Like a lot of people, when I heard the phrase "online pharmacy," I would always think of all those spam e-mail messages I would get that were pitching Viagra or Cialis or some other drug or herbal supplement that would promise to dramatically increase the size of a certain part of my anatomy.
Because of the all the spammers and other low-life that were promoting online pharmacies, it seemed to me like these online pharmacies might be a little on the shady side. I think a lot of us tend to think that online pharmacies may not be legitimate businesses.
Well, I’m happy to be able to tell you that there are indeed very legitimate and reputable online pharmacies and wait until you hear about their prices.
I had to see my doctor recently and ended up with a prescription for a drug that was not covered by insurance. Fortunately, there was a generic version of the drug that was prescribed for me and I headed for the local pharmacy to get the prescription filled. In this case, it was a Rite Aid pharmacy.
I asked the nice lady behind the counter if she could check the price for me first since I had to pay for this out of my own pocket. I had already checked with Wal-Mart and knew this was a drug that was not on their list of drugs they offer for $4, so I wanted to know what I was up against. Knowing it was a generic, I did not expect it to be all that bad.
I was more than a little surprised to hear the nice lady tell me that it would be $84. For 60 tablets of a generic drug! And this is no cutting-edge drug that was developed within the last few years. This one has been around for about 17 years and is a very common drug that is prescribed a lot.
I had to have it, so I really had no choice and I filled the prescription. I wondered if there was somewhere else I could get my prescriptions filled without feeling like I had just been robbed as I left the store and headed for my car.
Fortunately for me, I was talking to my dad a few days later and discovered he had been doing some business with an online pharmacy called "Life Extension Pharmacy" in Florida. He was happy with the service and the products, and the prices were dramatically lower than my local Rite Aid for many prescription drugs, and probably all the other big name pharmacies in the county as well.
Since I had 1 refill on the prescription I paid $84 for at Rite Aid, I decided to give this "Life Extension Pharmacy" a chance. They advertise the fact that you can transfer your prescription refills from other pharmacies to theirs, so that is just what I did.
Care to take a guess how much the same prescription that I paid $84 for at Rite Aid cost at Life Extension Pharmacy? $12. Yes, that $12 as in twelve dollars. With free shipping by the way!
Now I know what you may be thinking. Are the drugs from Life Extension Pharmacy the "real thing?" Yes, indeed they are. I saw a report on TV a while back about counterfeit drugs being brought in from China and being sold as the genuine article — in some cases legitimate and well-known pharmacies where ending up with these counterfeit drugs and were not even aware of it. Unscrupulous business people were passing them off as the real thing.
This made me even more suspicious of anything purchased from an online pharmacy, so I knew I had to figure out a way to make sure I was getting the real thing and not some counterfeit that would do me no good whatsoever.
With a little help from someone else who is very familiar with this particular drug, I was able to do a test on the drugs I received from Life Extension Pharmacy. The test involved a very specific effect this drug has when you chew it instead of just swallowing it. Not something you would normally do, but with this drug, it actually does not taste too bad.
The drugs from Life Extension Pharmacy resulted in the identical effect as the drugs I got from Rite Aid when I chewed one of them, proving to me that it was exactly the same drug I had purchased at Rite Aid.
When you are paying for drugs you need out of your own pocket and find out you can get then for $12 instead of $84, it’s the kind of news you want to share with the world. Especially with people that have no health insurance.
Now we all know that Life Extension Pharmacy, like any other business has to make a profit. Kind of begs the question how they can sell something for $12 that Rite Aid demands the princely sum of $84 for? I would guess that Rite Aid is making one enviable profit on the drugs they are selling. Very thoughtful of them to be so helpful to people who are paying for drugs that they may need to stay healthy or maybe even stay alive.
There are a couple of Rite Aid stores in my area, and they sell other products in addition to prescription drugs and I have stopped in on occasion to pick up a greeting card or a small gift item. I don’t think they’ll be seeing me in any of their stores anytime soon after this experience.
I’m certainly no Communist or anything like that and understand that retailers can charge whatever they want for whatever it is they are selling, but when I get the feeling I’m getting screwed, don’t expect to see me walking through your front door again.
By the way, Life Extension Pharmacy is not just an online pharmacy. It appears that they have a brick-and-mortar location that customers in their area can visit.
I should also mention that the customer service people I have dealt with at Life Extension Pharmacy have been some of the most friendly, helpful and patient people I have ever dealt with. I highly recommend them.
You can visit them at https://www.lifeextensionrx.com if you’d like to check out some of their prices. That’s a straight, no-nonsense link, and it is not an affiliate link. I don’t have any kind of relationship with them other than as a satisfied customer. In fact, I don’t even know if they have an affiliate program.
I know that not all the drugs at Life Extension Pharmacy are priced as low as the prescription I have when compared to other pharmacies, but a lot of their drugs are priced well below what you’ll find at your local pharmacy, and if this helps just one person afford the drugs they need that they have to pay for out of their own pocket, I’ll be very happy I took the time to post this information.
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