Mrs Elżbieta Stańczuk bought a blood-pressure monitor at the Fabian Pharmacy for her seriously ill sister (price: PLN 1,452,100). When the blood pressure was measured, it turned out that the monitor was malfunctioning. Several doctors at the emergency service confirmed this.
Mrs Elżbieta returned the blood-pressure monitor to the pharmacy. The pharmacy owner accepted the defective device, but did not provide another (working) one, nor did she refund the money. Mrs Elżbieta, together with her seriously ill sister, is expected to wait for the complaint to be processed according to the procedure used in the disreputable, now bygone era of so-called state-owned commerce. This procedure consists of “waiting two weeks.” Mrs Elżbieta’s arguments—that the sick woman’s blood pressure must be checked every day and that, with the money refunded, she could buy a working device elsewhere—failed to convince the pharmacist. The pharmacist advised her to contact the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate in Jelenia Góra.
The editorial staff of “Głos” tried to help Mrs Elżbieta. We called the “Inspectorate,” where we were told that resolving this matter “like human beings” was solely the responsibility of the pharmacy owner. The Inspectorate would handle such a case if it involved medicine, but the device is equipment. We contacted the pharmacy owner and pleaded repeatedly with the pharmacist to make an exception to the bureaucratic rule and refund the money if she did not have a working device. The pharmacist replied more or less as follows:
“I do not have another device, and I cannot refund the money, because if a good device is delivered in two weeks, what will I do with it?” We suggested that it could simply be sold, but the pharmacist stood by her position.
We are ashamed on behalf of the pharmacist. In our view, a pharmacy bearing the name of such a noble patron could have shown more kindness. Besides, for a pharmacy with multimillion-zloty turnover, an amount of one and a half million zlotys—even tied up for the two-week complaint period—is a smaller problem than the situation faced by poor Mrs Elżbieta, who is caring for her seriously ill sister...