Please Try Being More Open To Our Answers

My pharmacy opens at 9:00 am. We open on time and, as usual, there are already people waiting in the drive-thru. One tech is already helping drive-thru customers, and there are no issues.

A lady walks up to my front counter inside the store.

Lady: “There’s a line in the drive-thru.”

Thanks for the update on the obvious.

Me: “Oh, I’m aware. There usually is this time of morning.”

Lady: “That Escalade has been sitting there forever!”

My drive-thru tech, who has already helped three cars since opening, looks over with a confused expression. The driver of the Escalade in question is an established patient, just dropped off a prescription, and was taken care of pretty quickly.

Lady: “You should have made them come inside! I don’t understand why I had to wait twenty minutes in the drive-thru!”

Me: “Ma’am… we opened six minutes ago.”

Lady: “What do you mean?”

Me: “The pharmacy opens at 9:00 am. It is now 9:06 am.”

Lady: “But I waited in the drive-thru for twenty minutes.”

Me: “I understand that. But we weren’t open yet. We opened at 9:00.”

Lady: “Then why were people waiting in the drive-thru?!”

Me: “Likely waiting for us to open so we could help them.”

I’m so done with this conversation, and now she’s holding up people behind her with this dumba**ery.

Me: “Were you picking up a prescription, ma’am?”

Lady: “If there were people waiting in the drive-thru, then you should have been helping them. I shouldn’t have to wait for twenty minutes!”

Me: “Ma’am, we open at 9:00. We do not start serving customers until we open at 9:00. There wasn’t even pharmacy staff in the building twenty minutes ago. I would suggest not coming before 9:00 next time if you do not want to wait for twenty minutes for the pharmacy to open. Are you picking up or dropping off today?”

Lady: “I just don’t understand why I had to wait for twenty minutes.”

At this point, the three people behind her are either rolling their eyes or snickering, and one of my regulars who loves me is raising his eyebrows and making faces, so now I’m trying not to laugh.

Me: “I really don’t know how much clearer I can be. I have other customers waiting now, so are you picking up or dropping off?”

Lady: “I want an explanation for why I had to wait so long!”

My regular who’s been making faces behind her back has finally had enough.

Regular: “Hey, lady, are we going to have to wait twenty minutes for that poor girl to explain to you how g**d*** time works? Just pick up your prescription and leave them alone.”

The lady grumbles about calling corporate and glares at the regular but luckily doesn’t get into a fight with him — or the rest of the line, who have also started making remarks about her stupidity.

She gets her script and finally leaves.

Regular: “If she complains, you can have the manager call me, and I’ll corroborate that you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Fun way to start the morning, but we did get to laugh about it all day, with my techs continually asking me what time we open.