Safeway Pharmacy

I came in about 15 minutes before closing for a Rx that had been called in earlier. I had been there 30 minutes before, and talked to them, but I had forgotten my insurance card. After waiting patiently there patiently after three other customers, they told me they couldn't fill my prescription because they had to close and it would take too long to look up the insurance, so they turned me way.

I've never had such a ridiculous experience at a pharmacy before. The rudeness and callousness of the staff is hard to fathom. Do not trust these people with your health and safety! Avoid this pharmacy, and grocery store entirely. You will regret coming here.

I have a prescription that I received from my dentist that I brought here to have filled. I figured I could do some grocery shopping while they filled it, clever me I thought!

Well, as you've probably guessed it, I thought wrong. Here's my list of reasonings.

One...
If you ever need to come here, avoid Friday evenings like you would an extended sneezed-on hand belonging to a person carrying the bubonic plague. There was a line of at least 7 people ahead of me, 4 behind me, each person taking at least 5 min at the counter at 6:40pm. I spent a good half an hour or more waiting just in line.

The reasoning behind this insane wait perhaps might be due to...
Two...
Usually at pharmacies, they have one window to drop off prescriptions, and one window for pick-up/consultation. You would think on a busy time like Friday, both windows would be open. No. Only the pick-up/consultation one was, thus the insanity and kissing most of my good hour that evening good-bye.

Anyway, Three...
When I get to the counter, the sweetest young woman took my prescription and filled it out for me. Don't get me wrong, she is sweet and nice and professional and everything you'd ever hope for after waiting forever in line with an irritated little old lady muttering to herself and stabbing you with her celery. Except... I can't hear her. She's quieter than my cat when he tries to stalk my socks. I can't tell if it's because she lost her voice, of if she's really just that quiet, but with the noise that comes with a grocery store (the humming from the nearby meat fridges, the freezer doors being open and shut behind me in the frozen food aisle, and to top two guys offering free samples for a microwaveable authentic Indian meal literally right next to the pharmacy line), I just couldn't hear a word she said. It makes answering her questions really difficult, which might have added to each person's wait time. I'm young and I think I hear just fine, but I can't imagine the rough time some other people who might be more hard-of-hearing will have with her. Really, she's the sweetest and nicest, but really...

Which brings me to...
Four... After one window being closed, one heck-of-a-long line and wait, a pharmacist whose voice couldn't register on any frequency in my ears... I suppose I should have known better than to think I could have picked up my prescriptions right there than then. She asked me to please come back the following day, but of course, not between 12-1, and 5-6, because that's their meal break hours.

And so I write this review, knowing I must return, and praying that I will not see another line like that again, but knowing this place... I probably will. Sigh.

Safeway may be decent for food, but their pharmacies are downright awful, especially the Shoreline location.

The pharmacist just seems... dumb, like not all there. And my psychiatrist warned me that they mess up 10% of the time. And as someone with Bipolar Type I (mania only) missing meds for a week or two likely leads to behavior that attracts police attention and gives me a 5150, costing $250 at least, or $1000 (and ripping off my insurance) if I end up with a unwarranted vacation to a resort with poor food and forced art therapy.

Go to anywhere else. CVS (Target especially) or Walgreens.

Wow, I'm really surprised the reviews here are so terrible. Maybe the staff has changed in recent years? I've always had a great experience with the pharmacists here. They've been super helpful and in some instances have gone out of their way to help. Refills are usually really easy to manage either through the Safeway Pharmacy app or through their phone service. The availability of certain Rx'es here can sometimes be limited, but they will usually help you find another Safeway that has the Rx you need.

Literally the worst pharmacy I've ever used. They give away your ordered and reserved medication to other patients as needed.. leaving you without your medication for weeks while they scramble to order more. This should be illegal

I love this pharmacy, the pharmacists are always so nice and accommodating. I call here all the time to get my medications switched between here and San Francisco since I travel back and forth a lot. They've been so nice to me every single time and are so pleasant on the phone and in person. Best pharmacy ever in my opinion! Thanks for everything you guys do!

Scheduled a COVID-19 shot two weeks in advance there, however, they could not administer the shot when showed up for the appointment since they forgot to unfreeze the product to be able to inject it. Sloppy, and unprofessional people. Would not want to trust them with your health

Customer service is the worst at this location! But it's not the workers fault. They need help...an additional register, a second worker, process change...something...Lines are long and it takes forever to help customers. How about expanding into the useless, never used consultation room and use the other drop off station for consultation.

There is a lot to hate about this Safeway, the Soviet cold war era lines, the way they build obstacles of wine bottles and cartons of chips in the middle of the aisles so you can't actually push your cart around without running into anything, the crappy weeks old produce that gets stored in the alley behind the store for days at a time so the rats can dine. Still, it's a block from my house and I'd have never decided to stop patronizing this store if it weren't for the Kafka-esque pharmacy.

Doctor sent an Rx electronically? Think you can show up a few hours or even a day later and it will be waiting for you? THINK AGAIN YOU RUBE! You will wait in line for 20 minutes to tell them that actually yes, you do want that filled thank you and then you will shop for thirty minutes and then you will stand in line for another twenty minutes to pick it up, or maybe to be told they are out of it and can't fill it until tomorrow at which point you will stand in line again. Talking to the mute girl at the register is so much fun, hope you can read lips. Also, getting smacked in the hip by every shopping cart that comes by because a few years back they closed off the area where people used to line up and made it into some secret sanctum where the employees hide from the torches and pitchforks of the customers means you have to stand in the main traffic aisle of the store to wait to be seen.

Got a new RX? Not even new to you, just one you've never filled THERE before? Just wait until you stand in line for a while then get told you can't have your medicine because the pharmacist that you don't want to talk to anyway is at lunch! I've never been so close to physical violence with a retail employee before but I could have smacked that little mute girl with the bag she wouldn't hand me. So, Safeway, I'm not gonna use your pharmacy anymore. I'm not gonna set foot in your lousy store anymore, for my own mental health.

Just left this pharmacy. It was the worst experience possible. John Fatemi is heartless. My grandmother and two uncles were victims of the Santa Rosa fires this morning. Their apartment complex was burned down. They had less than 5 minutes to get out. They didn't have anytime to grab anything. Including life saving medications. The pharmacy tech wasn't able to help us "transfer" the prescriptions from Santa Rosa. We didn't need a full month just a couple of days worth until we talk to Red Cross to help get her on her feet.
John Fatemi didn't care. He showed no emotion what so ever. How can you be in the life savings field and not care? I literally has to tell him to stop being rude to my grandmother and treat her like a human, show some compassion, she just lost EVERYTHING.

He only called his supervisor after my suggestion. He told me that he was instructed to call another rep and that rep they needed to talk to their supervisor in order to attempt to fill her prescriptions. It would take an hour. I left my phone number and we went to go to Wal-Mart to get basic necessity - all 3 of them were in their pajamas. We came back and mind you my Gram hasn't sleep in over 24 hours and another pharmacy tech rang us up. We didn't even notice they only gave us 3/4 of the prescriptions. Once we were checking out with our groceries we checked over the prescriptions and noticed one of the most important prescription wasn't there. I left my 79 year old grandmother at the front of the store so I can check to see what happened. I was told that prescription was "expired" and they couldn't do it that they needed to talk to her Dr. I told him hee doctor is on Santa Rosa. Haven't you heard the news. Thousands of people lost EVERYTHING. He didn't even bat an eye. He has made me lose faith in humanity.