The Power Of Niceness

Politeness mixed with genuine friendliness at the cash register is now saving me $70 a month.  Here's the deal, because I'm the family caregiver in all matters medical, I am a frequent flyer at the pharmacy.  They know me by name.  It's creepy to be known by name at the pharmacy as a regular.  When I brought up my shame at being a regular, the pharmacists laughed at me and told me that I'm well within the sane range still.  I'm not drooling on them or the register and I'm not high so they regard me as one of the regulars they can talk to.

I'm always incredibly polite to people in service oriented positions.  Whatever the job from waitress to doctor and all throughout the spectrum, dealing with the public is sometimes a miserable task.  It's also my experience that your politeness/niceness is directly proportional to how polite/nice the person on the other end treats you in return.

So here is how this is saving me big bucks this month.  The pharmacists noticed that my family has some regular prescriptions that are expensive, even after insurance kicks in.  (In fact, one member of the family's prescriptions are so expensive that without insurance they would cost about $1200 per month).  The pharmacists let me in on a little tip: any of your name brand drugs typically have a website associated with them where you can print off coupons.  They gave me this little tip because I never rush them, I'm always cordial and they feel as though they have a good relationship with me.  I'm not sure they would have shared this with me if I had been a jerk each time I had gone in.  

So now you know.  If you want to save money on your prescriptions, go out to their website and see if there is a coupon or a rebate.  Another tip is to take the coupon or rebate to the pharmacy WHEN YOU TAKE IN THE PRESCRIPTION or when you ASK FOR A REFILL.  These coupons typically require the pharmacy to call an outside provider on the spot like they do for your insurance so the routine is, they call your insurance and adjust how much you owe them based on your insurance.  THEN they have to call in the coupon and adjust how much you owe.  If you present the coupon when you go to pay for the prescription this might make the pharmacist cranky and it will definitely take an extra 5-10 minutes to get your prescription.

So, here's what we're all going to do from now on:

Check for coupons for our name brand prescriptions

Get that coupon to the pharmacy when you take in the prescription or when you request a refill.

Save money.

I hope this saves somebody else money too.

I promise, my next entry will be about crafting something.  I'll probably even solicit people to come out to 1st Thursday next month to visit my booth!