WTF is with these pharmacies and their dispensing fees?

I'm steaming mad at my neighborhood pharmacy today. I am on 3 different prescriptions. (yeah, those things come with old age!) I go to my Doctor every three months and for two of my meds he gives me a prescription for 3 months at a time. The other one, he's given me a prescription for 3 months worth, and then 3 repeats on that particular one, which gives me a years worth of pills as I need them filled.

Anyway, long story short, I last filled my prescriptions on April 19th. All were for 90 pills, each taken one pill daily. Now I don't claim to be a rocket scientist or anything, but 90 pills at one a day, is good for about 3 months, correct? Well, one of my prescriptions has only a couple pills left, and the other two have more. I thought to myself, that the pharmacy must have run out of those pills when they filled my order, and there would be a credit on their system for the remainder. So after work today, I head over and talk to the pharmacist about this. He looks at me like I'm some sort of pill-popping lunatic that is trying to get a free score! For crap sakes they are bloody water pills that my Doctor has me on in conjunction with another pill to lower my blood pressure. I'm not an obese person, but I'm certainly not anorexic looking, or even supermodel slim, so it's obvious I'm not abusing these water pills. I don't imagine the street value on a water pill is much that would make it worth my while to hide in a dark alley whispering, "Pssst, water pills...get your water pill fix here."

So I get into this er, conversation with him about this mistake, which he's having no part of accepting any responsibility in this matter. He is adamant that I should have come back to the store on April 20th and informed that there was a mistake then, and that he could do nothing about it now.

Me: "So you're telling me, that I should go home and count my pills when I get a prescription? I don't believe that paying a dispensing fee of $11.99 should mean that I have to re-check my prescription to make sure you have it right, and it's all accounted for."

Him: "The dispensing fee has nothing to do with it."

Me: "Oh yes. It has everything to do with it. If you are going to charge people a premium price for dispensing, when most other pharmacies charge half of that, then I do believe that we people buying our prescriptions here should get and have every right to expect premium service, and that includes counting of pills, since that is all you are really doing anyway."

Buy this time, the people that were around that area stopped their own conversations to listen to this one. I didn't care though...I was pissed!

Me: "So what am I supposed to do now? I don't have any refills, you're obviously not believing me that a mistake on your part could have possibly been made. I have one pill left and I don't see my Doctor until mid-July. I need those pills for my blood pressure, and you're causing it to raise right now."

So he's trying to get rid of me, and says, "Maybe if your Doctor accepts pharmacy calls, we could call and get a refill for you." To which he turns to the other girl at the back and asks if my Doctor accepts calls, and she replies with a "Nooooppppe." without even looking up. (This I know is bullshit, as they've called for me before, and a few times for my mother-in-law)

Him: "You'll have to go see your Doctor then."

Me: "How many refills do I have sitting here at this store?"

Him: "I told you already, you have no more refills for this pill."

Me: "I know that, but I have other prescriptions, and I know at least one of them has a refill."

Him: "Oh, you have three on your ___ prescription only"

Me: "Is it possible to have repeats transferred to another pharmacy?"

Him: "Yes, it is."

Me: "Even if it's not a the same store chain?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "Fine, I will call my Doctor tomorrow and tell him what you've done to me, and have him call in a temporary prescription to another pharmacy, and I will transfer all of my business elsewhere. If I'm not going to get premium service here, I find it a waste of money paying for it."

People were smiling at me as I walked away. I don't know if because they were afraid of me as my voice was raised while I was having this conversation with this so-called professional, or if they had listened and agreed to what I was saying.

Anyway, I went to another store tonight to have my file transferred, and their dispensing fee is a mere $4.11! With all the money I'll be saving, I stopped and bought a shitload of cherries to soothe myself. Ahhhh, those glorious sweet orbs we call cherries! I feel my blood pressure lowering already!

I should make a t-shirt design for my Cafepress shop about the high dispensing fees these gunless robbers we call pharmacists are charging to count out a few pills and stick a sticker on a bottle! I wonder if it would sell as good as my Rocky Horror designs are selling lately. They seem to be my latest hot sellers! Lots of fans out there still doing the Time Warp I suppose! Hot Patootie, that's cool! :-)

Gotta run...cherries are calling me from the kitchen!

Olivia