Sheppards Pharmacy - Aberdare

My son's partner collected a prescription this afternoon and called to see us on the way home....
She says she had waited at the counter for quite a while whilst the staff finished their conversation and when she was given her medication without comment and overheard staff remark 'Rude' as she left.
I am quite shocked to hear this as I have always found the staff there helpful and polite..
Whilst I appreciate that Pharmacy Assistants sometimes have a hard time I would suggest a more welcoming attitude is in order.

Frequently lost scripts, even though they themselves picked them up from the doctors surgeries.
We're asked to be polite and patient while waiting, only for our medication to be all but thrown at us, or scripts ripped away.
Staff standing around talking while customers are waiting.
And, at the current moment, telling exempt people that, despite being exempt, they have to wear a mask. I understand the current situations of the world, but if people can't wear a mask no one has the right to refuse them access to their medication.
Absolute joke, honestly!

Terrible service, never pre make up your prescriptions, so you always have to wait, 9 times out of 10 in the past 8 months I have had items missing and been issued an owing note and asked to call back in a few days. Have learnt to give it at least a week, but if they cant get the item owing, they don’t let you know, they leave you without your medication, no matter if this is life saving medication! They also will not sub say out of stock 100mg meds for in stock 50mg they say this is not legal practice, this has been done thousands of times in the past (before moving to this area) so I don’t die when meds become hard to come by because of shortages! Also when a person is brand sensitive and needs a certain medication, swapping it out for another isn’t safe, never will be and just wastes medication that then can’t be used!

Really poor. This has been a reliable chain of pharmacies for years but following a change of ownership it has become sloppy and some staff are very rude. Very difficult to get an answer on the phone too.

The girl at the front desk was smiling and polite and friendly so that's why the extra star but that was the only good thing really, other lady (pharmacist I believe) very unhelpful, rude and dismissive. Perhaps a change of job or location if you're really unhappy/stressed might help?

Rang this chemist this morning,
Asking Could I have tablets too tide me over until Monday because shepherds mountain ash was closed on Saturday and my script was in that shop. (I was unaware it was closed on Saturday's)
Lady at shepherds aberdare answered the phone said no I'd have to ring 101 very rudly.
I thought mmm, I'll ring aberaman and the lady totally lovely and said "yes ofcourse I'll need half hour we are flat out."
Probably flat out with the customers the other lady is turning away!!!

Ps: the lady in aberdare needs customer service coaching as she works in a customer service roll!!

I collected a prescription in this chemist earlier this week (I normally use aberaman or cwmaman) while I had no problem with my own service I did overhear the lady pharmacist and another staff member talking very rudly about a customer on the phone. After the phonecall ended the staff member said to the pharmacist "its not as if she's 100 she's only 69 she just can't be arsed can she" really no way to speak about any customer never mind an elderly person who was clearly struggling to get to the chemist in person!

Best chemist in Aberdare there always busy but always have time for you and chat if you need some help with medical information.
Best place to go if your giving up smoking they have helped me big time iv gone from smoking 30 or more a day to 2 in morning.
Big thank you to the staff they worked very hard when covid was in lock down never went with my prescriptions.