So my whole life is in two places right now, with moving. Last night, I stopped by the apartment to pack a few more boxes and get mail.
One of my letters was from Wedgewood Pharmacy: Tristan’s pergolide was being recalled. One of the ingredients it was compounded with had been exposed to penicillin, and the entire lot needed to be sent back.
Great. I made a mental note to follow up, and then because my life right now, forgot it. Then I got a call from the barn manager this morning following up: all the other horses in the barn had gotten the recall notice too. She didn’t feel comfortable feeding the pergolide they had until we got more.
Well, shit. Withdrawing from pergolide is not a good thing. It’s meant to be a longterm, daily, maintenance medication. Horses can go downhill very quickly, from metabolic crashes to foundering. Is there a chance he’d be just fine? Yes. Was I willing to take that chance? HELL NO.
Next call, back to the pharmacy, to try to make absolutely sure that Tristan’s pergolide was on the recall list, because I’d left the letter at home. They didn’t have that information. The rep could not tell me whether or not the prescription they had on record for me was part of the recall. What the fuck?
Fine, I said, I’ll just order a new bottle now. I explained that it was a crucial daily medication, and that I was more than a little bit frustrated that they had not provided any avenue for replacing the drugs. They were nice but didn’t actually provide any help.
Finally I got them to agree that they would waive shipping charges, but wait: there was no refill on my account.
So I called my vet, who said yeah, I just got the letter and I read through it and followed up. The recall was because one of the ingredients that Wedgewood used to compound the drug had been exposed to penicillin during the manufacturing process. Not the end of the world, probably, but still recalled, still had to go back.
Vet was less than pleased at how Wedgewood was handling things, too. She called in the script, and said that if they gave me any grief to let her know and we would switch to a Vermont-based compounding pharmacy that she’s starting to work with. In the meantime, she felt confident that because the horses had all been getting doses of this all along, they could get one more dose today.
I texted all that to the barn manager, then called Wedgewood back, who placed the order for the new bottle of pergolide. I told them it needed to be here overnight, for dosing tomorrow morning.
The rep did a whole song and dance about how they were only planning on waiving the standard shipping fee, not the overnight, and I would have to pay an additional $23 to ship it overnight.
I explained to him in no uncertain terms, using small, precise words, that this was a crucial daily medication, that it was their screw-up, and that I was beyond frustrated that they had pulled the medication with no backup plan. I told them I would not compromise my horse’s health for their mistakes. I was polite but very firm.
Finally, he agreed to waive the overnight fee, and submitted the prescription right away.
That does not fix the fact that I have to be in three places at once tomorrow when the prescription arrives at my front door, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it and figure out a way to get it to the barn in time for evening feeding.
In short: really, really shitty customer service. You would think that a pharmacy, of all places, would understand the concept of important daily medication and would have plans in place to deal with the fallout when they recalled said medication but NOPE. You would be wrong.
beljoeor.com 