Apollo Pharmacy — Deficiency of service

Address:

Concerned pharmacy at Gogol, Margao, Goa

The customer service of Apollo Pharmacies is horrendous. They proudly announce various incentives to lure customers and promote their sales but they are all gimmicks. I have been their customer for the last 4 years and make regular purchases amounting to Rs. 5000/6000 per month at their pharmacy at Gogol, Margao, Goa, but realized their chicanery only recently.
1. Every monsoon they smugly announce free umbrellas to selected customers but in fact they were never available. It was only when I raised a ruckus this year I was belatedly given one.
2. Their promise for free home delivery of medicines is never - on one pretext or the other - fulfilled.
3. The 10% discount they give in medicines is no a big deal and is routinely given by small pharmacists.
4. They deal largely in generic rather than branded drugs.
5. My experience on 11.01.2021 takes the cake. We were on 08.10.2021 in urgent need of a portable suction machine and a nebulizer/steam inhalation machine and Apollo being our favored pharmacy, asked if they could arrange for the same. I was met with complete indifference as far as the suction machine was concerned. It was understood that one was being sent from Mapusa. This never arrived nor was I intimated of its availability. I purchased the same on the same day from a reliable dealer in Margao who demonstrated its use at our residence.
Strangely I still had faith in Apollo and purchased a steam inhalation machine from the pharmacy on the 8th itself. The machine gave endless problems and I exchanged the same on 11.10.2021 for a nebulizer on the express undertaking that a demonstration would at around 5.00 p.m. that day at my residence. However, in the evening the pharmacy flatly refused to send any one for the demonstration and to add insult to injury proclaimed that I could engage a nurse for the purpose. Their Customer Care service was informed of the incident by email on 12.10.2021 but there has been no response. This is strange, considering they loudly flaunt their free home delivery of medicines. All this sounds suspiciously like a sales gimmick.
The non demonstration of the working of the machine could well have had dire consequences. While I appreciate that a mammoth corporation like Apollo could not be bothered by small consumers stringent action needs be taken against their callous antics which could endanger the lives of the public.