents-and-carers/

Neither of you communicated well and I expect your daughter made the conversation a bit more fraught. I wouldn’t give it any more headspace.

You need to read the OP properly.

You need to say you want the one for vaginal thrush.

i presume you… don’t!

This
But more fault on his side as he works in the chemist and should have clarified.

Also the feet stuff probably works to relieve itching in a pinch. I have used 1% and 2% cream depending on what comes with the pessary.

Why do people keep referring to him as a ‘Pharmacist’ he’s just a bloke working on the till most likely not a trained professional.

OP thought Canesten was purely a thrush cream, maybe he thought it was an athletes foot cream (not having a vagina and all can hardly blame him!)

OP was distracted with her child and didn’t look at the product until she got home.

It was a mistake on both parts. Hardly the end of the world and you can use the 1% version for thrush anyway, seems a bit OTT to march in there expecting an apology. Refund was given surely that’s enough.

You could have just used it? Lots of medicines are just marketed for different markets but have the same ingredients.

They both contain clotrimazole so you could have used it for thrush as well as athletes foot. The strength may differ but they are both antifungal creams

Id have just used it. Unless you'd specified you wanted the extra strength, or the pessary then he's done nothing wrong. 1% clotrimazole is the active ingredient in both foot and vaginal canasten and neither are for internal use. The inactive ingredients in both are the same. It's literally just packaging that's different. As an aside, sometimes the 2% is used for athletes foot as well because both it's literally a cream for fungal skim infections.

Don't use the one your husband bought internally unless it's the pessary.

He was wrong whether he was a pharmacist or a dispenser or just a counter assistant. Even counter assistants, who are the lowest in the chain are trained to ask questions to establish WWHAM questions. (Have put pic to explain).

It should be automatic to ask these to everyone even it its a general sale category of medicine which doesn't even have to be behind the counter. More so for the Pharmacy only category as they are licenced to be sold under the direction of the pharmacist on duty at the time.

A staff member new or still training should still ask these questions and confirm with the pharmacist that is the correct course of treatment. As even if the customer has always requested canesten, there maybe a new medical reason why it is not suitable in this scenario.

Further training should be flagged up in this case. And yes pharmacies are under so much strain it can feel like a quick sale to get the queue down is a relief, but not at the risk to a customer.

It’s the same cream, just different packaging

Yeah it’s the same 1 % clotrimazole I believe.

This

Complain, his response was rude and unfriendly.

Last time I went to pharmacy to ask for flucanazole tablet for thrush , I automatically asked for canesten ( £12.99) ….the pharmacist ( lovely helpful man) says why don’t you buy this one …..made in the same factory, same tablet, but only cost £2.35 ……Canesten must be raking it in

yes

but the OP is floundering for “fault” and it lies with both of them

The fault does not lie with the customer because the customer was buying a product from a qualified professional. The professional should have checked what they were selling. If I buy a product from a professional I expect them to know what to ask me.