To be so angry with Oushk pharmacy

[FlamingoFloss]

So tried to get my maintenance dose today. Apparently none in stock. At just after 4pm I get an email saying they are putting all their prices up from 5pm today and guess what? Yup you guessed it - now they have them at around £140 than they were earlier!!!! And they aren’t supposed to be money grabbing? Hmmmm

I’m disappointed too. The manufacturer prices don’t actually go up until the 1st September and yet they have put their prices up today.

So much for being there for their customers.

They haven’t had much of anything in atock
since they dropped their ‘yes you can all
have 3 pens’ bollock the other week so you might not have been able to get it anyway, but yes I agree, it’s a shitty move

It's sad but it's the private sector and supply and demand isn't it.
Wli are proving to be so popular they can literally charge what they want.

Just funny it wasn’t in stock before 5pm today and was after!!

They sold all their stock last week. When the price hikes were announced they allowed people to buy 3 pens at a time so they were sold out. Any new stock will be at the new prices because they have nothing left at the old prices to sell you.

They put in their email, the price rises are coming in early to allow for orders and for them to purchase stock at the new prices from Eli Lilly. They have had no stock left for a while now so you wouldn't have been able to purchase at the previous price anyway.

They’ve not had any stock of what I need for weeks, every time they’ve released some I haven’t had an email to let me know and by the time I’ve seen on here where some people have posted there was stock they’ve all gone.
i just want to order one bloody
pen, I’ve only got one dose left. I’ve been checking the stock update page on that weird app and predictably since I joined it last week (because I didn’t know it existed until then!) they haven’t posted a single update about stock.
Anyway yes it’s crap but if they’ve got stock I’m off to see if I can get one.

I think they said they have been told by wholesalers (or Eli Lilly) any deliveries are at higher price from today. Poor show to tell people they had until the 29th, but it might have been out of their control and they didn’t know. They might have been better saying nothing - then they would have been called out for not communicating.

They made a huge mistake telling customers they could order 3, again didn’t know Eli Lilly would restrict supply so quickly, but could have foreseen a panic buying situation.

These companies get deliveries, sometimes multiple every day, so it will have been a changing situation.

They made a huge mistake telling customers they could order 3, again didn’t know Eli Lilly would restrict supply so quickly, but could have foreseen a panic buying situation.

It was so counterintuitive. Why did they do that? It would have made far more sense to ration stocks to normal re-order timings and look after existing customers. They would have made the same profit whilst generating far more goodwill and reputation.

They have always allowed buying upto 3 pens in one order, many on maintenance buy 3 in one go, so they were continuing that process when mentioning it in their live video, but they didn't expect everyone to panic buy and all the extra orders of bulk purchases.
Let's face it most pharmacies also sold out quickly on that day the news all came out.

I didn't know that (I have never been on a Facebook/Circle community to watch a live).

I think a lot of people didn't realise they allowed bulk orders of 3. Not sure that was entirely the appropriate time to remind people.

I like Oushk and up till now I've rated the customer service I've had from them. But with that and then the utter shit show tonight with the confusing comms re: new prices, I'm starting to doubt their ability to handle a crisis!

They have always tended to respond to a change with a knee jerk live rather than stepping back and considering things first.

The bit that has annoyed me is the putting in as a small print that they are removing free delivery for maintenance customers - they can't help that EL have put the price up but this is a special kick in the teeth for customers that have stuck with them.

Also, the email says "We’re moving to a flat £20 discount per order for all patients on maintenance." but the table only shows a £5 discount in the maintenance column, am I reading it wrong somehow?

EL have stopped all deliveries of new stock between 27th to 1st. As Oushk , like most other pharmacies, didn't get their expected supplies last week, they're still out of stock so you wouldn't have been able to buy a pen this week at the old price anyway. I can understand their logic on this - they've opened up ordering now so that orders aren't further delayed until after the new stock actually arrives next week. Obviously, it'll be at the new prices therefore.
I think I've figured out the £15 discount issue. EL were negotiating a rebate scheme with individual pharmacies but they had to be able to show that the rebate is passed directly to customers and not used as profit. I'm guessing this is how Oushk are choosing to prove that and other pharmacies are doing it in a way which isn't visible to customers. If this is what's going on, it would suggest the discount is going to be ongoing- they could perhaps have made that clearer as in their email they suggest it's a one-off 'thank you'.

So it's all still shit but on the ordering issue, I think their hands are tied and what they did yesterday makes sense. The alternative would have been to continue to not accept orders till the new stock arrived after 1st.

MedExpress are the same. I have now told them to refund my order. They’ve had my money since 15th August, I’m overdue my next dose and there’s no update regarding when it will be issued.

they can all get to fuck ….i lost 4.5 stones the old fashioned way, I will go back to that.

I think the whole saga shows that they are a small provider who has panicked. They thought they had the golden goose and my guess is they expanded rapidly, possibly increasing borrowing to do so. The rise in prices has affected their business model and their cash flow.

I can’t help but wonder if the whole you can order 3 pens thing was to try to improve their cash-flow so that they could place new orders.

I’m disappointed because I chose them as a provider, not because of the social media circus - I wasn’t even aware of the Hira cult circle until recently - but because I wanted a straightforward, consistent journey and selected them purely because they offered maintenance and I wanted a provider I could stick with.

But why would I stick with a company who has messed me around, not allowed me to order when I needed to and is not competitive on price?

Isn’t this just because they weren’t able to get any more medication from EL at old pricing? It sucks but it seems like EL have been very heavy handed with stock quotas for all pharmacies, preventing them from buying any more at the old prices, so they don’t really have much choice. Either they take a big financial hit by charging customers old prices but paying EL the new much higher prices, or they charge according to the prices they themselves are being charged. It sucks but I don’t really see what else they can do, given they are a business. Whole thing has been a bit of a shitshow really.

@HereIGoOnceMore
They've invested massively in the last few months and weeks especially since the tightening of regulations and the failed inspection - you've only got to look at the number of staff involved in the weight verifications and consults to see that. God knows what else has been done behind the scenes - fridges, IT systems, buildings.
They don't really do anything else so all their eggs are in the WLI basket - whatever else you think and believe, you have to feel for them. I'm sure they're genuinely devastated by what's gone on this last week.
But, at the end of the day, 'the customer is king'. They're not a charity, loyalty can only go so far and I'll be going elsewhere too, simply for a better price. It's disappointing as I'd got a good routine going (I was one on maintenance who ordered 3 pens at a time - i just asked and they agreed)

They also seemed to have held the rebate savings back. Possibly because of their stupid influencers business model and they want to drive more business through social media. If they haven't learned how badly this kind of sales model reflects on them, there's not much more to say.

Their original plan was apparently to go into skin care. I think they've tried to use the same plan, naively.

I'm a disappointed former customer too.

@Nomoretopswithblacktrousers

How do you figure 'they've held the rebate savings back'? If they can't prove to EL the rebate has gone to customers, they won't get it - it's paid in arrears. The £15 off could well be the rebate.

I dont understand the price difference between maintenance and new? Who gets which?

I'm not sure what you mean?

Anyone on a maintenance plan gets the maintenance price, anyone not yet on maintenance gets the other price (which includes a £15 special offer reduction)

They're saying the 15 discount will be an ongoing thing, so actually maintenance is a 5 saving, not 20 like they're saying - and they've stopped the free postage

So there's no incentive to stay for maintenance anymore

@Kranky- I suppose what I was getting at was that although they have invested, their financial assumptions and any borrowing probably wasn’t stress tested for price rises. Although everyone has been affected by the price changes, other companies with wider portfolios may have more flexibility with cash flow when placing orders.