PrescriptionSolutions is a large mail order pharmacy which among its many thousands of clients serves a large percentage of AARP members. Not only does it have several call centers throughout the nation, and several pharmacies, its mail service division is separate from its pharmacies. When one calls one is routed to the nearest call center and that request is then referred to a pharmacy in that person’s geographical area. If one calls to ask a pharmacist a question, however, that pharmacist could be anywhere. What all this seems to add up to is numerous opportunities for errors. In fact my dealings with them have inevitably resulted in one error or another. When I’ve attempted to speak to customer service representatives, I’ve felt I was talking to people who had been programmed like androids and who could not respond with much relevance to what I was asking. When I wrote to them, I received—promptly I must admit—a reply that showed the same level of comprehension, for the answer was not in direct relation to my question. PrescriptionSolutions is a private business. It runs as do other big private concerns like phone, cable and other utilities companies, like the bureaucracies they are. And like the stereotype we hold of any bureaucracy they evidence errors, inefficiency and less than superior service.
In all my years of dealing with the Social Security Administration on behalf of parents and others, I’ve never encountered serious problems. Government bureaucracies may have their issues, but they may be better and surely no worse than any other.
Skip to content