What the @#! in London #212
Posted by Cottontimer on 16 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: London, What the @#!
#212 BAD service at Boots
Still sick. Still slightly feverish. Definitely still coughing. Both Marv and I have been ill for over a week. Great.
Instead of popping more of the Robitussin CoughGels that expired four months ago, I decided to go to Boots pharmacy to buy new cough medicine today. No thanks to the droopy old hag with the basketball-sized wart next to her nose, I managed to get some cough syrup with punch instead useless sugar-filled “linctus.”
Stuffed-up Me checking each bottle of cough syrup on the shelf within easy access. Not seeing anything stronger than some menthol and sugar mixtures, I turn to look at those kept behind the cashier’s counter.
Droopy Old Hag in a cranky, can’t be bothered tone of voice: Can I help you with something?
Me: Yes, may I see those cough syrups up there?
DOH: What for? There are loads over there.
DOH gestures at the useless cough syrup on the shelf which I’d already checked meticulously.
Me: Well, I’d like to see those bottles of Robitussin (kept behind the counter).
DOH (continued cranky): Which ones?
Me: The Robitussin for dry coughs and the one for chesty coughs.
DOH reluctantly thrusts the boxes at me.
Me: Thank you. Do I pay for these here?
DOH in an accusatory tone of voice: Who are these for?
Me: For me.
DOH continues the interrogation: You’re not going to take these together are you? Do you have a dry or a wet cough?
Me thinking: I’ll take them together if I want to! Mind your own business. Do I look like an idiot to you? @#!
Me actually saying: Oh, no. I have a dry cough but my husband has a wet cough. We make quite a pair.
Me laughs apologetically.
ARGH. How I wish I could have smacked her around. This kind of behavior is the most intolerable when the customer isn’t feeling well. If I didn’t have a clue about what I wanted, I would have been scared off completely and ended up with a bottle of useless sugar syrup. I’m not going to suffer that treatment anymore. There are plenty of other chemists to go to besides Boots.
Cottontimer stomps off and burns her Boots Advantage Card.
NB: Yes, I’m aware that over-the-counter cough medicine supposedly don’t work, but I’m going for the placebo effect here.
Tags: boots, chemists, pharmacy, pharmacists, drugs, cough, colds
Related Posts:
Going to London Toy Fair...
Lovely London Weather...
A Sign of What’s to Come...
London Tube Station: Cottontimer...
Loving London...
Summer in London...
Coming Down the Final Stretch to London...
If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it's probably in moderation. I will approve it as soon as I can! Thanks for your patience.
8 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
[...] Over the past week or so, I’ve been tossing expired drugs but last night when my cough wouldn’t stop, I dug out an old bottle of Robitussin CoughGels out of the garbage (yes, I was THAT desperate). Don’t worry. It won’t happen again. I got new cough medicine today. [...]
In fairness to Boots, for whom I have great affection, (as a bored teenager I counted all the tissues in a 150 box and found only 145, so I wrote and complained. They sent me three free boxes, and when I counted those I found over 150 in each!) I think this is a question of a snotty assistant…on the whole I like the company…or am I hopelessly out of date.
I know I said this offline but it bears repeating: I hope you made a point to cough in her general die-rection. And be sure to go back when you are still sick, fondle an item with your germ-infested hands, then hand it to her saying you don’t need it after all. Heh.
Placebo works for me too. Hope you feel better soon!
(try some peppermint tisane. brew it really strong, and inhale the steam, and sip the tea.
)
How horrible! I hope you feel better soon, cottontimer!
I sit here coughing in empathy.
I’ve been sick all week. Most irritating and my sense of humour has all but disappeared.
Yeah, doesn’t believing you’re buying something that doesn’t work negate the ability of the placebo effect to work? Don’t you have to buy into the placebo?
Snowy: I know I shouldn’t make the entire Boots chain suffer. One of the other mothers told me she never goes to the Boots on our high road because of the appalling service. This was even before I started telling her my story!
Sheila: If I were truly dedicated, I would have lunged across the counter and given her a deep kiss. HAhhaAHa Ooooh, this illness has made me delirious.
Deb: Go placebos! Gimme some of yours.
Spyscribbler: Thank you!!
William: How dare your sense of humor leave you at such a critical time.
Bald Man: I used my hypnotizing amulet prior to taking the cough syrup. It still didn’t work. Useless sugary concoction.