More Ranting

I don't know if it's that I have gotten THAT crabby in my old age, or
things have really gotten that much more inefficient and screwy, but
it seems like lately I'm not happy unless I've got something to
complain about. And there is PLENTY for me to complain about.

Today's Rant: the mail in pharmacy my company uses. Medco. Oh, how
I love to hate Medco. (Almost as much as I love to hate AT&T - but
that's a story for another day.)

My company has used Medco as the mail in pharmacy since pretty much
forever. It is supposed to be more convinient. It is supposed to
save you money. It is supposed to make your life easier. HA!

I used them back in 1996 or so. Lazy Teenager was taking some
medicine, and Medco actually called me, extolling their virtues, so I
thought ok, I will give it a try.

It wasnt' too bad. At first. I think once or twice there was some
delay with getting the prescription from the doctor and it delayed the
medicine getting there before I ran out of what I had at home.
Nothing too major. And it was a bit cheaper than the retail pharmacy.

And then one month, out of the blue....NOTHING. I had sent in a refil
and I got nothing. I called, it's on it's way. Nothing. I called
again, it's been delivered. Uh, no it hasn't. Yes it has, our system
SAYS so. Well, I am standing here looking in my mailbox and there is
NOTHING. Well I can't help you, our information shows it was
delivered; try calling the post office. CLICK.

They hung up on me.

I called back and had to go through the whole story to a new person.
It finally occurred to them to verify the address. They read of some
address on Jamestown, in Irving. Some where that I not only currently
didn't live at, but had NEVER lived at. It was actually an old
address of my ex-husbands. Now how in the hell did they manage to
come up with that address. I have no idea. They had no idea. They
couldn't tell me when or why the address had been changed. All they
could tell me is that's where the pills were.

And their solution to the problem? Well they seemed to think that I
should drive over there and get the pills. HA! I had a different
view of things. After much arguing and being put on hold for long
periods of time, it was finally determined that if I was willing to
pay another copay, they would mark the order as lost in transit and
immediatly ship a new order. I was very happy to do that, as long as
they were willing to refund the first copay of the pills I did not
get. They agreed. And all was well.

Not really. It took 2 months of phone calls to get that first copay
refunded. They jsut wanted to credit my account; which would have
been fine except that after I finally received those pills, I had
immediately canceled the rest of the prescriptions. I was willing to
lose them making my life easier. I started going to the retail
pharmacy. They had to actually send me a check. It was only $20, and
it would have been less agrivating to let it got, but to me it was the
principal of the thing. I eventually got my money.

So. Now it is 2000 something and I am helping my mom with her
finances and her medical stuff. Her company also uses Medco. But I
kept all her prescriptions at the local pharmacy; I wasn't looking to
deal with those bozos again anytime soon. Then her insurance started
REQUIRING her to use Medco for certain of her pills. Ok fine. We use
them. Surprisingly, no problems.

So. Now it is now. Surly Teenager has 5 new medicines. And if you
are not familiar with any of the Crazy Meds, they tend to be
expensive. Especially the new ones that don't have generics for them
yet. So I said ok. Medco. It is significantly cheaper to use them.
No major problems for the last few years using them for my mom. Ok.
I will give it a try. The doctor sent in the prescriptions last
Tuesday.

I get a call this morning from Medco. They want to welcome me back.
They want to thank me for chosing them, for letting them make my life
easier. They want to verify my address.

Are you sitting down? Yes. That is correct - they asked me if the
address at something Jamestown in Irving was still valid or did I want
to use the *my current address* which is the one on my insurance
records.

I formally apologize to the poor Mr. Medco Guy who thought he was
making a simple address verification call, and got stuck having to
listen to the crazy lady rant.

He promised me he was deleting that address.