adrian_turtle

When a customer drops off a prescription on Saturday, and you don't have the medication to fill the prescription right away, it would be appropriate to order the medication, so you'll be able to fill the prescription in a few days. If you're not planning to fill the prescription at all, it would be appropriate to phone the customer and explain this. Sometimes customers get busy, and they don't hurry back to pick up their prescriptions on Sunday. They don't even hurry back to pick up their prescriptions on Monday. By Thursday, they have a reasonable expectation that their prescriptions have been filled (even if the pharmacy had to order the medication from the manufacturer), and are waiting for them. They do not want to hear, "Oh, we didn't order the meds because we knew you'd want to take the prescription to another pharmacy so you could get it filled sooner." They really, really, do not want to hear, "Now it's Thursday, so we won't be able to fill it until next week."

Damn right I want to take the prescription to another pharmacy.

Nobody expects you to remember that you've filled essentially the same prescription for this customer every month for the past 13 months, nor to realize that this situation is very like a refill, even though a new prescription is written every time. (Nobody even expects you to look at your records to figure out the pattern.) We do expect you to pick up the phone when there is a problem.