Express Scripts Reviews

Medco's service and support is nothing short of simply being insulting. When attempting to resolve this matter, I just get handed off from one person to the next, each adding a non-matching variation to the reason why there's a delay. Each Medco customer service rep's story changes from person to person. This type of event has occurred each and everytime I've tried to have medicine prescriptions refilled, renewed or reordered.

Out of prescription medications to control severe hypertension (high blood pressure) and the medical consequence for uncontrolled hypertension is considered life threatening. In addition other medications are required to control the life altering side affects of taking hypertension medications, the consequence of which affects the quality of life, which leads to severe depression if not controlled with medication. Medco has been negligent in their responsibility to ensure prompt attention and service for medications that are life sustaining.

On 04/12/06 the (canceled) Advair at a dosage of 250/50 prescription arrived at my home. Subsequent to the delivery of the cancelled prescription, I called Medco to advise them of having received the wrong prescription and to verify that the correct prescription was being sent and to verify that I would not be charged for the Advair at a dosage of 250/50. However, the individuals to whom I spoke on that and subsequent occasions are all informing me that Medco is going to continue to charge me 120.00 for the prescription that I had ordered to be canceled on 04/04/06.

In justification of their actions, each Medco representative with whom I have spoken has stated some variation of the following:

2. I was given no guarantee at the time I called in the cancellation.

To the former (The Medco process is an automated process), I would like to respond:

•Medco’s internal communications procedures and any resident inherent weaknesses are Medco’s problem and I should not have to suffer for them. I, their client, made my request prior to the prescription’s having even arrived at their company. How Medco fulfills my request is their company’s own, internal challenge.

•I see no policies or procedures concerning cancellations posted on Medco’s web-site, nor has anyone from Medco been able to provide any such policies (in writing) to either myself or my advocate from company's Benefits center. If Medco's policy on cancellations isn’t publicly available, how is one to abide by it? To the latter (I was given no guarantee at the time I called in the cancellation), I would like to respond:

•I never asked for a Guarantee when I canceled the order as it seemed (and was) a timely and reasonable request on my part.

•While the Medco representative indeed did not say specifically that they will guarantee anything, they also did not state that they will not guarantee anything either.

As it was a very simple request, if any problem was foreseen, perhaps the Medco representative to whom I spoke should have stated “Mr Customer, we can’t guarantee that your request will be honored. If we do send out the wrong prescription, you will be charged for it”. However, had such a statement been made then and there, I would have been asking for a supervisor right then and there!

I am now expected to pay Medco 120.00 for a prescription which I had requested be cancelled and fear that while I attempt to arbitrate this, they will delay any future orders that I place.

The rep said that when I receive the medication, I should call them and ask Medco at that time for a $50 credit. I asked why I had to wait to get the money credited . She said because the price is going up on June 1st 2006 and the new price is already loaded. I asked what June 1st 2006 had to do with today, May 5th 2006. She said that by the time I got my medication it would be June 1st so I had to pay the price.

The problem is that it was $120 and I did not need this medication. I explained this to this representative and asked to speak to a manager, she advised that I just DO NOT ACCEPT THE package when it arrives VIA UPS. Therefore, we did not accept the package when it attempted to arrive our home for deliver and it was refused to be returned to the company. The company to this day, refuses to delete this invoice and now claims that because the medicine was made and shipped that I am responsible for this medication. This is absurd. I have called many times and spoken to many people and been hung up many times on account that it is a long distance call for me since I live in NC and this company is located in NJ.

After contacting my employer's Help Desk and their intervention I was told that Medco was sending me an appeal form in 7 days. I have never in my 66 years done business with such an unprofessional and rude company. The order arrived 9 days after I cancelled it... The two Medco Customer Service Reps yelled at me and would not listen to anything I had to say. It's a shame that people like this are hired when there are compassionate people looking for jobs.

Because Medco did not cancel my order I was billed $70. (which the CC company has removed from my bill) and IBM will be billed over $500 which will go against my prescription cap. Since we will definitely go above our cap this year we will have to pay this $500. Not to mention the emotional stress this has caused my wife who is dealing with cancer. Medco's lack of professionalism and their lack of customer service has caused us much distress.

While I am sure that the prescription card is supposed to save his company money, I believe that Medco is fraudulently making money off people who forget, or do not have the time to jump through all their inconvenient hoops. It becomes like a rebate-many consumers do not receive the benefit they have been promised. My daughter has been unable to finish school work that would have posed no problem, had she had the medication that her doctor prescribed for her. We are so frustrated.

I called Medco again and was told it would be resolved, but I needed to mail a new script. Meanwhile, I was forced to get a 30 day script from my doctor until Medco figured it out. This resulted in a three hour trip to the pharmacy because Medco would not approve the 30 day quantity. I then mailed in the new 90 day script and called to verify that the authorization had gone through. I was told that it would be filled correctly. I checked the website after it was processed, and found that-once again- it was not. I called Medco again, to learn that the original authorization was mistakenly submitted for the incorrect dosage. I was told that I would need to begin the process for a new pre-authorization. This delay required another trip to the local pharmacy.

Clearly Medco lacks the ability or the desire to recognize and meet its customer's needs.

When I went to CVS to pick up the prescriptions, I was told that they were not approved by Medco since I had already sent in an order to the Medco Mail Order Center. I called the Medco customer service number and spoke with a rep that told me they would not approve the prescription for 30 days but I could get another prescription for 14 days from my Dr and they would approve that. I could understand an issue with them not approving my prescription if it was one that I was only taking for a short time. However, I will be taking this medication for years.

This instance is a prime example of a company trying to save money and the expense of their customers health. The sad thing is there is nothing I can do except write this complaint. Medco will continue to get away with their unethical business practices. I will miss 2 weeks of medication to control my Diabetes.

This is the second time it's happened to me. The representative was helpful only to the point of getting the order cancelled, however didn't want to acknowledge that a serious medical mistake could be made by continuing this practice of switching out peoples prescriptions. The mistake could come from a person in my situation-in that I also get different medications which are not paid for by my health plan, but are paid by workers compensation and are not known by Medco. Their own staff pharmcists have no way of knowing about these other medications and could instigate a deadly reaction by switching medications around.

What is it going to take to get Medco to stop their practices? I see where they've settled the suits brought about on behalf of the government workers, but this isn't a government plan, it's a private plan through Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I am so fed up with this, and it seems that as consumers, our rights are being violated left and right and no one is doing anything about it!

I called today, because my EXPEDITED order is 2 days late, and after being forced to hang up from their automated system to find a real person, I was told my EXPEDITED order would be received by 2/27. No email, no notification, etc. And, there is no note of the expedited order. The last 2 phone calls were very frustrating and controlling by the representatives, you feel as though your hands are tied behind your back. I don't want my order changed to expedited, as I am sure they will end up charging me and then I would have to be at home or have my delivery address changed and that just sounds like more trouble to me. And in the end, I wonder how a pharmaceutical company can legally get away with not filling a perscription which requires it to be filled in 7 days?

I guess I will just buy it myself than go through this again. And I doubt I will have it by the 27th anyway with so many unfulfilled promises. And finding a way to complain on that award winning website is non-existent, as on their corporate site. I think I find the automated representatives more friendly too.

I wait until i'm out of med to refill because i can't bear to make the call. I see elderly not getting meds at all because they can't use their horrible system.

The sad thing is I am on social security and have to pay $195.00 for a prescription I did not want. I would appreciate it if they cannot fill a prescription like it is written, they would call me. I feel I have been taken advantage of.

I now have to pay the $250 deductible for 2006 to have this medication filled.

This is a nightmare. I have severe medical problems and cannot do without my medicines. Some are ruled by law and they are telling me to do something that I could not legally do last year (90 day prescripion instead of 30 day, mail order instead of hand carry). I fear I am going to have to simply pay the full price because I need the medicines. This is in spite of the fact that I have paid for Medicare Part D (through Health Choice)and the cost of my private insurance. Help!

We got the prescription back again with a note saying we still had to pay, and that the Health & Safety Act would not let them accept back dispensed medicine. We have been disputing the $80 order since Dec. 2004 with numerous phone calls and letters, but Express Scripts just ignores our complaints. They have recently sent this to collections. We have sent our documentation to sall parties involved, and have asked them to at least provide evidence that our doctor ordered the prescription, which he did not do since he took me off this prescription in Novemeber of 2004.

How do you fight a company that is in error but won't do anything about it? Our credit is impeccable and we have never been in collections. Does this not tell you that we are legitimate law-abiding citizens who do the right things, and pay our bills which are legitimate? This is completely wrong for a company to send a prescription not ordered, then do nothing about rectifying it. To me it appears like a scam. They figure we will eventually tire of the fight and give up and pay. We won't. We do not owe any amount for a prescription we did not order! Is there some agency we can contact to file further complaints against the unethical practices of this company? Because they are so very wrong, I would rather go to jail (whcih would be a great injustice) before I will pay them a cent for something that was not authorized or ordered.

This is over $80. But in principle, we cannot pay for something we did not order. The damage is in the fact that they will not listen to our complaints, and have sent it to collections. We have excellent credit, always pay our bills on time, and do not want this tainting our good standing. A company cannot just send an unauthorized order to someone's home and EXPECT payment, then send it to a collection agency, ignoring our pleas for some assistence in the matter, then start adding on interest as a threat to force payment. This is highly unethical!

When I called them they told me it was delivered in December to someone signing with the initials TAM. I have not idea who that is. I sent a letter explaining my situation and received no reply just numerous invoices for the missing prescriptions. When I called today and talked to a billing manager, she told me that I had 60 days to contact them about the missing prescriptions and that I did not. But I did contact them in February. In fact the initial person who answered the phone even said that there is a recorded conversation in their records that I called in February. But now they are saying that I did not contact them until April and there is nothing I can do about it.

I am probably going to be strong-armed into paying $210 or it will be negatively reported on my credit.

In addition, this is not the first time I've had this exact same problem with E-S. The first time was 2 years ago. It was also filling a new Rx, where I had to mail in twice, and had my doctor fax in twice and call in once, the Rx to E-S before it was finally registered in their system. At this point, I've had it. Their customer service has been terrible, implying that there's nothing more they can do. The Rx isn't in their system. I'm getting no real support, service satisfaction or assistance from them. All I've received is there's nothing more we can do and you'll have to get a Rx from your doctor. There's been no acknowledgement so far of the 2 weeks of hassle I've gone through, or the fact that I've gotten Rx's from my doctor and had them sent in according to their easy steps and still nothing.

I've read other complaints regarding E-S concerning similar dissatisfaction and want to make people aware of the problem. Maybe then they'll realize that they're easy system isn't so easy and there are flaws that need to be addressed.

The Rx I'm waiting for is certainly not life threatening as some medications might be, however dealing with E-S has proven to be quite a hassle. Especially the implication that there's nothing they can do and somehow the problem must lie on my end, (with myself or with my doctor's office) is very frustrating. Certainly with the amount of problems I've had, there must be some sort of improvement that could be made on their end.

Today I called Express Scripts to be told that they had called the doctor twice and had not received a response. The result is I am completely without my diabetes medication. Should I go into a diabetic lapse I will hold your company responsible. I have explained to my family what has happened and what actions they should take. Even though I also hold my doctor responsible for not responding to you, your company was negligent in first deleting the refill order and should have been persistent until they got the needed prescription. Since I have been taking this medication consistently for two years with your company, they should have made arrangements for me to get an immediate temporary prescription. They never informed me that they were unable to get a response from my doctor. I find the irresponsibility of this company appalling.

Having been without my required medication I am at risk for repercussions due to my blood sugar not being kept under control.

I am now stuck with 3 months of pills I cannot take. Medco will not refund my money and to be honest takes no responsibility for this at all.

To add insult to injury, if I had gone thru a local pharmacy -- an option my plan offers, I would have only paid $10 for the 15-day supply according to my plan!

I've gone through my Human Resources Department for assistance and they are getting the same reply. I am angry that they are trying to get away with this. It's not an enormous amount of money, but it infuriates me to think that they get away with this from day to day. I have elderly parents and understand the struggles that older Americans have with fighting the system.

"Well, can I get a refund since I'm not satisfied with this service?" I aasked. "NO," I was told. I would go to the neighborhood Walgreens if I wanted one month-- it'd be cheaper! I asked them aren't they a business? I can get a refund if I'm not satisfied with their service. No, I was told. As a consequence, I will be paying $75 for a one month supply of 9 pills, so that's about $8 a pill! I would have paid $30 at a retail pharmacy. I am a single woman with 2 jobs, so extra expenses are difficult.

It is extremely depressing to look at a nearly empty pill bottle, and know I have to either try to reorder, or choose to do without. I never knew what depression was until I had to start dealing with them.

Damage Resulting: Money and time lost. Damage to kidneys, eyes, heart, etc. for both me and my 15-year-old son.

Without my medication my symptoms of MS have worsened which has caused me to miss work and be bedridden. I will also have to start at a lower dose if I ever receive it and taper up to a full dose suffering side effects from having prior withdrawal.

"The quantity and days supply above were used to calculate an estimated price. Please note that the actual quantity and/or days' supply may vary. Your doctor's instructions on how to take the medication, state and federal dispensing guidelines, or how the medication is packaged may impact the quantity and/or days' supply you can receive."

This doesn't say anything about them charging you for 90 days if the script of for 30 days. I'm frustrated with them and have nowhere to ask for help. I don't feel they should be allowed to take advantage of consumers this way.

I am 10 weeks pregnant (with possible miscarriage) and am not handling being stolen from and lied to very well. I don't have money so being cheated $100.00 is a lot to me. I mean they could have called and asked if I wanted to lose money that way or told the doctor that he had to write a prescription for 90 days instead of 30.

They say my doc can send a new script but since it's a new one I would have to pay the $80.00 again. When I try to explain to several CS reps they seem to be deliberately dense. I am unemployed single mother with a disabled child. I can't afford to pay $80.00 again. If I did, any savings from home delivery would be lost and it would be costing me more than if I went to the pharmacy. As it is, I have multiple autoimmune disorders but I have to pick and choose what scripts I fill because of finances. I cant afford to get ripped off.

Since I am a college professor, my child and I have been off work/school until Jan. 5th 2004. We ran out of stimulants and have been trying to cope mentally without them un till we got our new supply of meds. Everyday, we tried not to leave our home since UPS requires an adult signature before delivering our meds. Finally on Jan. 2, we got two letters in the mail stating to call their offices about our meds, because they have not been able to reach us by phone. The letters were mailed by them on Dec. 26th. I called on Friday, Jan. 2nd and talked to Angeli at ex. 5171. She told me that because my doctors office was closed until Jan. 5th and they could not reach me, they cancelled all three of our meds and that now I had to get duplicate prescriptions for all three of them.

They said they did not have a phone number where to reach me but I stated that I put down both my home and work number on every RX order since they require them on their RX order forms. They did not offer me any excuses about why they did not have my number. Can they legally cancel people's prescriptions? My God, in this case, they are playing with the state of people's mental health.

This practice of cancelling people's RX's especially, controlled substances needed by people to be productive at work, concentrate so they can drive safely or be productive at school sounds like a good cause for a class action suit. I explained that my son and I had a doctor that was located 2 counties away from my home and the drive was 80 miles one way to travel to his office. Also that, I usually only visit my doctor once every three months. Also, that my doctor could not legally call in any new prescriptions since all three drugs were controlled substances and that he also never mailed these types of RX's to his patients. Also that this situation puts me in a bind since I needed to return to work and my son needed to return to school on Jan 5th without any RX's and this would severely effect my son's and mine ability to focus and be productive at work and at school.

I was given an emergency number to call to explain my situation but was also told that even after calling the number, there was no chance that they could fill my prescriptions without new ones. I did not call since I thought it would be a waste of time for time for me, not to mention the additional emotional upset this would cause for me.

My husband and I have decided to skip work on Monday Jan. 5th 2004 and travel to my doctor's office to try to get this situation straightened out in person and hopefully avoid any more runarounds from Medco Health. My husband has decided to come with me so that he could drive us safely and offer me some emotional support.

This is not the first time they have messed up the RX's for my family. Incidently, they have been filling the same three RX's for myself and my son for the last four years from the same exact doctor. I just don't understand why they need to call the doctor every time to verify the same three RX's each time before they fill them. It is very unfortunately that my insurance, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida Federal employee Plan employs them as our only mail order option. I feel like I do not have the consumer choice to deal with anyone else.

My God, since Federal Employees are the largest group in the US, I would think they had a lot more power to get their employees better service then this. I could get my Rx's filled locally at a higher price and only at a 30 day supply only at one time because of its controlled substance status. This situation poses an additional hardship as far as money, and additional travel time to my doctor is concerned.

Doctor wrote me 2 new triplicates that I had to drive 15 miles to pick up, and requested that I call Medco and see about getting the cancelled "triplicates" sent back, because the doctor said these had to be kept track of. Upon calling Medco back I was told that the prescriptions were being processed and would ship out 12/17/03. I asked how that could be when they cancelled them the day before. I was told whatever the problem was had been resolved.

In the meantime, I had to go to two local pharmacies to get the meds filled. When the 12/17 shipment did not arrive by 12/29 I called Medco again to follow-up. I was told they were due to ship out Jan.5 2004. When I asked why and relayed all this history, she knew nothing, however their records now reflected the pharmacist had gotten clarification, for what they couldn't say, and a fax renewing the original prescription. I found this very entertaining at this point and so did my doctor. Obviously someone is very creative with their record keeping.

Damage Resulting: Had to pay additional month's supply at retail rate until mail order arrives. This entailed 4 hours of time, driving to doctors office to pick up "triplicates", having to go to 2 different pharmacies to get meds filled, return trip to pharmacy while they contacted my insurance to explain problem for override prescription. I am not wanting any personal remedy, but would like it known for the record that this is very shabby record keeping for a large mail order pharmacy. (Scary)

Economic damage: Charged $50 for a 30-day supply when I should be getting a 90-day supply. Please note that a 30-day supply can be obtained for $23 in my retail pharmacy. Other damages: They are aggravating my medical condition by giving me a runaround from one customer rep to another.

The ongoing incompetence, misinformation and bullying has greatly increased my blood pressure and stress levels which is what the medications are treating. At this time, I have not yet resolved Medco's bill and I am checking to see if I have been overcharged on other prescriptions.