Hacker News Reader

>CVS wont even let you return meds. Their solution? "Just throw it in our medicine disposal bin"

This seems like the desired solution, no? What alternative are we hoping for here?

No - I had an unopened medication that I wanted to return just ONE day after purchase because I found it much cheaper elsewhere. This isn't about disposal - I simply wanted a standard refund for an unopened product, like any other retail purchase. Instead, CVS's only "solution" was to have me throw away a perfectly good medication.

The point isn't about medication disposal - it's about their no-refund policy even for sealed, unopened medications purchased days or even hours ago. How does this benefit anyone except CVS's bottom line?

You might know that it was stored properly, but the pharmacy doesn't know it wasn't kept in a parked car that got hotter than the medication can normally tolerate, degrading it. Or whatever. So the chain-of-custody so-to-speak was broken. Maybe for most medications it would be fine, but it seems sensible to not offer refunds. Wouldn't even be surprised if there were federal and state laws preventing the re-use of second-hand medications. Have you successfully tried returning medications elsewhere? Even for over the counter items like Tylenol, if a store does accept returns as a courtesy, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they just throw it away, rather than take the risk of putting the item back on the shelf.

https://carecard.com/blog/can-medicine-be-left-in-a-hot-car

Reply on news.ycombinator.com