Seriously Boots banning me because THEy SCREWED UP!

https://www.revk.uk/2025/11/boots-chemist-banning-me-because-of.html

@revk Time for a complaint to the General Pharmaceutical Council https://share.google/hetrHmHFcPjiIE8NU ?

@mtearle oooh nice. will do that too.

I don't think I have ever been banned from any shop every in my life.

@revk Pharmacists are licensed here in .au as medicines here are regulated in some aspects as poisons, so my strong guess was that there would be a similar regulator in the UK. The other trick that I might do is to write to the Company Secretary for Boots. This is the equivalent of communicating directly with the company as a legal person. They really don't like hearing from consumers as you effectively skipped over many layers of procedural isolation.

@mtearle Yeh, I have done Boots web site, doctors surgery, and NHS web site, and MP, and General Pharmaceutical council, and here, and blog, and facebook.

If needed medical services can be withheld at a whim of a person on the spur of the moment, something is wrong, I feel.

Just to add, as someone pointed out, they can't legally refuse valid prescriptions unless threats of violence.

@revk the entire circumstance is not clear from your post or video. However from those it seems they didn’t ban you because they screwed up but instead because they perceived your conduct as threatening or abusive. It might be helpful to explain the whole situation further because I don’t see why an accidentally placed order is worth arguing about?

The law requires NHS pharmacies to fulfill any valid prescription presented to them. At the same time, they’re a private business and they aren’t required to let you on the property. It’s likely they could require to stay outside and have your prescription brought to the door?

I’ll be honest though, if I were you I’d save myself the stress and just switch to pharmacy2u.

@nimro I did not shout, I was assertive at least. I was definitely not abusive.

But had they not screwed up it would not have happened, so that is the root cause.

Had they simply apologised, and not lied, the issue would have been diffused.

Standing outside for my prescription is interesting, LOL, I may have to do that.

@nimro @revk I agree in general about the usefulness of online pharmacies, but I'd pick basically any of them _except_ p2u :(

@revk I gave up on our local boots about 10 years ago, and I've heard similarly from others who've done the same. Utterly useless, they were wrecked as a reputable/trusted brand a long time ago now, sadly.

@srtcd424 @nimro Well aside from the shock at being banned, for the first time ever, from anywhere.

What next is a good questions.

I sort of like the calling boots from outside the store to have them bring my prescription out to me.

But maybe a on-line would work - how do they work though - posting NHS prescriptions - and still free (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿)?

@revk @nimro I assume the situation in Wales is the same as England (I know it's different in Scotland.) In that case I would expect the rx charge or lack of it to be the same, yeah. Sadly p2u have bought out and ruined the good one I was using, and then Phlo seemed to stop servicing this area (they might still do yours.) Currently using Well, which has some quirks but hasn't done anything silly yet :)

@srtcd424 interesting I’ve only heard good things! Then again, that’s usually in comparison to a naff local someone switched from. What’s up with them?

It does bring in dealing with deliveries which from previous posts I know @revk had had some “fun” with 😅

@nimro @srtcd424 Deliveries are not bad - many couriers handle the sign and even that it opens the gate if we are not in. Most issues have been international stuff, and we have DHL nailed now.

@nimro My first experience with p2u was at the beginning of the pandemic when basically nothing went right, but I now can't remember the details. I switched to Echo (which became Lloyds Direct), and they were brilliant, but then they merged it with p2u's IT and it started refusing to let me even place an order for my regular meds saying they were indefinitely unavailable. They'd always mysteriously become available within a few days, but I effectively had to 'poll' that state with new orders :(

@srtcd424 @nimro @revk My Grandad had issues with P2U too so I moved him to ironically Boots Online.

They just post it out to him.

@Ryanteck @srtcd424 @nimro I did not know that was an option (well, I may be banned from that too, LOL).

@nimro Don't support you know which law so I can quote it?

@revk @nimro to be as objective as I can, I can completely see how that was perceived as more aggressive than assertive, and most retailers have pretty clear policies around that.

@ahnlak @nimro Maybe, but if they had not screwed up and then lied about it, it would not have happened.

@revk @nimro whilst possibly true, the policy probably doesn't take too much notice of extenuating circumstances - given the abuse retail staff get, they understandably take something of a hard line.

I'm not looking to take sides, just suggesting that there may be an additional perspective to consider

@srtcd424 @revk, I happened to need to go into the Boots in Eldon Square in Newcastle on Saturday. Far from the clinical-looking shop which covered mostly medicine and related items which it once was, it now panders seemingly almost entirely to vanity, with a little space kept aside for food.

I walked out again without buying anything – or, for that matter, even seeing where what I wanted was.

@lp0_on_fire @revk yeah, it went the WHSmith route of just stocking floor-to-ceiling tat quite a while ago. I think for actual chemist-type supplies I have better luck in Superdrug these days, despite always considering that pretty down-market :/

@revk I think this is the most recent iteration: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/349/schedule/4

Schedule 9 (1)(c) allows them to refuse to dispense in case of violence or threats of violence, but that seems to be the limit of it.

Health is devolved so Wales may have its own legislation, I’m not sure.

IANAL and IANYL of course!

@nimro Thanks.