Caremark - Delivery Problems

We've been on the phone with CVS Caremark every day for two weeks, trying to get prescription refills. They lost prescriptions, ignored others, and changed others to their liking. It took an act of God to get anything shipped. They keep asking for a payment option, when they already have that information. They argue with our doctors. They send shorted prescriptions, when they disagree with doctor's orders. They pilfer money from your CC without your permission, for bogus fees when they mess things up. You have to pay for their mistakes, evidently. This company is a pimple on the American business environment.

Caremark substituted a generic thyroid medicine, Levoxyl, for the prescribed brand medicine, Unithroid, because my doctor didn't say "no substitute". My problems are as follows: Levoxyl doesn't work as well for me. And the generic costs 33% more than the brand!

This is minor compared to other horror stories here about Caremark. So I rated my experience a 2; it can clearly be worse.

Caremark received my most recent mail-ordered prescription on July 23rd then on September 2nd, I got a word that it was mailed to me. This is a 10-day delay which is not reasonable. It will take another 5-7 days before it arrives. When I checked the tracking number that they sent, no such item was yet in the system.

My neighborhood drugstore can process a prescription in two hours or less. I had to get another prescription from my physician because I ran out of medicine while waiting for Caremark.

My wife has been receiving interferon since November 2007. She was to have another order shipped so that she could take her medication this past Friday 9/19/2008. The medication did not arrive as expected so my wife called in to Caremark on Sunday 9/21/2008. She was informed that there was an error in the computer and they would be shipping out on 9/22/08 overnight with Fed Ex to be the shipping agent. Tuesday 9/23/08 came around and the medication never showed up as promised so we again called Caremark who told us that there was an error and the medication had been rerouted and that they would find out what was the problem. This morning at 9:30 a pharmacist called me to let me know that he had tracked down the medication and it is indeed in Roseburg Oregon and the medication would be delivered by early afternoon. Three-Thirty came around and guess what no medication....

So after many phone calls the Pharmacist calls back and says that the medication is at the Fed Ex shipping center and can be picked up before 5:00. I go to pick up the medication using the tracking number provided by Caremark and guess what? The package is not there but is in another town across the state because once again Caremark has made a mistake and sent the package to zip 97491. The Roseburg zip code is 97471. My wife is now 5 days late on a medication that is used to treat Hep C which must be taken on a regimen to continue fighting the virus for 1 year. Now we are 10 months into the treatment and cannot get the proper medication because Caremark cannot seem to ship at the right time or to the right address. This is totally unacceptable and must be fixed immediately.

Luckily for us the prescribing physician just did a viral load test and will be doing another one next week. If the viral load has increased I will be immediately contacting an attorney and filing lawsuit. This type of medication kills the weak virus first so by now at the 10 month mark any virus left is the most resistant so as you now if it returns it will be mutated to the point that it will not likely be able to be eradicated by any current treatment. It seems that the name of the business should be carelessmark as there is obviously no regard for the care of their patients as evidence not only by our experience but the thousands of people with similar complaints including those that can be found this website.

This has been stressful to me and my wife. I have had to take time off of work to deal with this issue and spend money on fuel and phone calls to try and get this resolved. The worst will be if my wifes virus returns mutated and cannot be cured. While this may not have happened yet the chances increase with every day that Caremark does not fulfill its obligation to its customers.

I ordered a refill to a prescription that Caremark has been filling for years. This time it was sent to an address that my son lived at 5 years ago. I have been living at my address for over 20 years. All my previous (and subsequent) medications have come to this address. After about 5 weeks I called to find out why I hadn't received my meds. That is when I found out that they were sent to an address in another state.

After a couple of days on the phone I was informed that since I didn't notify them of their error with in 30 days that they would keep my payment and not re-send my refill. I still needed my medication so I requested my next refill. They told me it was too soon and that I couldn't get my next refill for another month or so. Even though they acknowledge their delivery error and that I paid for but never received by previous medication.

They kept the $37 they withdrew from my bank account and I have been with out my medication for 5 weeks... so far.

The word incompetent fully describes Caremark. it seems as though they can not accomplish the simplist task successfully. i'm exhausted from the stress that i've endured due to them not being able to act responsibly and see that a prescription was delivered on time. the busy executive that i am, i have no more patience in dealing with Caremark. because i had not received the prescription, i had no choice but to ween from the drug. cold turkey!

Any professional would tell you that you cannot just stop taking a drug. weeks later, the drug still never arrived, and their customer service staff has no record of such an emergency of my drug being needed. do have the time or energy to gather up documentation from my doctor who worked with Caremark on this matter several weeks ago? the answer is NO. my mission now is to report that Caremark is incometent.

My medication was held for no apparent reason until I called. Two prescriptions were delivered with thirty day supply instead of ninety, for same cost. Now I copy every prescription before mailing. I take Benicar for blood pressure, the cost is the same regardless of number or strength. I run out of pain meds because they claim they cant read it when my copy is clear. No medication is below $20 even when actual cost is less.

I ran out of medication for pain, taking numerous over the counter which is unsafe. I made extra trips to doctor to get prescriptions. I have the stress of headache of constantly calling Caremark and doctor to resolve issues. Stress has a direct affect on my health, fibromyalgia and neuropathy, in addition to high blood pressure.

I have only been ordering from Caremark for 9 months 3 script mail orders of 4 medications each. My first order from them was purchased with a credit card at the cost of $700.00 or so. When I did not get my meds after 15 days I called. They said because of the high cost of the meds they had to call and verify it with me. At 15 days they still had not called! When I called them I told them I placed the order on the phone and the purchase was verified by me. They said they were sorry someone should have called me! It took 5 more days to get the meds.

I live in Houston and the pharmacy is in San Antonio 3 hours away. The second time I ordered the same thing happened and still I got no call, I had to again call them.. They said they were sorry again someone should have called me. Today 9/13 I called them because I placed and order on 9/7/06 and asked for 2 day shipping because I was very low on my meds. They told me the cost of the two day shipping I accepted the cost and hung up.

Today is 9/13/06 at 6pm and my meds are still not here. So I called again. They said the person who placed the order did not set it up for 2 day delivery. Again they said they were sorry. I asked to speak to a supervisor who was no help and she said she was sorry. Who is running this operation? On 9/7 when I placed the last order one of my prescriptions had expired. They said they would call my doctor to get her approval. I was fine with that. My doctor's office approved it the next day on 9/8.

Today when I called Caremark and I inquired about the expired medication, they said they just got her approval TODAY, which I know to be a lie. So I again asked for 2 day shipping, they said ok. Then she explained it would take up to 5 days to pull this one prescription so it would be here in about 7-10 days. At this point I am angry and out of my meds. Now I will have to contact my doctor to call in a short term script for me at a drugstore until Caremark and deliver on my meds. The drugstore cost is much higher than my 90 script plan from Caremark. If I had another option on my insurance plan I would absolutely change vendors. This is the worst customer service I have ever had from a prescription company.

I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. I will now need to call my doctor to call in a short term script from a drugstore and pay higher cost for the scripts. I am out of my meds at this point. Every three months Caremark sends me a letter telling me how important that I take my meds. I just have to laugh because I could take them on time if they sent them on time. I can't believe I pay them $700.00 every three months for this poor service?

Caremark loses prescription refill requests and then tells the patient they never received the rx from the dr. After several calls from me and from the dr's office, finally the mail order process begins. By then, I'm out of medication and getting sick. They refuse to pay if I go to the local pharmacy to get a refill until the mail order is delivered to my home. They won't pay for maintenance drugs unless it is done by their mail order dept. which is incompetent and could care less if you get your medications or not. They are difficult and refuse to help.

This company causes extra costs to me, up to $300+ due to their incompetency in their mail order dept. and I end up sick for a few days when I run out of medications when I should have had my refills by mail over 2 weeks ago. The same excuse is given when I call to get status of the order, we didn't get an order or we just received the order today.

The sheer frustation and inconvenience of having to call the incompetent customer service department is punishment enough. Not to mention the issue of delayed orders due to their lack of procedures.

2) In addition, Caremark includes an unnecessary tag/label in each prescription packet that includes name, social security # and other private information AND this tag is in the same packet that is delivered without a signature and left unattended in hallways, by doorways, etc. (as opposed to being delivered in a secure mailbox or to a live person).

The potential economic damage is great to the individual (ID THEFT) and to the wider society (stolen prescription drug medications. Can be stolen and USED by unlawful holders)