Get a $$$$ Gift Card for Annoying Me Senseless!!

Introductions will come at a later time. Right now, I need to vent about one of the absolute worst inventions retail pharmacy ever came up with --

Gift card coupons.

Now, I know that almost every major pharmacy chain (the one I work for included) have these stupid things, and almost all of us accept competitor coupons, as well.  But do the pharmacy a favor by reading the fine print, and if you fail to do so, please don't act shocked when we tell you why you don't qualify.

On a government-funded plan?  Sorry, you can't use them.  It's a federal law -- not one that I know the name of offhand, but it says it right there, in black and white, or maybe even in color.

Here's a great example I just found on eBay (don't get me started on that topic just yet, because that one has me annoyed, too).  It clearly states that law prohibits the use on federally funded programs.  It's right there, and in person, these are actually very simple to read.

So, you can imagine my surprise yesterday when I was standing at my terminal, just waiting for something to do, since Wednesday is our slow day, an old lady came up to me and demanded to know why I was scamming her.  Me!  Scamming an old lady!  Well, I wanted to know exactly how I was scamming her, and she proceeded to tell me that pharmacies (oh okay, finally some clarification on her word choice of "me") not allowing her to use these coupons, because she has Medicare Part D.  I spent about 5 minutes talking to her and explaining how it's not our choice not to accept it, but it's a federal law, and we could get into trouble if we just started handing out free gift cards to anybody coming in with a new prescription being paid for in part or whole by the state and/or federal government, and she told me that she was going home to call her representatives and senators, and then, she was calling to personally report myself and my pharmacist to our company!  What we ever did to her, I'll never know, especially as since I'm the full-ltime technician, working Mondays through Fridays weekly and I didn't recognize her, but let this serve as a lesson -- read the fine print!  Don't go harassing your technicians (who, by the way, can determine how quickly your prescription can be filled, as mean as that sounds, but when you treat us like crap, that kinda makes us less willing to push you to the very front of the long road to pharmacist verification and completion).  Accept that this is a law, and out of our hands.  I'm waiting to find out if I've been nationally certified as a pharmacy technician yet, but I am always willing to tell them I won't allow them being mad I can't just hand over a free giftcard in varying amounts to jeopardize the time I spent learning flow rate and other miscellaneous information I'll probably never use again just to get a pay raise and a fancy title.