Freedom pharm saga

In July I did my due diligence and called several pharmacies to price out the medication for our upcoming cycle. Knowing we'd be paying out of pocket, I wanted to make sure we'd get the best discounts available. I called Freedom and got a price quote of x.

When I called again two weeks later the price changed to x + $2,000 for the same quantities. That's a huge difference. At that point it was to close to the cycle start and I needed the medication, so I lowered the dosage to be able to pay that day which came out to x + $1100 and asked to speak to a supervisor. I asked the supervisor to look into this because it was wrong to have been quoted so differently. I had prepared for x and suddenly there was a huge price increase, wtf. I was assured that it would get looked into and she would call me back. That was Friday, two weeks ago.

If you know anything about Freedom it's that their hold music/message is the most annoying thing on the planet. It seems that they got caught with an overload of calls these past two weeks because hold times have been insane - upward of 20 minutes. I was calling during breaks, between meetings, at lunchtime, in the evening. Sometimes I would sit on hold for 15 minutes before needing to hang up and get on with my day.

The incident happened on a Friday. I connected with someone Tuesday who assured me someone would call back, no one did. I connected again on Thursday and got the same empty promise. On Friday last week I sent an email to the help address I found on their website, no answer. On Monday of this week I called again and directly asked to speak to a supervisor. I spoke to someone who asked me for a few days to look into the matter and promised to call me back by Wed evening. She assured and reassured me multiple times that she would call back. She did not.

By Thursday morning, yesterday, I was so frustrated and fed up. I was also starting to worry because I was getting ready to order refills and I was out the $1100  from the earlier quote. My original order was never completed since I had to reduce quantities and I was going to run out medication soon. I was especially feeling a sense of urgency because of the holiday weekend coming up when they don't send out shipments.

I called again first thing Thursday morning, hoping to bypass the wait times. No, still a 10 min hold before anyone picked up. Once again I had to go through my whole story because every time I call someone new picks up the phone. The rep transferred me to the head honcho, everyone's supervisor. I went through the story with her too. She was reading the copious notes on my account while I talked. She said she needs to listen to the calls and get back to me. She promised that she will call back and I told her I want to believe her but have been burned before. She gave me her name and extension and reassured me that she will make this right.

Long story short, she did call back. She explained the original misunderstanding between the July quote and the actual order date. She refunded a portion of the original order amount and took my refill order to be delivered today. I asked her how I can avoid this saga in the future - I don't want to have to go through this again. IVF cycles are stressful enough. She said it was an issue on their end, especially with all those supervisors promising to call back and not following through. I didn't want to get anyone in trouble but that's really not right. Don't promise to call back if you don't intend to. She also gave me the concierge number to call in the future to bypass the hold times.

All in all it's still painful to pay so much money out of pocket and have to go through IVF so many times as it is. The least they could do is make the process of getting meds a little easier, especially since they're solely a fertility meds pharm! I'm glad this situation is over but it was a stressful two weeks trying to get it resolved. They say they pride themselves on their tradition of excellent customer service so it's a shame a few bad apples ruin that reputation. If you're ever having an issue with them, feel free to message me for the concierge or head honcho's extensions.