CVS Pricing

This morning I stopped to purchase a pint of half and half on my way to work. Due to a time restraint and because of the convenience of this CVS and the early hour, I chose the CVS on Watertown Ave in Waterbury, CT. I was appalled at the $2.59 price for Garelick Farms (a local dairy) pint of half and half! I have never paid more than $1.69 for the same product anywhere. I understand price increases today, but this was far beyond reasonable.

I was shopping at CVS at 97 15 Metropolitan ave store 7881 Forest Hills, NV 11375. I made a purchase of shampoos. After I paid, I noticed I was overcharged. The ticket price was $4.79 but was charged $5.29.

I was charged $2.31 more per pill of gabapentin 800 mg tablets than at Giant Eagle where I paid $0.62 per pill. I returned to CVS to check if the pills were priced correctly. They checked and told me it was the correct price and the store had no control over the mark up. I have been loyal to CVS for years but that time has come to an end. I will never return to CVS. I will be ending all auto refills and will have my scripts transferred to Giant Eagle. I will let my friends on Facebook know about this extreme price gouging.

I have taken a specific medication for several years. The doctor sends it to the pharmacy to be filled, which is CVS/ Caremark. I pick them up at the pharmacy. If I don't need the prescription, I let them know and they re-stock it. At the end of December I filled my prescription at the pharmacy with a co-pay card from the manufacturer. I paid $12 for 90 days. At the end of January I saw my doctor, and she sent over my refill information. However, instead of the medication being filled at the pharmacy, it was mailed to me. Along with it was a bill for $136.00. I thought it was a misunderstanding, since I wasn't due a re-fill for two months and I did not request that it be sent to me.

When I contacted Caremark, the representative said she did not know why it was mailed to me. However, I had to pay the full amount. My co-pay card could only be redeemed at the pharmacy. I was very angry. After escalating the issue, I was told they would extend me a "one time courtesy" and I could return the medication. That seemed very odd to me.

The next day I did some research. 1) The medication that I am taking will be available via generic next month (March 2012). If they had waited until I was due a refill, they couldn't charge me for the costly name brand version. I would pay about $12 instead of $136. 2) By sending me the medications directly, they are able to pocket any rebates from the pharmaceutical company into their own pockets. 3) It is against the law to re-sell or repackage returned medications in Illinois. So, why did they want me to return the medication?

Bottom line: CVS is dumping name brand medications onto consumers at higher prices, knowing that the medication will be available via generic in a short time. They fill and send the medications prior to the "refill" date in order to profit before the generics are available. In addition, they pocket any "rebates" that would be offered to the consumers and charge them the full cost.

I followed up with an email to Caremark. They gave some insufficient answer about how they need to refill prescriptions right away. I asked them to point to one instance where they have ever filled my prescription via mail. Caremark/CVS has had to pay many millions of dollars in lawsuits due to unethical business practices. Apparently, that is not enough to deter them from continuing to scam their customers.

I needed my script filled and my insurance. Coventry Health Care is suppose to give more discount if I use CVS. I went there and handed them my script and was told I could not get generic, and that my insurance did not cover brand name pain pill. I was told it would be $230.00. I went to pick it up and then it was $298.00. I had to have it for I was in great pain, so I paid out of own pocket.

I went back to my doctor 4 days later, made comment about the price and was told to shop around. I went to Winn-Dixie pharmacy and asked if they would take my insurance. They were able to fill and approve my insurance and the total cost for the same script was $14.99. They had also overcharged me on other scripts before I was told that I should never had to pay so much when not in right mind and lots of pain due to cancer.

I went to fill a prescription and asked the pharmacy staff to give me the price for my medication with my insurance and without insurance, and I was told I had to pay $15 either way. The pharmacist only gave me 30 capsules even though the prescription was written for 90 capsules, saying that this was all that the insurance allowed them to dispense. This month I went to another pharmacy to doublecheck and the pharmacist dispensed the whole 90 capsules for $10 and was honest enough to tell me not to use the insurance.

Over price merchandise. Overage expenses consume by the customer. Quite recently, I visited this location, made a purchase that was excessively over price. Items purchased were four 20 oz soft drinks price at $1.77 each. Simply outrageous.

I just spoke with Wal-Mart Pharmacy who volunteered to me that they always check to see which way is the most inexpensive for the customer. So apparently, I am not asking too much in expecting that my pharmacy do this as a courtesy as I have put my trust in my Pharmacist and have been let down by CVS Pharmacy. I am not happy with your service and will be moving higher up if not settled to my satisfaction. Also, the publicity that you receive from this will not be good. Please see what you can do for me as I cannot afford to throw my money away and that is exactly what has happened.

It has over a year since I contacted you and have had no response and have still been paying too much for my Acyclovir & Tamoxifen. I have asked the pharmacists several times why I have my health pass card and they don't know or at least they say that they don't know. Instead of telling me not to run it through on my insurance cause it is less expensive to do a 90 day supply on both without my insurance. I don't know what else to do. I think it is your responsibility to inform your customers of this.

As of today, I have spent $558.68 since 10/2009 on these 2 medicines when I could have and should have spent approximately $176. A difference of $382.68, which I could desperately use since these are not the only prescriptions that I have filled with CVS $1861.64. Now, when I ask to put it through on my Savings Pass, I'm told that I need to pay another membership fee because it is expired and has done me no good at all. It is hard enough for me to remember all my meds I don't need the additional stress of trying to come up with more money for prescriptions. It is not good for my health.

I want to be reimbursed for the $382.68 and I want to be set up in your computer to always run through on the 90 day supply for $11.00 or I will transfer my business and it that doesn't matter to you. I will go to the top of CVS and the top of the Pharmacy and the bad publicity that you receive will not be good. Please contact me ASAP because I am not going to be ignored again. If I don't get a response very soon I will begin taking action. I have not been contacted yet and I need to refill my script for Acyclovir but my online account still says that it is $15.00 per month.

I received an email saying that she contacted the Area Pharmacy supervisor, Darrell ** and made him aware of the comments. He will address my concerns with the Pharmacy Manager and staff to correct this from recurring. She had asked that he contact me directly within two business days. But still, I got no response.

CVS periodically sends me discount coupons to be used on my red Extra Care card, "the card that pays you back." Pays you back, all right, with a scam. Here's how it works: they email me offers that are supposed to save me between 20 and 30% on all items except sale items, phone cards, gift cards and the other usual exclusionary stuff. What upsets me is, for example, they'll discount a $4 gallon of milk a stinking 20 cents so that a person can't use the discount of 80 cents or more. When I tell them I want to pay the full price and then get the discount of 80 cents or more, they won't do it. I see many items in the store that operate in a similar manner, and it's just not fair. It's just another bait-and-switch routine. I will not be going back to CVS.

$400.00 for a 30-day supply. This is outrageous. They are the price gauging in the cancer medicines. I found another pharmacy that I can get the letrozole for far $50.00 for a 90-day supply. Something need to be done about price gauging the cancer meds I am so upset with cvs.

If I had to depend on cvs, my cancer would be coming back; that pharmacist is a heartless man and I have my blood pressure medicines and insulin there for years and this is how I am treated since my diagnoses with breast cancer. I want an attorney to contact me.

I shop at CVS all the time. So, when you advertised netbooks on sale for $69.99, I was ecstatic. I went to my neighborhood CVS and was told they didn't even receive a shipment. I visited another CVS and they didn't receive a shipment either. So, I called several CVS stores and was told they didn't receive any shipments either. Why would you advertise a product and not ship it to any stores? I call this false advertising.

On August 24, I bought Nature Made D3 1000 IU from CVS and was charged $13.99. Almost 100 yards from the store is a Publix Super Market and they have the same vitamins for $9.37. Because there was a difference of $4.62, I came back to CVS and complained with the pharmacist. She said that the management does not listen to her. So, I returned the vitamins to CVS and bought them at Publix.

I have filled my scripts there for the past few years. For the past year, I have been on the NovaLog Pen for my diabetes and have always gotten two boxes of pens for the refill. I thought I had a prescription on file, but did not. I asked that they fax Dr. ** for a new one and, reluctantly, she said they would but would not guarantee the refill.

I waited a couple days for a call to let me know that I had a refill to pick up. Then they called and I was told it was there. I picked it up and it was only one box, which would last only a few days. When asked, without even looking from her computer screen and no eye contact whatsoever, she told me that it was what the prescription was written for and that is what was filled.

Always before, I have gotten the two boxes and paid $40. This time, I received only one box and was still charged the $40. When I questioned the charge, she said that was what it was and that if I wanted it, then that was what I would pay.

Most of the staff there are always helpful and polite. This lady is rude and very unprofessional. I have elected before not to use the prescription plan source that my insurance company has encouraged, but I have since contacted them and am in the process of transferring all my scripts to them. I am relieved to know that CVS is so successful that they can well afford to lose a $100+ customer, because they have.

I quit buying my monthly prescription at CVS more than a year ago. They had started charging me $15 for co-pay on a prescription for blood pressure pills (my ongoing monthly prescription) when it had been $5. I went to Rite Aid, and the charge was under $6. The Rite Aid staff said that the actual price of the medicines was under $6 (all generic.). I called Blue Shield to complain, and was told that by contract with Blue Shield, CVS, Safeway and Walgreens are allowed to charge the $15 even if the actual medicines cost less. Blue Shield starts charging $15 "co-pay" after three refills because they want you to use the mail service, which doesn't work for me.

Anyway, when I got my last prescription I took it to an independent pharmacist who had just opened up. I paid cash to avoid the $15 co-pay. Again, the medicines cost under $5. Unfortunately, the business just closed down, and sent all records to CVS. I just went there today for my last refill. I waited about 15 minutes just to order it, and was told the cash price is $24.95! This is for 30 days of lisinopril generic and a diuretic, combined. I walked right back out the door.

CVS is one big rip off. I guess their response to the federal fraud case was to raise all their prices. I would have been out of the independent pharmacy with the prescription in ten minutes. Now I have to drive to some other pharmacy to have it transferred. The shame of it is, CVS in Riverside has gone after all the convalescent hospital business, so you know they are gouging the Medicare, Medicaid and long term care insurance companies.

Price for 90 Serax 10mgs (Oxazepam) at CVS is $55.27 without insurance. The same prescription at Walgreens (no insurance) is $43.69. Which store would you trust to treat you fairly in the future?

I have reviewed several of the other complaints, and have had many of the same myself such as unauthorized billing, shipping of medications, and the so-called "saving you money strategy" by requiring you to purchase maintenance medications through their personal pharmacy. This actually drove the cost of my medication up over twice the amount I was paying at our local pharmacy. To which, after explaining that to the CSR who seemed apparently brainwashed of the new system, could offer no reason other than somehow this was designed to save me money. I don't see how these people are able to maintain and fly under the radar. These same issues seem to have been going on for years, for some.

Anyhow, to get down to my recent issue, we also were notified many months ago that we need to switch to 90-day scripts for all maintenance medications, and that they would have to be filled through CVS or Caremark. The problem that we are having is that my husband is taking an antidepressant for anxiety which has worked well ever since the doctor prescribed it, and we were getting it at our local pharmacy (not CVS). Now that we have had to use their pharmacy (CVS or Caremark mail order) in order to receive coverage, my husband is experiencing all of his old symptoms again. It's as if he weren't on any medication at all.

I have asked my husband multiple times if he is indeed taking the medication and he says yes, as prescribed. The medication is generic as the medication from our local pharmacy. I decided to pursue a search to see if anyone else has had this experience, and if anyone has checked into this. I would love to have this medication tested to see if it is indeed the equivalent of what is prescribed. I also understand that some people can gradually have a need for an increased dose, and that is not totally out of my thoughts and reasoning. However, the fact stands that the loss of effect seemed to begin to dissipate when the medication was switched from our local pharmacy to CVS or Caremark mail order.

Has anyone else experienced this as well? We weren't given a choice as to our pharmaceutical coverage provider, through my husband's employer, nor were we given an option to opt out of pharmaceutical insurance alone. We are charged X amount, per pay period, for healthcare or pharmacy bundle. It just seems a little sideways to sell pharmaceutical insurance plus limit the customer to benefits only when purchased through their private pharmacy. I mean, who do you go to for support in a situation like this?

I take Suboxone to help me abstain from opiates. I've been on the medication for 5 years and it is truly a miracle medicine. In the time I've been on it, I've had a baby, began going to college, and have rebuilt damaged relationships, so you can understand the importance of me to continue taking this medication, no matter what. When I began taking Suboxone, I lived in PA and had medical assistance so I was only charged the $3 co-pay for the prescription. In August of 2010, I moved back to Louisiana, where I was raised to be closer to family.

Unfortunately, I do not qualify for medical assistance in this state so I pay cash price for my prescription. I noticed that if I bought a large quantity, the price was less (not by much though). I also noticed that one time I would get a quantity of 10 filled and the price would be different than the price for 10 the last time. Unfortunately, I didn't keep records of what I was paying.

In this state, if you pay a large percentage of your pay for medical expenses, they may be able to help with a type of medical assistance, so I asked CVS to print out a report of the medication I've received and how much it cost. I began reviewing it and was astonished by the results. Sometimes I can go in and pay $77.67 for 10 pills and others, $99.23 for 10 pills. I ordered 12 pills today and when I went to pick them up, I brought the printout to compare the prices right in front of them. They charged me $97.76.

So I asked her why a majority of the time I receive 10 pills it costs me $77.67 making each pill $7.76 a piece. But when I ordered two extra, the bill was $20 extra, making the extra pills $10 a piece. I asked her where the logic was in this. I was told the prices are preset in the computer and she could do nothing about it. She was a mere associate and didn't even offer to get the manager or suggest someone I could talk to about my issue. They are acting like my drug dealers in my past, making up inflated prices because of my need for the "drug".

In Louisiana, drugs can be taxed at the local level--5% from where I live. CVS charged me $12 tax on a $30 co-pay. They said that they taxed me on the total cost of the drug because my insurance company won't pay the tax on their portion. However, they did it in an underhanded way because the receipt did not show the tax, just one amount like it was a co-pay only. When I asked why the co-pay amount was more than it was supposed to be, I was told, "your insurance company tells us what to charge you."

The pharmacy manager, Debbie **, said that the computer system was supposed to be fixed not to charge the tax, but CVS refuses to refund the tax they charged me. She also initially denied that there was any tax in the amount I was charged. She then said that the tax used to show on the receipt separately but the computer system was changed so it did not show. Other pharmacies in my area don't charge tax on prescription drugs when you have insurance. I calculated that CVS has cost me approximately $150 in the last three years. I will never use CVS again--either to shop there or get a prescription filled.

My daughter was told that she had to have her med filled that night. Since I was 2 hours from home, I got the prescription from the closest place from where I was, the CVS Pharmacy in Olney. It cost me 52.18. I found out that Kroger only charges 8.00 so it seems CVS ended up making a profit from me of almost 45 dollars. That's awful. Please help me.

I bought an item at CVS Burlington. It's laptop computer stand for $24.99 four days later on sale for $19.99. I went back with my slip to get the difference. They do not do price adjustments. That displeased me as I have the item assembled at this point. I was not pleased with the manager's response to me.

Every time I go into the nearest CVS store, they do not have prices on a lot of items, especially their sale items. This has been going on for a couple of years now. All you have to do is go around the store and prices are not correct. I asked the assistant manager for a price on an item and he told me to go to their scanning station across the store and scan it myself. I think it's time for CVS to make their store have the price on things.

Ever since I have been insured by Medicare Part D (using Humana Enhanced PDP), this CVS has consistently charged me the full price, or a 10/% discounted price that I formerly received through the county when I had no insurance coverage prior to my 65th birthday last May.

I have spoken with the staff at this pharmacy repeatedly and whenever I go to get a prescription filled, I remind them that the insurance coverage is Humana. They always have to redo the prescription, as they never charge it to Humana. Yet again, today, they charged me the full price (minus the 10% discount). My husband went to pick up the medication for me and told them to be sure to use the Humana insurance. They advised him that they had done so.

Either this CVS is trying deliberately to defraud me, or their staff is woefully lacking in the capacity to use their computer system. In either case, this is completely unacceptable and it needs to be addressed.

An ad in the CVS circular for Charmin bath tissue states as follows: "You pay with card $4.99, you get $1.00 in Extra Bucks Reward. It's like getting it for $3.99 after Extra Buck." However, the Extra Buck reward is not good on the current purchase, as implied, but rather only good on a future purchase. So, it's not "like" getting it for $3.99. It's "like" getting it for $4.99. When I spoke with Christine, supervisor in customer relations, she told me that the use of the word "like" absolved them of any deception. She said: "We didn't say you would get it for $3.99. We said it was like getting it for $3.99. We have been advertising like this for years." In other words, they have been deceiving the public for years by using false advertising to get people in the store, by advertising one price while charging another. They refused to make good on the advertised price. Playing semantics is what the big corporations have been allowed to get away with. This is deceptive, pure and simple.

This was my letter to CVS Pharmacies, but they do not have a place for emails. "The last three times that I have gone to shop at CVS in Miami Dade County, your prices have been abusively high and outlandish. I am not sure what has happened to your corporation. There was a time when CVS was a good place to shop in. Is this a national problem or it is focused to Miami? Most of your products are now between $1.50 to $2.00 higher than most other places! I am sorry to say that I will do my very best not to shop at CVS and I have counseled my family not do as well. I love your stores but will not pay two dollars more for things which are already marked high as it. Thank you and Merry Christmas.

Excessive rate increase for prescription plan co-pays. My husband is a retiree of the Detroit News (Gannett Inc.) and is covered by his previous employer on a prescription drug plan provided through CVS/Caremark. We just received a mail notice via the Detroit Media Partnership, 615 Lafayete Blvd., Detroit, MI 48226, (telephone: 312-222-** or 586-826- **) that his drug co-pay amounts in 2011 for the CVS/Caremark pharmacy plan will increase a minimum of 100% to a maximum of 400% (on a sliding scale) on generic and all other drugs over the 2010 rates. This outrageous co-pay increase, effective January l, 2011, was confirmed this morning via a telephone call to CVS/Caremark (telephone: 1-**).

How can an increase of 100- 400% in co-pays be tolerated? I thought the new health care reform package was to protect the American consumer against this type of activity by the health care insurance industry.

In January 2004 we purchased a drug called cyprofloxacin 500mg, quantity 14. It is a very popular antibiotic, we were told by our oncologist. We purchased it at CVS in Manomet. We paid $86.93. In August, 2004 we filled a prescription for the same drug except it was for a quantity of 10. Same 500MG.

This time we went to Wal-mart because we now have a discount card from The American Legion. It does not discount all drugs, so we had to wait untilit was rung in at the register to know if we did qualify for the discount. In the meantime, the clerk quoted us a price of 18.54, when she rang the sale on her machine we were entitled to the discount. It came to $7.00 -- quite a difference, don't you think?

We went back to CVS with both sales receipts and asked HOW COME? Oh, they said, we will investigate. The answer we got days later was, Sorry, that's the way it is.

I went in to pick up 4 generic amoxil capsules which I need as premedication for dental procedures. I was charged $9.99. I asked the cashier why the prescription was so expensive considering the fact that I only received 4 capsules. She said I needed to speak to the pharmacist. That was when I was told that CVS is allowed to charge a minimum of $9.99 for any prescription. I asked if the charge would be less if it wasn't processed throught my insurance and I was told $9.99 is the lowest I will pay for any prescription there regardless of the cost of the drug.

This must be a new policy because I know that I have paid less for prescriptions than $9.99. Generic amoxil is probably one of the cheapest antibiotics out there - why am I paying $2.50 per capsule? I had a dentist appointment and did not have the luxury of taking my script back and find another pharmacy who charges actual cost. I think they should have told me before the script was filled.

I just happened to notice this time because I only received 4 pills. I wonder how many other prescriptions I have had filled where I was charged more than cost. This time the economic damage was probably only $8.00 or so but how long has this been going on without my knowledge. I wonder if I have been charged on other prescriptions more than necessary.

Reluctantly the pharmacy did this. WHen I inqured further why at the very least my co-pay was not lowered to $3.33 -- the actual cost of 15 pills -- I was told by the pharmacist that "the computer" does not allow this. The pill I am talking about is a widely used pill for the treatment of blood pressure problems. I work in the health care field and was quick to recognize the problem and the unfairness of the transaction, but I have serious concerns how many thousands of prescriptions CVS fills for this and other low-cost drugs and the consumer does not know they are being cheated.

My complaint is that customers need to be told about this $9.99 minimum so they could have the opportunity to have the rx rewritten by the physicians. Doctors try to save their patients money by writing small quantities and pharmacies are now charging a minimum. I am paying almost ten fold of what the drug should really cost. Consumers who do not question what they are charged have no idea this practice is even taking place.

I do not understand how this pharmacy can charge $9.99 as a minimum charge for a prescription even if the cost of the drug is less than that amount and get away with it. This cannot be legal, can it?

Got an Rx filled and was charged $41.00 for a product I have NEVER paid more than $18.00 for. Next time, I had the SAME Rx transferred to a mom & pop Rexall Drug in Vienna, VA and was charged only $15.55 for the SAME EXACT Rx. This is unforgivable. What recourse do those us us who are uninsured and/or elderly do about this price gouging?

It is devestating to realize that, yet again, big companies can pull one over on the general public. It is causing severe anxiety in my life that is intolerable. What can we do?

I purchased a product at CVS for $1.99. The product was on sale for $.99. I was overcharged due to a scanning error. When I returned the product and explained that I was overcharged, the store manager said she would only give me one dollar back. I explained that the law states that I am to receive 10 times the amount that I was over charged up to $5.00. She said this law did not apply to me situation. I believe this is incorrect.

I spoke to another manager the next day he gave me a hard time and agreed with the other manager. In a similar situation at another large store dealing with sale items and I received 10x cash back and filled out special forms.

My mother has high blood pressure and is on medication for this condition. She has a blood pressure monitor to periodically check on her blood pressure. She has had the same monitor for a few years now, and a more advanced, up-to-date model went on sale at the local CVS pharmacy this week. My father went to the store the first day of the sale to buy the monitor.

He returned home and showed us the receipt for the monitor which should have been $59.99 (as advertised). However, the store charged us over $90 for this item. I went back to the store to straighten out the problem. After a long wait at the counter, I received slow and apathetic service from an untrained 20-year-old. He insisted the monitor I was talking about was a different model from what was advertised in the brochure.

Once he finally realized that the monitors in the brochure and in my hands were indeed one and the same, he refunded the money and sent me to the front register to re-purchase the instrument. Why he couldn't simply refund the difference, I don't know - he insisted he must give me a full refund and that I had to pay for the monitor up front. This would not have been a problem had the front cashier been informed of what was going on. I went through the exact same procedure at the front counter; the same inexperienced 20-year-old came to fool with the register, and as it turns out, the correct price had never been entered into the main computer. Therefore, anyone else who tried to purchase the sale monitor would have paid over $40 more than they were supposed to.

I wasted an hour at the store trying to get this straightened out. Moreover, other customers and I were being cheated out of money. I received no apology from the store, nor did they seem to be aware that this is a problem! It certainly doesn't make me want to go back to CVS when they can't enter a featured sale price into their main computer. I would be more understanding if this were my first bad experience with CVS, but it isn't. I have had countless problems at the store, especially with the pharmacy department. I am fed up and vow to use their facility as seldom as possible from now on.