Cheadles Chemist (Canterbury)

Left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. Call to make sure they have stock to fill prescription. Told yes. Take in prescription, no stock!!!! No time to order as fly out of country the next day. Hence calling 3 days ahead.

I’m not quite sure what happened to this pharmacy in the past six months or so. It’s gone from being a (possibly too) large shop to one that’s about a quarter of the size which seems kind of odd considering that it’s serving a university. The staff are always busy, often friendly but I’ve been told on more than one occasion that they wouldn’t be able to fulfill my prescription on the day and have had to go elsewhere, which has never happened before. The lack of space means that if you wanted to talk to staff you’d have to go into the dedicated area as everyone can hear everything. I now generally try and get my prescriptions sent elsewhere because I never know if I’ll get things when I need them here. Absolutely not the fault of the frontline staff, who are pleasant and doing their best to serve a very busy community, but I do wonder why they made the changes.

Seemingly going above and beyond to make basic service as difficult as possible would be one thing - giving literally counterproductive medical advice as you turn customers away, advice which anyone would immediately know literally does more harm than good just adds to the experience. Good lord

Twice been collecting medicines and handed a pen to sign for them. When I pointed out we should not be sharing pens was told Oh it's all right we sanitise them afterwards. That's OK for them not more for me. Also there's no sanitizer on entry. You'd expect a pharmacy to get the basics right.

Absolutely awful service! Asked for one product was given another. I repeatedly asked and made sure I was buying the correct product and the lady at the till reassured me, however she didn’t let me see the product fully until I paid for it. When I walked outside I noticed it was the wrong product. When it came to returning the product she said there was a no return policy. This is absolutely awful as this is her fault. She was so quick to scan it and make money however isn’t able to return it. She also claimed she was the “manager’ this is a awful chemist! Also a lady in-front of me asked for a ear medication and the so called ‘manager’ said they didn’t have it until the poor lady literally had to point at it. How embarrassing! Know your products for Christ sake! And you claim you’re a manager. Do better UNIVERSITY OF KENT

Terrible service, and student unfriendly! The owner Mya Patel was very rude and accusatory when I had the necessary documents for a prescription refund. Unhelpful staff and consistently bad encounters with them. DO NOT GO! Reporting the incident to head office.

My personal experiences with this pharmacy has not been great, this is not to say there isn't the occasional kind and helpful staff, but in the times I have visited it's been a more negative than positive experience. This is back in 2018.

As an international student, I'm not too familiar with the NHS system, as a result I was misadvised by the pharmacist on duty that day, resulting in a fine which I had to pay, which was disappointing as one would expect the pharmacist to be more well versed with how things work. A heads up for future patients your prescription paper is a legal document according to the system and you are solely responsible for whatever outcome even if you were given false advice.

The staff I have encountered have been quite rude, they were either in a hurry to get me out of there, talking bad about customers/patients behind the desk thinking I can't hear them, and giving contradictory advice to my doctor's recommendation(which made it confusing).

I know pharmacist work hard in such a demanding system, it's not always easy to meet everyone's expectations, but I don't believe that's an excuse to be less than a decent person, and if you do encounter a good pharmacist here good for you. But personally I felt let down by people which I hoped would be a source of help in receiving medical care.

I have been trying to contact them by telephone 27 times today. After a certain number of rings it cuts off. Not terribly helpful.