Walgreens

To Whom It May Concern:

On January 20th, 2022 I went to the Walgreens pharmacy (Store #: 9946) at 14127 Cypress Rosehill Rd, Cypress, Tx. 77429 for my COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNtech booster shot. My appointment was at 5:30 PM and I arrived at approximately 5:33 PM. There was a line of 4 people so I went to the empty consultation window to check in for my booster shot. I was greeted by a young Latina woman who said her name was Kim with, "What!" Obviously, I was shocked to be greeted in such a rude way but tried not to take it personally. I told Kim that I was there for a booster shot. She then said, "you need to book online, we don't take walk-ins", then tried to walk away. I then told her that I had an appointment at 5:30 to which she replied, "then you need to go to the back of the line." Again, I did not take this personally and went to the back of the line where I waited for approximately 20 minutes to be served.

While waiting, I noticed that Kim seemed to be in a visibly horrible mood. I was in the line waiting for a while and paid attention to her helping customers at the drive through. She seemed to be rude and extremely combative with every customer that she helped. I began to think, "how can this person be working with pharmaceuticals or at a pharmacy in general?" Still, I didn't have the time or care to concern myself with complaining about how she treated me or the other customers that I saw her deal with. I just chalked it up to her having an extremely bad day.

Once I got to the counter, I was served by a Mr. Long. I gave him my appointment information as well as proof of my previous COVID-19 vaccinations. He then began to ask a lot of questions trying to gather information about me (My email, phone number, address, date of birth, general practitioner, occupation, where I work, etc). I work for a high profile company that battles companies that use and steal people's personal information for profit, so I never feel comfortable giving out any of my information. Even the information noted above and below the body of this letter. Going further, I know from previous COVID-19 vaccinations that Mr. Long did not need a majority of the information that he asked for. Because of this, I declined to give any of the information that he asked for. Mr. Long calmly and respectfully moved forward with trying to make my appointment for me. He then asked for my ID. Unfortunately, I only had my passport on me so I allowed him to see it.

After holding on to my passport for approximately 5 minutes, I asked if he was done with it as I have lost and/or misplaced IDs this way several times. Hence the reason I did not have my driver's license on this particular day. By this point I had completely forgotten about Kim. Like an angry dog, Kim aggressively came at me raising her voice at me yelling, "what is your problem!? He's not finished with your passport! You will get it back when he's finished! You need to stop causing trouble and let him do his job! This is what you get for declining to give us your information!"

Obviously, I was shocked to be getting talked down to like a child when I am 47 years old by a woman ‘seemingly' half my age. I calmly told Kim, "look, I am talking to this gentleman. Do you mind?" Kim got even more aggressive with me and said, "I don't care who you're dealing with! I'm talking to you anyway! So what!" At this point Mike came from the back and yelled, "calm down!" at me to which I replied, "I'm not the one being aggressive. I can't believe either one of you are talking to me the way you are."

By this point I was shaking with anger and confusion from my Aspergers syndrome condition. I started to get dizzy from all of the aggressiveness coming at me. I'm a good and decent human being yet it seems that people always judge me or make assumptions about me due to my appearance, skin color and slight awkwardness due to my condition. Luckily, Mr. Long was finished with my passport and gave it back to me. He also gave me a document to fill out so I sat down to do so. I was so dizzy and confused at this point that I started to get uncomfortable. I started thinking, "why would I get a vaccine here? these people are going to try and inject me with something that will kill me." At that point, I walked to the counter and told Mr. Chris Do that I had decided not to get the booster at Walgreens after waiting for over a month. I asked to make sure that all of my information was deleted and Mr. Do appropriately crossed out my booster confirmation for that day. I then left the store after being in there for approximately 50 minutes.

As of Saturday, January 22nd I started to feel very ill. By Sunday, January 23rd I tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time. I've never been this ill before and I'm very scared for my life. My family thinks I should go to the hospital considering I'm so ill and I think I will.

It really sucks that this could have ‘possibly' been avoided with better customer service from Kim and Mike. I have no complaints about anyone else that I dealt with that day but after being yelled at and treated so disrespectfully by Kim and a bit lesser by Mike, I now have to deal with a ‘potential' life or death situation. How people like this work at a pharmacy, I do not know.

I understand that Walgreens, CVS, hospitals, and other pharmacies are busier than usual due to the global pandemic but that is no reason to disrespect and vilify your consumer base. I did nothing to deserve the horrendous treatment that I received. It goes without saying that myself and my family will NEVER step foot in a Walgreens again.

I really hope someone reads this letter and addresses Mike and especially Kim. You will be doing Walgreens a disservice if you continue to let people like this work in your pharmacies.

Regretfully,

Chris