A user on TikTok has recently gone viral after voicing his frustration with GoodRx, a telemedicine platform that claims to offer discounts on prescription medications.
The video was posted by Kevin O’Connell (@kevbot.pdf), who said he recently lost his health insurance and thus access to his prescriptions and turned to GoodRx in the hope of finding an affordable way to buy his medication.
O’Connell says he was initially hopeful about the service, stating, “And they’re like, we can help you get your prescriptions for a lower cost, whatever. And I’m like, great.”
After signing up for GoodRx’s subscription service and completing a telehealth screening, he was given a list of pharmacies where he could receive his prescription. He chose his regular pharmacy, which was listed on the website, “And then I see the pharmacy that I normally use. I’m like, ‘Oh, great, great. It’s on there. I’m just going to use that one, because that’s the one that I have been going to this whole time,’” he said in the video.
However, his experience quickly soured.
When he called the pharmacy to confirm it had received his prescription, the pharmacist revealed that the prescription would cost $400 because they weren’t partnered with GoodRx and would not accept their coupons.
“And then I call [GoodRx]. And the guy is like, ‘Oh, dang, that sucks. Let me look it up. Oh, yeah. No, we actually, we don’t work with that pharmacy,’” O’Connell recounted in the video, once again stressing that the pharmacy was listed on the GoodRX website.
What allegedly ensued was a series of baffling exchanges with GoodRx’s customer service representatives, who seemed incapable of rectifying the situation. O’Connell recounts being bounced between GoodRx support and their “telehealth chat,” each party giving different answers while offering no viable solutions.
@kevbot.pdf @GoodRx ♬ original sound – kevbot
Despite all his efforts, the TikToker was unable to get his prescription transferred to a pharmacy that accepted GoodRx. He expressed his frustration, saying, “GoodRx is basically just putting all the responsibility onto me to figure out how to get this prescription transferred, even though the only reason why there was a mistake in the first place was because they were listing a pharmacy that they don’t work with.”
He continued, “And I have been like 10 days off of my medications at this point, and nobody is helping me. It’s it is so frustrating, especially when I paid for this service. And they’re just like ignoring me.”
The video was posted on Feb. 17 and currently has over 10,100 views. The comments on the video echo O’Connell’s frustration, with one user saying, “I’ve yet to find a pharmacy that accepts GoodRx,”
“It’s almost like it’s confusing on purpose…” another said.
“Most of discount sites are jokes,” a third commenter warned.
GoodRX has a 3 out of 5 stars rating on Sitejabber, a platform which publishes crowd-sourced reviews of different websites. However, in the last 12 months, the telemedicine platform has received overwhelmingly negative reviews.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Kevin O’Connell via Instagram direct messages and to GoodRx via their press email for comment.
