Duane Reade 1352 1st Avenue, Manhattan, New York 10021

"The Duane Reade by Walgreens at 1352 First Avenue, New York 10021 is the worst place to obtain prescriptions filled. The staff is constantly changing and incompetent. What's more complaining to Walgreens Corporate Customer Service is useless as they never resolve the issues with this location. I wish this review would work with no star. I tried to pick up a prescription at 4:00 on 11/20/23 and there were 10 people waiting so I walked out. I am nearly 83 and not about to wait half an hour for my heart medicine. Shandria, the Corporate Customer service representative took my complaint and then I asked her to have the prescription delivered. She said she had to transfer me to another department. She transferred me to the department which handles mailed prescriptions. I spoke with Dina who said I was in the wrong department. I asked to have someone telephone me and that was over an hour ago. Of course no one from Walgreens called. This is a company that does not give a damn about its customers."

"AVOID THIS PLACE!!! This is by far the most unprofessional pharmacy (or business of any sort) I’ve been to in my entire life. I arrived 10 mins early to my 3:45 vaccine appointment and didn’t leave until after 5:00pm. First, the line was long but then they separated the vaccine people. They didn’t take the woman’s insurance in front of me at first but then they worked it out. Then they wouldn’t take my insurance because they claimed I had a different insurance card on file, despite me insisting this was the only one I had. After waiting a while for them to check it, I finally just had to pay out of pocket. While I was waiting, another couple came in for their vaccine and they wouldn’t take their insurance either. They waited a while and decided to give up and go somewhere else. I also saw many people come in and complain that the line was long and that their prescriptions weren’t filled yet. While I was waiting, a couple of the pharmacists/cashiers started yelling at each other and one started crying. They went to the back and you could still hear them yelling, then the crying one got brought over to another part of the store. The other one was complaining out loud in front of the customers that she was tired of being abused here. Once it was finally time for my vaccine, I wanted to make sure with the manager if I was getting a new series or a booster before they did it (I wanted it to be the correct dosage for my clinical rotations for nursing school.) She then had to research and call people which took a long time before she finally got the answer and they did the vaccine. My cashier was nice so I’ll give them that. But I could tell she hated it there and she felt bad for the customers. I left as soon as I could. Never going back there!"

"The most inefficient pharmacy ever. Not sure who is at fault. All the people in the front do not use their common sense and the pharmacist seems inefficient too. Not sure how I can be on hold for 50 min when they only have 3 callers ahead of me. And then I get disconnected. Pls provide then with basic training on how to think and how to multi task. It is ok to move their hands and think of the next task at the same time. Their brain will not explode from overload. Oh wait."

"Easily the worst experience I've had at a pharmacy in my life. Got my wisdom teeth out and came here to get my meds. Line was long and when I finally got to the front, they told me my doctor's DA license was not active and I could not receive the pain relief meds. Called my doctor and my doctor said it was active. Ended up having to call the pharmacy to explain this and they realized it was an error on their end. Went back to the pharmacy hours later to finally get the meds and one of the staff members was completely rude when I mentioned the error that caused this whole issue/delay. Horrible experience from end to end."

"Two stars instead of one just cause the staff was polite, but like 90% of the store is locked up and only staff can access, so you need to click an assistance needed button to access it. Although that's annoying, that's not the biggest problem. The problem is I waited for about 10 minutes and clicked the button about 8-9 times (not exaggerating) to buy a single bottle of soap. You've gotta either keep up or come up with a better system ."