Review – Pocket Pills

Let me start this by saying that all opinions on this post are my own, and I wasn’t paid to write it. Below is exactly how I feel about PocketPills as a company, and their service.

As someone with Lupus, taking several medications at different times during the day is a fact of life for me. I’ve accepted this and I’ve made peace with it.

Taking my medication is crucial, as it not only helps keep my lupus symptoms at bay, it also makes sure my kidney transplant remains healthy and functional for what I hope will be a very VERY long time.

Although I’m pretty diligent about taking my medication, I will admit that I’m not perfect. I often forget to fill my medication container, which leaves me scrambling in the morning when I’m trying to get out of the door and off to work. At least on those occasions, I’ve remembered that I haven’t gotten my medication together before I leave the house. There has been at least a time or two where I’m cursing silently in my head because I know that I forgot my meds at home.

I came across PocketPills by chance. I had just moved, and spent a lot of time on Google trying to find the pharmacy closest to me. The pharmacy that I found wasn’t particularly far, but was in a bit of an inconvenient location for me. But alas, I really had no choice. I need my medication, and the pharmacy that I had used for nearly 25 years was now too far away.

I made all of the arrangements to have my medications moved over to this new pharmacy. Not overly inconvenient, but it did take a few phone calls to find out whether or not my transfer had actually been received. When I visited the pharmacy, I found that the staff there was definitely…different than the staff at my former place.

While quickly scrolling through Instagram, something made me turn back in my tracks-it was an ad for PocketPills. “Of course.” I thought to myself. I must have been targeted for this ad because I had spent a ton of time looking up different pharmacies several days prior.

I looked closer and saw that this was an online pharmacy that delivered medication straight to your door, either prepackaged in little packets by day, or in traditional medication bottles.

My first thought was that Instagram probably targeted me incorrectly. While I hadn’t specifically looked into this, prepackaged medication always struck me as something that would be found and fully accessible to my “downstairs neighbour” friends in the United States. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that Pocket Pills was based in and serviced Canada.

I went to their website and looked around, and everything looked great. As someone who spends a lot of time on my computer and cell phone for work, writing, blogging, etc., I was super happy to find a pharmacy that was mainly managed online, but also enabled you to have actual conversations with a pharmacist.

I bookmarked the page for later. I had to think about this. I couldn’t find many reviews about PocketPills at the time, and I had also just gone through the hassle of transferring my medication over to this other brick and mortar pharmacy. At the same time, it occurred to me that every business starts with one customer. And that one customer may not necessarily write a whole review on a company that they’ve been using. The second customer may not either. Every single company starts with that one customer, and will hopefully flourish from there. That being the case, I didn’t want to let a lack of reviews stop me from trying Pocket Pills out. Worst case scenario…I could just switch back.

As I had just recently moved, I still took some time to get myself in order, get unpacked, etc. I began looking around my bedroom for the perfect place to put my gigantic medication container (which held 30 days worth of medication that I had previously sorted). I found the perfect place under my night table…but that space was too small to also hold my shoebox sized container that held all of my unsorted medications that were still in their original bottles.

As my boyfriend and I just moved from separate houses into a condo together, I was really beginning to respect that idea of trying to “trim down” my belongings. I had my large container of pre-sorted drugs, my “shoebox” of drugs, and several boxes of Advagraf that didn’t fit in my shoebox.

It was at that point that I was reminded of PocketPills.

“I’m gonna do it” I thought to myself.

I went online and created an account. Shortly after that, I received a text message from Pocket Pills thanking me for creating an account. I actually received text message acknowledgement whenever I provided information, which was nice.

I had a nice conversation with a Pharmacist named Ajay who walked me through the whole process, went over my medication with me, and discussed next steps. Altogether, I think we were on the phone for about 30-45 minutes. This just shows the detail and care they take to make sure that everyone gets their medication on time and knows the process.

As someone who has been on medication for a long time with varying doses, I have to go to the pharmacy at various times to pick up my medication, as all of my medications aren’t due for refills at the same time. My doctors often adjust doses and make changes based on my bloodwork, and this may mean a brand new prescription. Ajay and I went through the number of pills that I had left for each of my medications. He arranged for me to receive bottles of varying amounts of medications so that I could use my current supply without running out of medications that I would end up needing, and also so I would be ready to receive my Pocket packs!

A few days later, I received a letter in the mail from PocketPills with pamphlets, information, instructions, a magnet, etc. I also separately received the bottles of medication that I mentioned above.

 

 

Also included in the envelope was a prepaid envelope for me to send my prescriptions in. You can take a picture of your prescription and upload it on their app so that they can get started on your order, but you also need to send your physical prescription in, as those are the rules here in Canada.

A few weeks later, my first pocket packs box arrived! They arrived early so I couldn’t start them right away, but I was very happy to get them. Everything was exactly as described, and I couldn’t be happier.

The PocketPills box is small, about the size of a personal sized pizza box from Pizza Hut (haha). For that reason, this box can sit on top of my dresser without taking up all the space and where it will be in a position where I’ll always see it. No more forgetting to grab my pills.

From the communication to the service itself, I’m quite happy that I chose PocketPills. There was one issue I had with my Vitamin D, but PocketPills fixed this issue easily and contacted me after the fact to make sure I was satisfied with the resolution.

Cons? I take a lot of medication, so my morning meds have to be split between two pocket packs. I know this is also because they print the name and dose of the medication on the pocket pack. It would turn into more of a pocket backpack if they tried to put all of my drugs in one pack and still print all of the medication names and doses on the pack. So while I understand why this is the case, I can’t help but wish that I could have all of my medication in one pack. But this is a small sacrifice for something that has saved me a ton of time and helps ensure I never forget to grab my drugs.

I’ve worked in customer service for the majority of the time that I’ve been legally able to work. Customer service is something that’s very important to me, and it can make or break how I feel about a company. Even if a service is excellent, I will NOT use it if their customer service sucks. This is definitely not the case for PocketPills.

If you’re like me and you’re kind of on the cusp of deciding whether or not PocketPills is for you, I definitely think it’s worth a try.