One star for proximity to my humble dwelling and the subway station, and one for the fact that both the store AND the pharmacy are open 24/7/365. Those are the sole saving graces of this establishment. Both the location and the hours are really big draws for me, especially given the other options in the area being either further, not 24-hours, or both... but if I had any other reasonable options I doubt I'd ever darken CVS's doorstep again.
I believe there are four self-checkouts here. Since they were put in, only two of them seem to work at a time, although which two are working alternates! There's usually one that accepts Credit/debit cards only, and cannot give cashback, which limits the number of people who are ready willing and able to use that machine, thus slowing the lines that are already pretty long during late afternoon/evening hours. Then there's usually at least one more that's either frozen or otherwise out of commission. The remaining ones work, but frequently requires the assistance of an employee. There's generally just one person at the human-operated checkout, so that line gets long, too.
The stock/selection of the store is respectable, but not overwhelming. The prices are ehhh. Sometimes there are pretty good sale offers- but be sure to read the fine print carefully and be prepared to ask for an employee if your item doesn't ring at the right price for whatever reason. The mile long receipts with coupons and credits are kind of insane... Wasteful, annoying, and efficient... I rarely wind up using them as a result. I'm not sure why they don't just put these coupons/credits on the CVS card, but perhaps the idea is to give the illusion of saving money, rather than actually saving people money.
The pharmacy needs a lot of work. As I said previously, it's open 24 hours, which is a serious blessing. However, there are organizational problems. Several years ago they gave me the wrong medication. My name was on the bag, but when I opened it up at home there were different pills inside with somebody else's name and address on the bottle. Needless to say, I called them immediately and let them know this was a lawsuit waiting to happen and that I needed my regular medication. I can't believe the negligence that must've caused that. Multiple times I have refilled my medication through the automated phone system, only to find that my medication is not there several hours later because they did not have that item in stock, despite what the system told me. Because of that, I wait to speak to a pharmacy employee, confirm that the medication is in stock, and ask them to manually put in my refill. This is not a great use of time for either me or the pharmacy employee, especially since I usually wind up on hold for 10 to 15 minutes waiting to get an actual person on the phone, but it's better than thinking that my medication is getting refilled when it's actually not. I imagine I would run into the same problem with automatic refill, and when I travel I sometimes need my meds a bit early, so I don't participate in that. Recently I spent four days trying to get a particular medication refilled because they gave me a 15 day supply, but wrote it into the system as a 30 day supply, and then give me problems about refilling it when I ran out two weeks sooner than their system indicated. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, given that the bottle clearly stated two pills a day and a quantity of 30 pills, which works out to 15 days... I'm also not sure why it took four full days to get my medication authorized and in a bottle, but it did. I believe that was partly my insurance company's fault, but in my communications with them they told me that CVS had notified them that I had picked up the medication when I had not. I've also received, on more than one occasion, texts to my cell phone saying that my medication is ready for pick up, or that there is a problem with my order, only to call or go in person and realize that that message was an error.
If this pharmacy is your most convenient option, which if you live in the area very well may be, I definitely recommend speaking to staff members on the phone or in person rather than using the automated system. I also recommend being well-informed about your medication brand, dosage, quantities, insurance info, etc... because they won't be. read more