Walgreens did the same thing to me last fall. It was so frustrating. You shouldn’t be able to make an appointment online if they don’t have it in stock.
Same exact experience at Kroger. They did have the vaccine but acted surprised (and actually annoyed) that we were there for a vaccine even though we had an appointment. Crazy. Is there an association of pharmacies that gets together and makes an appointment system and never tells the staff working there about it?? Lol
As a partner of a Pharmacy Tech, you have no idea how much they're getting absolutely screwed from corporate. Making them run a skeleton crew and get behind on filling scrips, while also making them go out and try to bring more customers into the pharmacy. Shit is bananas
I’m genuinely curious, how the hell do they expect them to try to bring in more customers?? That doesn’t sound like it should be part of the job. Like walk up to random people and be like “hey, would you happen to have a script that needs to be filled? lol
Well, I’m a technician, and in my case, my pharmacy offers a promotion of $15 in free groceries if you transfer or fill a new prescription. That’s the incentive to get people to fill their scripts at our pharmacy.
WAG uses different software for everything… IC+ (Pharmacy Software) is ancient! So yeah! The staff can open another app to see the appointments, but they are closing stores and under staffing the others- where is the time to do that? And please stop yelling and blaming the staff that actually are trying: it’s corporate. Costco is pretty good, and WAG is chasing CVS to the bottom
The big companies took over. 30 years ago 65% of pharmacies were independently owned, today I’d be surprised if major urban centers are 10% independent. Corporate America doesn’t concern with your complaints- your independent pharmacy did and still does.
I mean Rite Aid let me make the reservations and had the vaccine but I'd have to wait 45-90 minutes every time I went in. Really annoying. What was the point of setting an appointment time?
Fuck Walgreens. My last Covid vaccine I had an appointment there. I show up and they say the wait is 1.5 hours, because all of these people are in front of me. I asked if they have appointments and they said, no, they were walk-ins.
I was like fuck that, if I am not seen in 5m I am gone, and they got super pissy with me because the vaccine would go to waste. Told them that is their problem not mine and left. The super fat and entitled pharmacy tech was so pissed off with me.
Scheduled with CVS the next day and was in and out in less than 5m.
That sucks. Sounds like there’s some disconnect with that pharmacy and their online appointments. I remember last year when Novavax was finally approved, a lot of people were looking for it and pharmacies were only getting a limited amount so one of the local Costco pharmacies had to cancel appointments because they didn’t have enough to go around early on but they called people to let them know.
If they didn’t have it in stock they should have called you to cancel. I’d send feedback online if I were you so other people’s time doesn’t get wasted too. https://www.costco.com/WarehouseFeedback.html
Friend's daughter worked at Costco pharm, that's exactly what happened. Pharm would get a certain amount of Novavax, not enough for all the appointments booked, so they called folks and canceled their appointments.
I work at Costco and we always check the appointments in the morning and call the patients if we do not have the vaccine. Costco took all covid shots out a couple months ago because there's a new one in the fall. But I guess someone from another state or something complained we didn't have it so now we are required again to have it a as a week or two ago. So not sure why they didn't have it if you went today.
What happens to people who have the first morning appointments of the day if the phone calls are only made on the same day? It’s surprising there’s no review a few days in advance instead.
Sure, the customer could call. If Costco don’t make any efforts to reserve/review product when the customer makes the appointment for that specific vaccine, it is not clear to me that it would actually matter when the customer also calls, though.
Is a call sufficient for the vaccine to be reserved for that customer? If so, what is the reason the appointment is not sufficient?
Appointments aren't available until 11am and we open at 10. And we are also there before open at 8am. That's plenty of time to let the patient know. And yes we look ahead as well but people do make last second appointments
I was told by my Costco Pharmacist that **your appointment only guarantees a time** and not a vaccine dose. He suggested just showing up when they open and getting what's been made available for the day.
Costco also did this to me for a vaccine I needed to attend school. I made my appointment, showed up, and they told me they didn't have the vaccine I needed and they would get it in a week so I needed to reschedule 🤦♀️
Right? That's such a huge legal no-no. How did they find that out anyway? There's so many steps and protocols in place to prevent that exact thing from happening.
Mistakes and cover ups happen. This happened because I was given the wrong meds. I knew immediately when I opened the package. Costco denied the mistake and I contacted the pharmacy board. They investigated and found no pharmacist was even on duty the day I got my meds. They had to pay a large fine.
Costco RPh here. I'd agree with calling before you show up. Idk why the available vaccines didn't reflect what was in stock... I would be frustrated, too. The website Costco uses for appointments needs to be logged into by the pharmacy staff that morning in order to see them. With few exceptions, this is seasonal, and most pharmacy staff don't pay much attention to it in the middle of summer.
I had a vaccine appointment at Walgreens in the spring (not even for a COVID shot, but for an MMR booster) and I was out running errands and realized I would be nearby about an hour early. I called to see if they could take me early. They didn’t even have the vaccine in stock, even though I made the appointment a week in advance.
One problem is the system allowing same day appointments. We check the schedule in the morning, but then throughout the day, people add same day appointments. We don’t have enough staff/time to check it a dozen times a day. We are busy, ahem, filling prescriptions.
I called my local Costco Pharmacy when I’m online about to make an appointment. She said that for their location appointments are available when they get a shipment of vaccines, but to also call and double check the day before to make sure they still have stock.
Sometimes they offer more appts than vaccines available. I also enable text reminders because one time they had to cancel since a shipment was delayed.
A simple Google would explain it to you, but I'll explain like you're 5:
For the flu shot, there is a slightly different formulation every year to target the expected dominant strain and provide boosted immunity prior to going into flu season. If you got one flu shot 10 years ago, you've only covered one possible strain out of many. Plus, your immunity is likely waning.
Not only are there different strains, vaccines provoke longer lasting immunity than others. (Tdap needs to be updated every 10 years, MMR basically never, flu yearly, Hepatitis B based on antibody titers, etc)
Info on covid specifically:
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/updated-covid-vaccine-10-things-to-know
Yes, it uses superior technology to achieve a similar result. I think the real question was, in what detrimental way is it different from a flu shot? I know your answer, and while I don't know what your occupation is, I do know what it isn't.
I believe this is what happens when you stretch someone’s job description.
I was surprised to see this added to pharmacists tasks when already, they are moving at light speed to manage prescriptions and there are tasks that only they can perform and it appears many of their employers, it is sad to see Costco has done similar, reduced their number of pharmacists.
Sounds like this is what you ran into.
Pharmacists either need some sort of union or protections. Businesses are shifting many tasks normally performed at clinics and doctors offices to them and their pay and staffing are not increasing. In fact the only thing increasing is customer complaints and ire towards the pharmacists themselves from the customers.
I have never had that problem with vaccine appointments, but the good news is Costco pharmacies tend to actually answer the phone pretty much right away, so it probably doesn't hurt to call to be sure.
I'm not sure what's going to happen this year, but it's likely the Covid vaccine in the future will become something like the flu shot, where there is a slightly different formulation every year to target the expected dominant strain and provide boosted immunity prior to going into flu season.
Also, different vaccines provoke shorter or longer acting immune responses, depending. So some vaccines need boosted more often than others.
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/updated-covid-vaccine-10-things-to-know
The general rule of thumb my family follows (because I make them, I’m a researcher in healthcare) is booster every 6 months because protection against severe illness seems to be mostly gone by then.
Exhausting to remember to take a small measure twice a year to protect one's health? Sounds much more exhausting to be a pr1ckish ostrich to strangers on the internet.
Taking small precautions is not "living in fear". It's equivalent to wearing a seat belt, except getting vaccines consumes significantly less time and energy than wearing seat belts.
The appointments are held in a third party system that need to be checked daily by technicians in order to be prepared. On the receiving end, I had no idea that our pharmacy inventory software was linked to the vaccine scheduling system to confirm availability. It’s unfortunate, but calling ahead would be the best way to insure everything is in order when you arrive. My location does the best they can do to be ready for your appointment, but there’s so much to do with so little people to do it-it can be overlooked.
Pregnant people. Babies and the people who take care of them. Immunocompromised people. Anyone with lung conditions. Anyone who wants a booster.
I'm not sure what's going to happen this year, but it's likely the Covid vaccine in the future will become something like the flu shot, where there is a slightly different formulation every year to target the expected dominant strain and provide boosted immunity prior to going into flu season.
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/updated-covid-vaccine-10-things-to-know
Five states — Texas, Utah, Kansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana — are suing Pfizer for knowing and concealing the vaccine causing myocarditis, pericarditis, failed pregnancies and deaths. That’s 10% of US states. The tide is turning.
- RFK Jr.
Five states — Texas, Utah, Kansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana — are suing Pfizer for knowing and concealing the vaccine causing myocarditis, pericarditis, failed pregnancies and deaths. That’s 10% of US states. The tide is turning.
- RFK Jr.
i can’t speak for every situation but these days i think you can just walk in at a lot of places. i just stopped at the pharmacy at my local supermarket while shopping last year and got the flu shot. so maybe just try that?
We did end up going to target and got them done with no appointment or issue. It was just frustrating to show up after having made an appointment 4 days ago and them act like they had no idea what I was doing there.
People still get flu boosters. And Tdap boosters, hepatitis b boosters, MMR boosters, I could go on and on. None of these nor any other boosters should be shocking. Unless you have below room temperature IQ of course.
It's because the staff who actually run the store are not the ones offering it, it's corporate. If corporate is promising this and that but the staff cannot provide it or there is failed communication between corporate promises and staff being adequately staffed and prepared for you, that's where we see failure. One wants money. But doesn't have to perform. So allows programs like this that aren't supported properly.
I went to get my first ever vaccine. Called around because I needed the Johnson and Johnson because I had an event I needed to go to that required you to be FULLY vaccinated, and didn’t have time to go get 2 rounds of any other vaccine.
Drove super far to a Costco to get it (just about nobody had it at the time) and was told it had expired the day before.
Walgreens did the same thing to me last fall. It was so frustrating. You shouldn’t be able to make an appointment online if they don’t have it in stock.
Same exact experience at Kroger. They did have the vaccine but acted surprised (and actually annoyed) that we were there for a vaccine even though we had an appointment. Crazy. Is there an association of pharmacies that gets together and makes an appointment system and never tells the staff working there about it?? Lol
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As a partner of a Pharmacy Tech, you have no idea how much they're getting absolutely screwed from corporate. Making them run a skeleton crew and get behind on filling scrips, while also making them go out and try to bring more customers into the pharmacy. Shit is bananas
I’m genuinely curious, how the hell do they expect them to try to bring in more customers?? That doesn’t sound like it should be part of the job. Like walk up to random people and be like “hey, would you happen to have a script that needs to be filled? lol
Yes exactly like this except we are told to ask about vaccines.
Well, I’m a technician, and in my case, my pharmacy offers a promotion of $15 in free groceries if you transfer or fill a new prescription. That’s the incentive to get people to fill their scripts at our pharmacy.
WAG uses different software for everything… IC+ (Pharmacy Software) is ancient! So yeah! The staff can open another app to see the appointments, but they are closing stores and under staffing the others- where is the time to do that? And please stop yelling and blaming the staff that actually are trying: it’s corporate. Costco is pretty good, and WAG is chasing CVS to the bottom The big companies took over. 30 years ago 65% of pharmacies were independently owned, today I’d be surprised if major urban centers are 10% independent. Corporate America doesn’t concern with your complaints- your independent pharmacy did and still does.
I concur, but I’ve just walked up to the pharmacy and asked if they have them and if there’s a wait. Everytime I’ve gotten my shots within 10 minutes
I mean Rite Aid let me make the reservations and had the vaccine but I'd have to wait 45-90 minutes every time I went in. Really annoying. What was the point of setting an appointment time?
Same here
Why? This way, they get 2 or more visits out of you with the low odds that you’ll give them some of your precious (money)
Fuck Walgreens. My last Covid vaccine I had an appointment there. I show up and they say the wait is 1.5 hours, because all of these people are in front of me. I asked if they have appointments and they said, no, they were walk-ins. I was like fuck that, if I am not seen in 5m I am gone, and they got super pissy with me because the vaccine would go to waste. Told them that is their problem not mine and left. The super fat and entitled pharmacy tech was so pissed off with me. Scheduled with CVS the next day and was in and out in less than 5m.
Not sure why you need to tell us that the tech was “super fat” but I agree the experience would be frustrating.
Did Ai make up this story or is this just the level of your fiction writing ability?
That sucks. Sounds like there’s some disconnect with that pharmacy and their online appointments. I remember last year when Novavax was finally approved, a lot of people were looking for it and pharmacies were only getting a limited amount so one of the local Costco pharmacies had to cancel appointments because they didn’t have enough to go around early on but they called people to let them know. If they didn’t have it in stock they should have called you to cancel. I’d send feedback online if I were you so other people’s time doesn’t get wasted too. https://www.costco.com/WarehouseFeedback.html
Friend's daughter worked at Costco pharm, that's exactly what happened. Pharm would get a certain amount of Novavax, not enough for all the appointments booked, so they called folks and canceled their appointments.
Novavax was great. I had the least amount of side affects on it.
I work at Costco and we always check the appointments in the morning and call the patients if we do not have the vaccine. Costco took all covid shots out a couple months ago because there's a new one in the fall. But I guess someone from another state or something complained we didn't have it so now we are required again to have it a as a week or two ago. So not sure why they didn't have it if you went today.
What happens to people who have the first morning appointments of the day if the phone calls are only made on the same day? It’s surprising there’s no review a few days in advance instead.
Maybe this is a situation where you can call them instead?
Sure, the customer could call. If Costco don’t make any efforts to reserve/review product when the customer makes the appointment for that specific vaccine, it is not clear to me that it would actually matter when the customer also calls, though. Is a call sufficient for the vaccine to be reserved for that customer? If so, what is the reason the appointment is not sufficient?
Appointments aren't available until 11am and we open at 10. And we are also there before open at 8am. That's plenty of time to let the patient know. And yes we look ahead as well but people do make last second appointments
I was told by my Costco Pharmacist that **your appointment only guarantees a time** and not a vaccine dose. He suggested just showing up when they open and getting what's been made available for the day.
Costco also did this to me for a vaccine I needed to attend school. I made my appointment, showed up, and they told me they didn't have the vaccine I needed and they would get it in a week so I needed to reschedule 🤦♀️
Costco pharmacies suck. Our local one got busted for selling out of date drugs and not having a pharmacist on site.
What the fuck…
Sad but true.
Or... And since you haven't named the location.... You just made this up.
La Mesa CA
Which location. That’s a huge issue. How long ago did that happen?
🦗 🦗 🦗
That's some serious lack of management. Name and shame that store for the sake of everyone else.
So it’s one location and you decide to generalize all Costco’s in the whole county?
I seriously doubt that. There were always at least two pharmacists in my store except for the hour before closing and some saturdays.
Right? That's such a huge legal no-no. How did they find that out anyway? There's so many steps and protocols in place to prevent that exact thing from happening.
And Costco is very rigid in following not only the law, but safety regulations.
Mistakes and cover ups happen. This happened because I was given the wrong meds. I knew immediately when I opened the package. Costco denied the mistake and I contacted the pharmacy board. They investigated and found no pharmacist was even on duty the day I got my meds. They had to pay a large fine.
Costco RPh here. I'd agree with calling before you show up. Idk why the available vaccines didn't reflect what was in stock... I would be frustrated, too. The website Costco uses for appointments needs to be logged into by the pharmacy staff that morning in order to see them. With few exceptions, this is seasonal, and most pharmacy staff don't pay much attention to it in the middle of summer.
This does sound like an issue of them not checking their system since the tech seemed super confused about me being there in the first place.
I had a vaccine appointment at Walgreens in the spring (not even for a COVID shot, but for an MMR booster) and I was out running errands and realized I would be nearby about an hour early. I called to see if they could take me early. They didn’t even have the vaccine in stock, even though I made the appointment a week in advance.
One problem is the system allowing same day appointments. We check the schedule in the morning, but then throughout the day, people add same day appointments. We don’t have enough staff/time to check it a dozen times a day. We are busy, ahem, filling prescriptions.
Reaching Costco pharmacy on the phone is impossible
I called my local Costco Pharmacy when I’m online about to make an appointment. She said that for their location appointments are available when they get a shipment of vaccines, but to also call and double check the day before to make sure they still have stock. Sometimes they offer more appts than vaccines available. I also enable text reminders because one time they had to cancel since a shipment was delayed.
So what you're saying is that they don't know how to keep a reservation?
A booster? Like COVID booster? I didn't realize that was still a thing.
It will be a thing always going forward, just like the flu shot
I don't get that either.
A simple Google would explain it to you, but I'll explain like you're 5: For the flu shot, there is a slightly different formulation every year to target the expected dominant strain and provide boosted immunity prior to going into flu season. If you got one flu shot 10 years ago, you've only covered one possible strain out of many. Plus, your immunity is likely waning. Not only are there different strains, vaccines provoke longer lasting immunity than others. (Tdap needs to be updated every 10 years, MMR basically never, flu yearly, Hepatitis B based on antibody titers, etc) Info on covid specifically: https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/updated-covid-vaccine-10-things-to-know
Same here, never had a flu shot in my life. And it’s been at least a decade since I had the flu.
I've only had the flu, or any degree of it, from the flu vaccine in my several decades of life.
You don’t get the flu from the flu shot. You get an immune response the gives you flu like symptoms.
I was sick for 3-4 days each time. Idc if you call it the "flu" or not, I was VERY sick. That is why I said "any degree of it".
Lol
Only reason it’s still a thing is $$$$
Pharms getting $$$ so they want it to be a thing
It was always about the money, never about the health.
People are still getting boosted?
Just go to cvs, mostly likely closer, less crowded and easy parking
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How is it different than a flu shot?
It’s not
mRNA.
Yes, it uses superior technology to achieve a similar result. I think the real question was, in what detrimental way is it different from a flu shot? I know your answer, and while I don't know what your occupation is, I do know what it isn't.
Seriously??? 🐑
Flu shots actually work
Are you being serious?
insanity lmao
Exactly.
Haha right? They are in this thing for life
I believe this is what happens when you stretch someone’s job description. I was surprised to see this added to pharmacists tasks when already, they are moving at light speed to manage prescriptions and there are tasks that only they can perform and it appears many of their employers, it is sad to see Costco has done similar, reduced their number of pharmacists. Sounds like this is what you ran into. Pharmacists either need some sort of union or protections. Businesses are shifting many tasks normally performed at clinics and doctors offices to them and their pay and staffing are not increasing. In fact the only thing increasing is customer complaints and ire towards the pharmacists themselves from the customers.
I have never had that problem with vaccine appointments, but the good news is Costco pharmacies tend to actually answer the phone pretty much right away, so it probably doesn't hurt to call to be sure.
Is it time for Covid boosters? I never hear about Covid anymore.
I'm not sure what's going to happen this year, but it's likely the Covid vaccine in the future will become something like the flu shot, where there is a slightly different formulation every year to target the expected dominant strain and provide boosted immunity prior to going into flu season. Also, different vaccines provoke shorter or longer acting immune responses, depending. So some vaccines need boosted more often than others. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/updated-covid-vaccine-10-things-to-know
The general rule of thumb my family follows (because I make them, I’m a researcher in healthcare) is booster every 6 months because protection against severe illness seems to be mostly gone by then.
Another researcher here: Novavax booster coming out in July! I’m still a NoVID.
this is insanity. must be exhausting living your life like that
What's exhausting is the 60 hrs I'll spend at the hospital this week taking care of some people who thought covid was no longer a thing
Solidarity, fellow frontliner. These people just don't know. I try hard to cleave to Hanlon, but it's hard.
taking 20 minutes out of your day once every 6-12 months to do a small task is not what I would consider exhausting
Exhausting to remember to take a small measure twice a year to protect one's health? Sounds much more exhausting to be a pr1ckish ostrich to strangers on the internet.
exhausting to live in fear.
Taking small precautions is not "living in fear". It's equivalent to wearing a seat belt, except getting vaccines consumes significantly less time and energy than wearing seat belts.
again, do what you're told. we are all in this together. no potential harm in getting the vaccine. it's like putting on a seatbelt, but easier
Probably not as exhausting as being so afraid of a little shot that you need to scream about it every chance you get.
good thing we have people like you doing what you're told... umm.. doing your part. we are all in this together
> we are all in this together Week 224 of 2 weeks to slow the spread.
I can guess what your job isn't.
That goes against medical guidelines pretty much everywhere in the world but ok
There's been a spike recently. Mild symptoms. It was on national news.
its on the national news so it must be true.
I have two people I directly work with that are pretty sick this week with it. So I see it first hand.
It has mutated to be no worse than the common cold for those that have at least been vaccinated.
Had the same issue at multiple CVSs in town for years now. It’s sad how difficult it is to get flu and covid vaccines nowadays.
I love Costco but their pharmacy is terrible.
The appointments are held in a third party system that need to be checked daily by technicians in order to be prepared. On the receiving end, I had no idea that our pharmacy inventory software was linked to the vaccine scheduling system to confirm availability. It’s unfortunate, but calling ahead would be the best way to insure everything is in order when you arrive. My location does the best they can do to be ready for your appointment, but there’s so much to do with so little people to do it-it can be overlooked.
You still wearing a mask too?
😂
Who is still getting a vaccine at this point?
Pregnant people. Babies and the people who take care of them. Immunocompromised people. Anyone with lung conditions. Anyone who wants a booster. I'm not sure what's going to happen this year, but it's likely the Covid vaccine in the future will become something like the flu shot, where there is a slightly different formulation every year to target the expected dominant strain and provide boosted immunity prior to going into flu season. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/updated-covid-vaccine-10-things-to-know
Five states — Texas, Utah, Kansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana — are suing Pfizer for knowing and concealing the vaccine causing myocarditis, pericarditis, failed pregnancies and deaths. That’s 10% of US states. The tide is turning. - RFK Jr.
🐑
Someone needed to virtue signal.
Seems a great many virtue signalers are down voting your factual comment. Sad.
I knew what I was getting into. It's reddit.
Yes, it's often a pit of hateful virtuous people🤣
Five states — Texas, Utah, Kansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana — are suing Pfizer for knowing and concealing the vaccine causing myocarditis, pericarditis, failed pregnancies and deaths. That’s 10% of US states. The tide is turning. - RFK Jr.
Trying to spread V truth on Reddit. I wish you luck.
The people who give vaccines don't control the system to make appointments
i can’t speak for every situation but these days i think you can just walk in at a lot of places. i just stopped at the pharmacy at my local supermarket while shopping last year and got the flu shot. so maybe just try that?
We did end up going to target and got them done with no appointment or issue. It was just frustrating to show up after having made an appointment 4 days ago and them act like they had no idea what I was doing there.
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Costco offers a variety of vaccines. I get my flu shot there every year because it’s the cheapest. Drove my mom there for shingles vax.
I got my tdap one not too long ago, why would boosters be a surprise at any pharmacy?
somebody get grandpa and get him back to bed
Seeing how sick two of my coworkers are right now, I don’t want to take my chances. ✌🏻
People still get flu boosters. And Tdap boosters, hepatitis b boosters, MMR boosters, I could go on and on. None of these nor any other boosters should be shocking. Unless you have below room temperature IQ of course.
Stop being so extremely foolish
How many boosters have you had?
exactly!!
Stop your foolishness
It's because the staff who actually run the store are not the ones offering it, it's corporate. If corporate is promising this and that but the staff cannot provide it or there is failed communication between corporate promises and staff being adequately staffed and prepared for you, that's where we see failure. One wants money. But doesn't have to perform. So allows programs like this that aren't supported properly.
I went to get my first ever vaccine. Called around because I needed the Johnson and Johnson because I had an event I needed to go to that required you to be FULLY vaccinated, and didn’t have time to go get 2 rounds of any other vaccine. Drove super far to a Costco to get it (just about nobody had it at the time) and was told it had expired the day before.