Maybe Give Them Some Sleeping Pills

(While working the night shift, around 2:00 am, our store gets a call directed from the “customer service” selection of the menu. As I’m the cashier, I have to answer it.)

Me: “Thank you for calling [Pharmacy Store]. How may I help you?”

Customer: “I need to ask about my mother’s medication.”

Me: “One moment while I connect you with the pharmacist.”

Customer: *angrily* “NO! I do not want to talk to the pharmacist!”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but customer service and the cashier at the front of the store do not have access to medical information.” *gets cut off*

Customer: *clearly annoyed* ” “I have never had customer service like this at [Pharmacy Store] before! Maybe we started out on the wrong foot. Maybe we are just not understanding each other. Maybe we just can’t understand what the other guy wants!”

Me: *still keeping a cool, even tone* “Well, sir, what do you want?”

Customer: *almost yelling* “I want to talk to the pharmacy. I have to ask about my mother’s prescriptions!”

(He specifically said he did not want to talk to the pharmacist earlier in the call.)

Me: “All right, sir. Please stay on the line while I transfer your call.”

(I transfer the call to the pharmacist. Some time later…)

Me: “Did you get that call from the customer?”

Pharmacist: “Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

(I relate how the customer specifically and emphatically pointed out that he did not WANT to talk to the pharmacist, and the exact words he used while complaining about the level of customer service.)

Pharmacist: “Wait. He said that?! As soon as I got on the line with him, he asked me, ‘Don’t you have technicians in your pharmacy?’ I told him, ‘No. Not in the middle of the night, sir.'”