Boots ‘appalled’ by Deliveroo OTC incident, as lawyers warn of consequences

[helvella]

Having just emailed Boots with one complaint (about makes of levothyroxine), they have managed to make my issue pale into nothingness.

Boots ‘appalled’ by Deliveroo OTC incident, as lawyers warn of consequences

• 30 Jun 2022

• News

In a video shared on Twitter, a Deliveroo driver is seen handing a woman an open paper bag from Boots, which contains the thrush treatment Canesten, and mocking the patient before handing the product over.

Completely aside from the misogyny, this video raises serious issues for pharmacies working with @Deliveroo. The GPhC's position is that "maintaining confidentiality is a vital part of

the relationship" between pharmacies/pharmacy professionals & patients. t.co/X1NSnFOokC

— Andrea James 💙 (@HealthRegLawyer) June 29, 2022

Boots told C+D today (June 30) that it is “appalled to learn of this incident”.

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD...

I'd like to think that anyone who gets medicines delivered would report behaviour even a fraction of the way to being this bad. And it is a combination of informing members and encouraging no-one to accept poor service, let alone anything this bad.

Indeed, if I were receiving medicines from Boots handled by Deliveroo, I'd be putting a pre-emptive complaint in. Something like "Don't you dare use Deliveroo to deliver my medicines."

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

I read about this last night. Shocking!

[DippyDame]

Things are " going to the dogs"!!

Maybe I'm just old and cranky but what seems to be acceptable these days re standard of work, service, manners etc is often very poor.....over the board!

I've never had a problem with our ( usually excellent) local Boots but today I arrived to pick up a prescription just after 12:30 to find the doors locked and a notice to say the opening hours for the next few days will be 9:30 to 12:30hrs.only.

No doubt short of pharmacists.... Lloyds are experiencing a similar problem.

Our local Lloyd's is shambolic ....newspaper report.

Dare I say the Br***t word here!

John Boot must be turning in his grave!!

update! It's official, I'm old and cranky....and seriously intolerant!!!!

[helvella in reply to DippyDame]

Changes to hours appear to be widespread. Some of these links are a few months old!

Boots: 1,300 branches affected by ‘small changes’ to opening hours

01 Feb 2022

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD...

Some Boots pharmacists might face 10% cut to hours, PDA claims

24 Jan 2022

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD...

Revealed: Locations of 88 Asda pharmacies with reduced operating hours

05 May 2022

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD...

Lloydspharmacy ‘temporarily’ cuts trading hours in 100-hour Sainsbury's branches

03 Nov 2021

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD...

And Boots appear to have withdrawn from their attempts to sell the pharmacies - reason being potential bidders don't appear able to get the funds they need to buy Boots!

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to DippyDame]

Not sure it’s got much to do with the B word really. I think it’s because Boots was sold to (I think) Alliance Health or some American company whoever they are and who I think might be trying to sell them again.

Our local Boots is ok - we have two - but the big store in our nearest large town has pretty much turned into a massive make up store similar to ones I’ve seen in France only with a pharmacy counter upstairs - is it Marrionaud?

I think we have to blame the shareholders or whoever made the decision to sell out. Same as with Cadburys and all the other companies that have been sold out to US companies to promises that ‘nothing will change’ then they are asset stripped and are no longer what they used to be.

When we were on the Isle of Wight we discovered that Boots in Ventnor was closed to the public - lights on and staff inside - because according to a passer by ‘ housing was so expensive pharmacists couldn’t afford to live there. There were other small independent pharmacies who didn’t seem to be having the same problem as Boots but people were complaining in the local paper about how much it cost them to have to get a bus to a pharmacy that was open.

Never mind John Boot - think about M&S and John Lewis as well as the other well known family stores that are no longer either with us or what they were. I’d say I’m old, creaky and cranky and intolerant too.

[DippyDame in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Yes, the loss of / change in the old UK stores is regrettable

It's an Indian company that was trying to acquire Boots ...they've had various owners The lack of pharmacists has partly been the consequence of Brexit.

After the Brexit transition period ended in Dec 20 the registration process for pharmacists with non -UK qualications changed... not all stayed in the UK

Just watching the news just now and the ( future) shortage of doctors is headlining.

What a mess!!

[shaws in reply to DippyDame]

It is scary altogether and one wonders if we will be able to source our medications that restore our health and relieve all symptoms.

[JGBH in reply to DippyDame]

Sadly I have to agree with you, services, generally are getting worse and people don’t seem to care, a “take it or leave it” attitude. Again I agree about what we must not mention… B,,,,t.. has definitely created so many problems at all levels.

[Goldengirl01]

Who was about at the same time as delivery to take a video?

[helvella in reply to Goldengirl01]

Quite incredibly, the Deliveroo person.

[Goldengirl01 in reply to helvella]

But why take a video of opening it up it seems a bit strange, unless it’s proof for him.

[helvella in reply to Goldengirl01]

He then posted it on his Instagram account. So have no idea what (if anything) goes on in his head.

[Goldengirl01 in reply to helvella]

That is sick. He’d have a field day with contraceptives.

[kittyelen]

This was not a prescription it was for an over the counter product and I would say the complaint is with deliveroo not on Boots. It's horrible to happen but why do people rush to complain to Boots when it's Deliveroo at fault, their twitter says he has been sacked and yes I agree they need to make sure they put things in place so it does not happen again. He even put her face in his original video!! Wowza I hope they give her some compensation

Prescriptions are sent out via more specialist companies this sounds like a general delivery order from Boots. Their prescription delivery service is "£55 for the year or £5 for each one-off prescription delivery" so I doubt that would be via Deliveroo, because they do checks to make sure the prescription meds goes to the right person.

[helvella in reply to kittyelen]

Any medicine, over-the-counter, pharmacy or prescription, should be treated with the same respect and privacy.

Seems Boots started with 400 lines including what they describe as medicines for minor ailments.

The video was done by the Deliveroo person themselves, it appears, and posted to his own Instagram account. Before being reposted elsewhere.

I feel that Boots are responsible for the purchase and delivery - start to finish. They are in a position to pass their anger on to Deliveroo in a way customers cannot. They can check whether they are satisfied with Deliveroo's practices which we cannot.

[DippyDame in reply to kittyelen]

I realise it was an OTC product/ delivery.

However the recipient should surely expect the delivery to be adequately (and discretely) packaged by the sender ( Boots apparently failed in this case) then delivered competently.

Deliveroo absolutely failed on the latter!

I wasn't complaining about Boots per se, it was a remark about opening times.

[kittyelen in reply to DippyDame]

I know I commented that separately Boots should compensate her too as the video shows it just in a flimsy paper bag, not wrapped! Sorry I didn't really fully read your post I didn't mean to say you were complaining I just meant in general it sounded like the delivery company fault but then when I saw the video it is actually Boots fault in the first place. If they packaged it in a box the driver would have never seen the contents :/ The bag wasn't even fastened up

[Framboise]

I didn't know about this, how appalling! We are rural and my husband uses the tiny independent pharmacy next to the small village surgery, 3 miles away. He orders online and, ever since lockdown, all meds have been delivered within 24 hours by a young chap in his car, free of charge. They will also collect prescriptions 24/7 if necessary. There's room for just two customers inside the pharmacy, but they still sell all sorts of things and have a very tiny consulting room where they carry out a variety of tests, and give advice. The main pharmacist knows my husband by name and vice versa. I didn't realise how very lucky we were!

[kittyelen]

Oh actually I just saw the video - Boots put the item in that small brown paper carrier bag! So obviously the driver knows what you ordered, it wasn't even wrapped up. So actually Boots better compensate her some money too as they should have packaged it up more securely 😱

[Timetraveler67]

That’s shocking but nothing surprises me anymore, also I was surprised that boots charge for delivery of your meds I can’t remember how much it is but I did tell boots it was a lot to fork out when your on a Pension then was told no one minds paying and they’ve had no complaints. I went to a smaller chemist and was relieved That they deliver free

[shaws]

I'm stunned by the attitude. I certainly would not like my medications to be discussed by complete strangers as it is none of anyone's business as well as being demeaned.