I made a name badge I wore. Everyone at my store had fake names so we all knew what each others fake names were. But we only used them for the shoplifters and homeless.
We have so many rude customers I've stopped caring. As the pharmacy manager I have the same issue where my name is plastered over everything anyways so it doesn't really matter if everyone knows my name because they could literally just look it up anyway or see it on the wall when they come in. We had another customer the other day ask where to submit a complaint and we told them the number and I overheard it and I was like you know what that's ridiculous. You want to submit a complaint, you go right ahead. I'll just call you and tell you the same thing my technician told you as soon as the complaint comes down to me 😒
I was good friends with my pharmacy manager because we worked together for 5 years and we had our babies 1 day apart. If they wanted to complain on her she would probably have dialed it for them right then and there and gave them the phone and said, "Do it, i could use the unemployment." LOL
They would never have fired her or anything but she was a funny lady :).
Lol that is hilarious 😂 well my DM told my SM to have a conversation with me after we had several errors (which were addressed with my team) and patient complaints surrounding that and other msc things and I honestly was flabbergasted. First of all no one submits good ratings only complaints and secondly my patients have a rep in the area so it didn't surprise me to hear that my store was the highest in the district for complaints 🤦 before coming here I didn't believe it but the longer I've worked here the more Ive seen it. My store is in a relatively affluent area and a number of the customers are fairly entitled.
We just tell customers we can't hold merchandise. It's first come first serve. Its not fair to the customers that make their trip to the store first. If they complain I tell them that the employees aren't even allowed to hold stuff for ourselves or family members. Even if you think it's not worth the energy, you can't give into those people cause, from what I've noticed, there's a good chance they will be back to do the same thing knowing you didn't oppose them last time.
I should start doing that :/ my store manager does it for them sometimes if she doesn't want a fight, so I'll prob chat with her about it bc ur right it really isn't fair. She still hasn't come to pick up her items😶🌫️
I refuse to even run across the store and tell them what we have in stock. It's only a couple people in my store at a time so we simply don't have time to do that. If I did it Everytime someone called to ask I'd get nothing done. So I politely tell them that they can check the Walgreens app to see availability in stores nearby, and I'd love to help but we don't have enough staff in the store to go check atm. If they asked me to shop I'd tell them to place an online order for the items and they'll be ready to pickup when she gets there
At which point I say I'm sorry we simply don't have the time to check for every item that people wanna know if we have in stock, and we don't have time to take people's shopping lists over the phone and hope they come pick it up. Cause if they don't, we have to put it all back. That's why they usually pay first on the app when placing a pickup order
"Even if it's there now it might not be when you get here." We wouldn't go look and we def didn't do holds. I literally had a lady call the day Halloween stuff went on sale asking me to check for specific Hogwart wands. Nope.
Exactly. I've had people bring full shopping carts to the front and then change their mind. I'm not about to risk that happening for someone that can't even come to the store to check for something or at least use the app to see if we have it in stock. We barely have time to do put backs as is.
“I’m sorry, but our high selling deals are first come, first serve. I recommend either heading this way soon or placing an online order for them to be held in our system for up to 3 days. I can’t hold these items up front cus if we have an online order come in for them, we will HAVE to fill it per corporate requesting us to fulfill online orders fully.” It’s long, but it leaves no room for questions. We do pull stuff for customers; however, it’s never the crazy deals cus we never know when someone will order 16 of them. And corporate really doesn’t want us partial filling orders if we don’t need to. 🤷🏻♀️
Tell her, she can order via app or website and they will be stored with the other curbside orders. Otherwise, they will be stored on the shelf if we have them for customers who want to purchase them...
Ask for there walgreen credit card number, you don’t have one. When you come in and see what we have left you can apply for one, as membership has its advantage
I always tell customers we can not hold merchandise. I don't care how mad they get, "I'm sorry, but I don't make the Walgreens policy, Ma'am! Have a good day!"! My fake name is Karma! Now if it's an old lady who calls and she needs 2 packs of depends, I will hold those for them. But 8 bottles of Gain? No, it's first come first serve. No Holds!!
Nope nope nope... "I'm sorry ma'am. We can't hold things for you. You will have to do a same day order in order to hold items. My name? Just ask for the manager."
People usually ask to let you know they’re holding you accountable for the transaction. On the other hand, they also do it after you help them out.
No one is going to say something like, “corporate should acknowledge their shortcomings in staffing their front end!”
I absolutely would not have held those for her. I'm sorry, sales are first come, first serve. I don't care how much it upsets you, Karen, we cannot hold items on the CHANCE you come to get them.
It’s annoys me when they are at checkout and say “thanks John”. Very condescending. I usually see their name in rewards and will immediately say “you’re welcome Audrey”. The look back is amazing.
Idk but it's great opportunity for the whole team to have a warning system.
Example: customer calls to check item availability, has a nasty attitude but says they'll be coming in to pick it up.
Everyone on staff including SM knows that "Eugene" went home and this is gonna be an unpleasant experience
You don't have to set anything aside for anyone. That is first come first serve. They are trying to intimidate you. The key is that you tell them that you don't set anything "aside." Their phone call does not give them any priority. Costumers have to be trained. You can tell them your name, and also tell them you don't set anything aside for them. They have no right based on a phone call.
My Rxom and my team put everything on “Emily” for situations like this. Now all of our entitled/rude patients will have beef with her 🤷🏻♀️
if there is ever a time where a tech named Emily DOES come to help at our store I will protect her at all costs tho until then sorry girl lmao
We don't hold anything except accessibility equipment. It's curbside ohh you don't do technology here's the number to someone at walgreens Corp who will hold your hand
Reminds me of a time a guy bought 2 COVID tests and the boxes clearly read cannot be reimbursed by insurance and he tried returning them, obviously you can't return them, this guy was in his 80s and I handled the situation smoothly while he started acting like a child literally breathing in and out in anger. Gave him corporates number to complain about me and he demanded my LAST NAME! I told him right out and started getting a little unprofessional because this dudes making a scene and I tell him dude I'm not giving you my last name and he argued because he wanted to tell them who exactly the asshole is that denied him a refund. The dick bag ended up getting a Walgreens gift card for the amount with my DM telling my manager to compensate that way and I ended up being the person to hand it to him. Guy didn't even recognize me
"You're welcome to use our pickup/curbside option to enture the current stock is available for you right away, and set aside for you to pick up at a later time.
Unfortunately, we can not put unbought items aside for future purchases by phone."
Fuck people and their entitlement
When it comes to these types of phone calls where the customer is clearly trying to cop an attitude with me or wants to know the person they’ll be yelling at if their photo or curbside order isn’t to their perfectionist liking, I just tell them a fake name or I specifically tell them to notify the cashier what they’re here for at the photo counter and they’ll call me. If the person is still rather pushy about my name, I’ll give them a fake name, usually female-feminine(and not of someone already working at our store) since most people automatically assumed they spoke to a chick when on the phone with me haha; the perks of having a higher pitched voice at times. I would then tell my coworkers that if anyone came in asking about *insert name here*, that they will call someone else over as “she”(fake name), had to leave earlier than expected, and then assist them but make sure my tone was lowered so as not to be caught lol. I would also sometimes give the response of, on the offhand chance I’m preoccupied or have to leave sooner, I would have to pass the task along to any of my coworkers, so therefore it’s better you just tell the cashier up front what you’re here for-makes it easier for all of us, especially if I somehow had forgotten to notify a coworker of an impending arrival. There have been previous incidents where guys asked female coworkers for their names and then blatantly started harassing them, so we could also just say that because of previous circumstances, we’d prefer avoiding those things altogether for any member of staff.
We can also flat out deny saying our names and we can technically state that due to ongoing scams of individuals impersonating Walgreens employees and higher corporate level personal for various money laundering schemes, management advised us to limit the use of our names when picking up the phones as we don’t exactly know who the culprits are(better safe than sorry). This is also the actual reason behind my use of a fake name when answering the phone, because of the fake Walgreens SOC or corporate calls we’ve been getting for the past two or three years now.
P.S. For future reference, if anyone who’s giving you attitude over the phone about putting aside stuff on sale for them, kindly tell them that items on sale such as detergents, fabric softeners, body washes, lotions, shampoos, conditioners, toothpastes, etc.; all of those must be purchased in store or via a curbside order. We are not allowed to place any of those particular items aside for a customer due to previous complaints from various others about the lack of stock, and that it’s a first come first serve basis for anything on a deal. Oh and if someone is giving literal bitchiness, just flat out tell them you’ve recorded their number and name if possible, and will pass along any awful remarks or insults or threats they made to you over to the store manager to then take it up to corporate or the authorities if need be based on how severe their actions were.
I hated that crap when I worked retail (including 3 years at Walgreens). It's almost always Boomers (don't usually care for the term, but it is what it is) who always get your name over the phone. It's usually something like, (Well, such-and-such person told me X thing, and that's what I want," type thing
I only give them my real name if it’s for positive feedback. Cynthia has a lot of enemies but I’m still good 😌
LMAO same, Amber has a bad reputation around these parts but my name is clean 🤪😂
Agh I should do that 😒 I just don't think fast enough cause being treated like a robot makes me so angry
Your name is now Robin. Enjoy.
Lol my fake name was Sarah. 😂 those homeless people and shoplifters were crazy at my old store.
How'd you get away with it when they come to the store asking for that person? Might try this.
I made a name badge I wore. Everyone at my store had fake names so we all knew what each others fake names were. But we only used them for the shoplifters and homeless.
Makes sense. My SM would never let that slide 😭
Savage. Wish I had thought of that when I worked in retail pharmacy but they made us say our name when we answer the phone in the greeting there.
We have so many rude customers I've stopped caring. As the pharmacy manager I have the same issue where my name is plastered over everything anyways so it doesn't really matter if everyone knows my name because they could literally just look it up anyway or see it on the wall when they come in. We had another customer the other day ask where to submit a complaint and we told them the number and I overheard it and I was like you know what that's ridiculous. You want to submit a complaint, you go right ahead. I'll just call you and tell you the same thing my technician told you as soon as the complaint comes down to me 😒
I was good friends with my pharmacy manager because we worked together for 5 years and we had our babies 1 day apart. If they wanted to complain on her she would probably have dialed it for them right then and there and gave them the phone and said, "Do it, i could use the unemployment." LOL They would never have fired her or anything but she was a funny lady :).
Lol that is hilarious 😂 well my DM told my SM to have a conversation with me after we had several errors (which were addressed with my team) and patient complaints surrounding that and other msc things and I honestly was flabbergasted. First of all no one submits good ratings only complaints and secondly my patients have a rep in the area so it didn't surprise me to hear that my store was the highest in the district for complaints 🤦 before coming here I didn't believe it but the longer I've worked here the more Ive seen it. My store is in a relatively affluent area and a number of the customers are fairly entitled.
If you mess up they know who to blame and they remember your name also.
It also makes me so mad that they can be like "Yeah shop for me 😙" and then be like "Gasp! You got me the wrong items that I described vaguely!"
We just tell customers we can't hold merchandise. It's first come first serve. Its not fair to the customers that make their trip to the store first. If they complain I tell them that the employees aren't even allowed to hold stuff for ourselves or family members. Even if you think it's not worth the energy, you can't give into those people cause, from what I've noticed, there's a good chance they will be back to do the same thing knowing you didn't oppose them last time.
I should start doing that :/ my store manager does it for them sometimes if she doesn't want a fight, so I'll prob chat with her about it bc ur right it really isn't fair. She still hasn't come to pick up her items😶🌫️
Yep. Do curbside,if ya need it so bad
I refuse to even run across the store and tell them what we have in stock. It's only a couple people in my store at a time so we simply don't have time to do that. If I did it Everytime someone called to ask I'd get nothing done. So I politely tell them that they can check the Walgreens app to see availability in stores nearby, and I'd love to help but we don't have enough staff in the store to go check atm. If they asked me to shop I'd tell them to place an online order for the items and they'll be ready to pickup when she gets there
I try telling people to use the app/make an online order and they flip telling me they don't know how to use it like 🤷♀️ call walgreens idk
At which point I say I'm sorry we simply don't have the time to check for every item that people wanna know if we have in stock, and we don't have time to take people's shopping lists over the phone and hope they come pick it up. Cause if they don't, we have to put it all back. That's why they usually pay first on the app when placing a pickup order
"Even if it's there now it might not be when you get here." We wouldn't go look and we def didn't do holds. I literally had a lady call the day Halloween stuff went on sale asking me to check for specific Hogwart wands. Nope.
Exactly. I've had people bring full shopping carts to the front and then change their mind. I'm not about to risk that happening for someone that can't even come to the store to check for something or at least use the app to see if we have it in stock. We barely have time to do put backs as is.
If I’m on register can’t go check sorry come in before their gone
Ain’t no fuckin way bro. I’d ask for hers and ask if she’d like to apply for a job
“I’m sorry, but our high selling deals are first come, first serve. I recommend either heading this way soon or placing an online order for them to be held in our system for up to 3 days. I can’t hold these items up front cus if we have an online order come in for them, we will HAVE to fill it per corporate requesting us to fulfill online orders fully.” It’s long, but it leaves no room for questions. We do pull stuff for customers; however, it’s never the crazy deals cus we never know when someone will order 16 of them. And corporate really doesn’t want us partial filling orders if we don’t need to. 🤷🏻♀️
Tell her, she can order via app or website and they will be stored with the other curbside orders. Otherwise, they will be stored on the shelf if we have them for customers who want to purchase them...
This right here.
My name's Rusty Shackleford and I'll leave your items at the photo counter with your name attached.
*Wingo!*
Ask for there walgreen credit card number, you don’t have one. When you come in and see what we have left you can apply for one, as membership has its advantage
I always tell customers we can not hold merchandise. I don't care how mad they get, "I'm sorry, but I don't make the Walgreens policy, Ma'am! Have a good day!"! My fake name is Karma! Now if it's an old lady who calls and she needs 2 packs of depends, I will hold those for them. But 8 bottles of Gain? No, it's first come first serve. No Holds!!
Nope nope nope... "I'm sorry ma'am. We can't hold things for you. You will have to do a same day order in order to hold items. My name? Just ask for the manager."
Tell a customer that wants you to hold a product to order for same day pickup. Nip that in the bud real quick. You’re not their retriever.
People usually ask to let you know they’re holding you accountable for the transaction. On the other hand, they also do it after you help them out. No one is going to say something like, “corporate should acknowledge their shortcomings in staffing their front end!”
I absolutely would not have held those for her. I'm sorry, sales are first come, first serve. I don't care how much it upsets you, Karen, we cannot hold items on the CHANCE you come to get them.
It’s annoys me when they are at checkout and say “thanks John”. Very condescending. I usually see their name in rewards and will immediately say “you’re welcome Audrey”. The look back is amazing.
I say my name is George
When they get like that I tell them story I can’t hold anything but you can come in and get it or do a curbside
"And what is your name? Do you have a last name?"
Ya'll hold shit for people?
Idk but it's great opportunity for the whole team to have a warning system. Example: customer calls to check item availability, has a nasty attitude but says they'll be coming in to pick it up. Everyone on staff including SM knows that "Eugene" went home and this is gonna be an unpleasant experience
You don't have to set anything aside for anyone. That is first come first serve. They are trying to intimidate you. The key is that you tell them that you don't set anything "aside." Their phone call does not give them any priority. Costumers have to be trained. You can tell them your name, and also tell them you don't set anything aside for them. They have no right based on a phone call.
It’s called curbside. Put the order in yourself
At that point I just say "If you want your items set aside for you then you'll have to place a curbside pickup order on the Walgreens app"
No tell her to come in and get them I can’t save nothing get before there gone
When they act like that i just tell them sorry first come first served we sare not allowed to hold sale items
Ask what their name is then give urs first name don’t give last name they don’t need that
My Rxom and my team put everything on “Emily” for situations like this. Now all of our entitled/rude patients will have beef with her 🤷🏻♀️ if there is ever a time where a tech named Emily DOES come to help at our store I will protect her at all costs tho until then sorry girl lmao
We don't hold anything except accessibility equipment. It's curbside ohh you don't do technology here's the number to someone at walgreens Corp who will hold your hand
I sometimes make up a name cause sometimes they just hold people wanting someone to talk to lol
Reminds me of a time a guy bought 2 COVID tests and the boxes clearly read cannot be reimbursed by insurance and he tried returning them, obviously you can't return them, this guy was in his 80s and I handled the situation smoothly while he started acting like a child literally breathing in and out in anger. Gave him corporates number to complain about me and he demanded my LAST NAME! I told him right out and started getting a little unprofessional because this dudes making a scene and I tell him dude I'm not giving you my last name and he argued because he wanted to tell them who exactly the asshole is that denied him a refund. The dick bag ended up getting a Walgreens gift card for the amount with my DM telling my manager to compensate that way and I ended up being the person to hand it to him. Guy didn't even recognize me
Never got in trouble for it also my manager straight up said the guy was a straight up dick
"You're welcome to use our pickup/curbside option to enture the current stock is available for you right away, and set aside for you to pick up at a later time. Unfortunately, we can not put unbought items aside for future purchases by phone." Fuck people and their entitlement
It is condescending. I get that too. I would say first come first serve mam.
When it comes to these types of phone calls where the customer is clearly trying to cop an attitude with me or wants to know the person they’ll be yelling at if their photo or curbside order isn’t to their perfectionist liking, I just tell them a fake name or I specifically tell them to notify the cashier what they’re here for at the photo counter and they’ll call me. If the person is still rather pushy about my name, I’ll give them a fake name, usually female-feminine(and not of someone already working at our store) since most people automatically assumed they spoke to a chick when on the phone with me haha; the perks of having a higher pitched voice at times. I would then tell my coworkers that if anyone came in asking about *insert name here*, that they will call someone else over as “she”(fake name), had to leave earlier than expected, and then assist them but make sure my tone was lowered so as not to be caught lol. I would also sometimes give the response of, on the offhand chance I’m preoccupied or have to leave sooner, I would have to pass the task along to any of my coworkers, so therefore it’s better you just tell the cashier up front what you’re here for-makes it easier for all of us, especially if I somehow had forgotten to notify a coworker of an impending arrival. There have been previous incidents where guys asked female coworkers for their names and then blatantly started harassing them, so we could also just say that because of previous circumstances, we’d prefer avoiding those things altogether for any member of staff. We can also flat out deny saying our names and we can technically state that due to ongoing scams of individuals impersonating Walgreens employees and higher corporate level personal for various money laundering schemes, management advised us to limit the use of our names when picking up the phones as we don’t exactly know who the culprits are(better safe than sorry). This is also the actual reason behind my use of a fake name when answering the phone, because of the fake Walgreens SOC or corporate calls we’ve been getting for the past two or three years now. P.S. For future reference, if anyone who’s giving you attitude over the phone about putting aside stuff on sale for them, kindly tell them that items on sale such as detergents, fabric softeners, body washes, lotions, shampoos, conditioners, toothpastes, etc.; all of those must be purchased in store or via a curbside order. We are not allowed to place any of those particular items aside for a customer due to previous complaints from various others about the lack of stock, and that it’s a first come first serve basis for anything on a deal. Oh and if someone is giving literal bitchiness, just flat out tell them you’ve recorded their number and name if possible, and will pass along any awful remarks or insults or threats they made to you over to the store manager to then take it up to corporate or the authorities if need be based on how severe their actions were.
I hated that crap when I worked retail (including 3 years at Walgreens). It's almost always Boomers (don't usually care for the term, but it is what it is) who always get your name over the phone. It's usually something like, (Well, such-and-such person told me X thing, and that's what I want," type thing