Bartell Drugs

The pharmacy has been a drag lately. They never have meds ready when I come for refills, I always have to wait. What’s the point of calling it in?

This review is for the pharmacy section of the store.
I just moved to Kirkland from Seattle and was switching pharmacies. I was told that Bartells would contact my old pharmacy to retrieve my prescriptions when I needed a refill. When I contacted this pharmacy to obtain two of my medicines that had ran out, I gave them the Fred Meyer’s phone number so they could call them and have the prescription faxed over. I was told the medicines would be ready by the next day. No problem! When I got the automated voice message 2 days later that my meds were ready, I hopped on over to the pharmacy. However it turns out only one of my meds was there and they never recieved the 2^nd prescription. They didn’t call to tell me this. As I tried to figure this out, one of the pharmacy techs said I probably didn’t have any refills, which was odd since I knew I did. I gave her my doctor’s number and the drug info so she could call the MD’s office and I left. I called the next day as I hadn’t heard anything. The pharmacy tech said that when they called Walgreens I didn’t have any refills and they had contacted my doctor’s office, who said I had enough refills and I shouldn’t need another yet. I was a little frustrated and gave them the right pharmacy’s phone number again and said that I needed this fixed asap since I had now been out of medication for 4 days. There were several problems: 1. they called the wrong pharmacy despite specifically telling them which pharmacy AND given them the number, 2. no one had called to tell me anything so that I could correct them, they just called the wrong pharmacy, contacted the doctor’s office and stopped working on it after they recieved no for an answer, meanwhile I have now been out of the medication for 4 days, 3. When I called the pharmacy tech to have her call Fred Meyer’s again, she seemed irritated and instead of apologizing she made it seem like I was the one who had messed up. They had called the right pharmacy in the beginning as I recieved one of my meds and I don’t know how the information got confused along the way. But instead of putting a rush on it or asking if I needed a couple of pills to get me through the wait, she acted impatient.
It is now day 5 and I still haven’t heard anything. I am a nurse practitioner and I understand how much pressure is on pharmacists and pharmacy techs, however I shouldn’t have to babysit this pharmacy until their job is done correctly. Not only have I lost trust in this department, I feel that this is unacceptable, unsafe, and the patients at Bartells pharmacy deserve better.

I had to return a months old ear thermometer that never worked right. I hoped to exchange it for a forehead thermometer, but the store was repeatedly out. I hesitantly asked for a refund to my card with no receipt and no idea how long I owned this thing. I started offering a long explanation, but the manager just grabbed one off the rack and returned the full price to my card. He wished me luck trying to find a more reliable thermometer on Amazon. Thanks for great customer service — can’t wait to shop with you again!

Maybe we are all just tired on Sunday evening at 6pm, but I went first to this Bartell’s and then the next closest one (I’m not sure which is which; first the one by the Red Apple, then the one by Metropolitan Market) looking for one specific product — Maybelline the Nudes 12-​shadow eye palette…
In both stores, I ask the question, very specifically, not speaking for longer than 15 seconds, saying I’m looking for this product. In both stores, the cashier/​customer service rep/​manager (I don’t even know) looks at me, maybe confused, maybe frustrated… honestly probably just being lazy… but they were SO SURE that WE DON’T HAVE THAT PRODUCT.
Come on. Seriously? I just read the ad this morning in the Sunday paper, it was advertised it would be there… maybe it is hard to take 5 minutes to actually look in the back because I know probably it is in high demand, but I guess it really is just too much trouble.
I’ve worked in customer service too for 10 years, in retail/​restaurant… and I know how hard it is to feel stressed out and not want to help because your shift is almost over. But really. I love Bartell’s, but not today, and specifically not at these 2 stores in the Redmond/​Kirkland area.

The employees here don’t know the courtesy to the customers. They barely smile. On one Sunday I asked to exchange some quarters and the lady at the cashier told me that I have to go
Thru the store meaning we will help you only if you buy something. Well, It’s a Sunday morning and no banks are open and obviously I am choosing my local grocery store shop regularly from as my second choice but the answer is you have to buy something to get coins. Thank you for acclaiming and advertising yourself as a local store because obviously considering the needs of regular customers only valid if they each time buy something!

I was in there today and an old manager and his older assistant must have thought I was shop lifting. They followed me like a hawk and when I put some items back he asked me why? It was very strange an I did not like the feeling I got there at all! When I checked out the older lady was so rude to me! I’m a 39 year old mom to 4 girls and have never shop lifted in my life, ok maybe when I was 2 I will have to ask my mom but I assure u these workers thought I had a purse full or something it was yucky and I will never return

The Kirkland Bartell Drugs location is located next to Metropolitan Market so it is very convenient. Plus parking has been a breeze the many times I have visited MM next door. I had a couple items to get at Bartell that I was going to get at the location near my house, but I decided to give this one a try.
Having visited this location, I definitely prefer the Crossorads one. The problem is with the store design. It could definitely use a redesign or at least a renovation. A bit on the older side When it comes to Bartell, I come here for two things primarily. Food and drugstore items. Whatever is on sale really.
While the drugstore aisles are easy to spot here, the food special items are sprinkled around the store. There is a specials section, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for easily. I would have preferred that they have a devoted aisle where all the food products can be found. It was hard to find what I was looking for.
Despite my product finding troubles here, I find Bartell Drugs to a be great drugstore chain. Though it is kind of irritating that the store layout is not the same at every location.

This is a review for the excellent service I received from the lady who took my passport photo. She was helping customers out at the check-​out when I came in for my passport pictures. For some reasons, she was the only one there could take photos, so she approached me with a smile and quickly explained what she was gonna do. She said she always took photos twice so customers can have second look and chose whichever they liked best. I thought that was a fantastic idea. And she did what she did. The second picture was the better one. She gave me all and charged for only one. She also happily chatted about my coming trips and hers.
I just really appreciated someone who is nice and quick at what he/​she is doing and this lady delivered it all terrifically. Hooray to this Bartel Drugs.

Staff is friendly and location is great. Pharmacy isn’t the fastest, but still my number one choice around here.

I’ve lived in the area a long time, and generally will choose Bartell’s over other drug stores simply because it’s local. So what makes this Bartell’s stand out? The staff!
I lost my wallet there yesterday and Juan, Fred and Doris helped make sure it got back to me. They were kind, helpful and the best I could have hoped for in that kind of situation.
Thank you Houghton Bartell’s!