Alto Pharmacy Reviews

by Hq2x

Customer support “aims” to get back to you within 1-2 business days, but if the answer actually requires any thought or work, they will drop you indefinitely, or dodge your questions with silence until you press repeatedly. If you try to call, they will put you on hold and then hang up on you after 20+ minutes. They will not work with your insurance and will refuse to reimburse you for any retroactive coverage. They will also not provide a detailed, itemized receipt, even if you end up having to manually submit for reimbursement. Their app will reschedule deliveries to a later date without your knowledge or awareness, and may outright cancel it altogether.

This morning, AltoPharmacy conveniently encountered errors when trying to either schedule a delivery or send a support message, until 9:01 AM, a minute past the cutoff for an early same-day delivery.

In short, they do nothing a pharmacy should do, and everything a pharmacy should not do. Avoid like the plague.

by Tttia75

I used to use NowRx and was very happy, but I moved to SF and had to find a new pharmacy that delivered. I understand pharmacy’s have a lot of laws and regulations, but they wouldn’t let me fill my medication even a day early and made my doctor send a new prescription. This is frustrating bc I basically have to run out before getting a refill. Another time, I was supposed to have my prescription delivered Friday and I confirmed with the pharmacist at 8am that they would deliver that day. Then, at 2:30pm, they tell me they are out of stock and cannot fill until Monday. At this point, it is too late to call my doctor and they could not transfer to another pharmacy. I was on hold for 30 mins and a person said they would give me a partial refill the next day, but they would not respond to my messages on AltoPharmacy for 48 hours. Now, I am trying to fill for Monday and it still won’t let me. This pharmacy is a joke and this is at least the 3rd time they have been out of stock of the various medications I needed. Their customer service is garbage. I am suffering without my medications and they are ignoring me. I’ve literally never had such a bad experience with a pharmacy or even retail/ customer service in my life. Next month, I will find a new pharmacy that isn’t poorly run and neglectful of their patients. Use NowRx instead if you can.

by Evilcow

This is the third time Alto has told us that had a prescription ready when they did not. These are opiates and put my father into serious withdrawal. Now my mom has had NECK SURGERY!!!! and they promised they would have her medicine and they did not. We can’t get a hold of anyone and anytime we do they say they will order it or get it figured out but they never do. Now my mom is howling in pain in tears because they can’t figure out how to get there medicine in a consistent matter. To make this all worse for my fathers script they said they didn’t have the medicine, when the woman on the phone forgot to put us on hold she talked about having the name brand script in, but that they didn’t want to take a loss on giving it too us. When we caught them on this lie they made an excuse and finally gave us the medicine the ALWAYS HAD!!! They were going to let my dad end up in the hospital because they where worried about losing a little money. They are disgusting and I can’t wait to switch pharmacy. I hope you guys end up in court.
Updat: they messed up again and my moms gonna end up in hospital. 5th time it’s happened you guys are going to kill someone you monster.

by Sara3bey

So my beta blockers (signature required for hand delivery) & my mast cell stabilizers (commonly stolen/ misdelivered by USPS) were randomly left in our unsecured lobby, labeled as “heavy” - big thanks from a wheelchair user with loose joints who uses your “service” to avoid unnecessary injury & emergency titration off medication. Luckily people were in the lobby, helped me slide it onto my lap, and i can push it onto the floor myself upstairs. 25 mins on hold to find a “courier delivery “ Missing meds with courier delivery? Wow. Unable to reach support by phone. 20 mins on hold POST “delivery”. Save yourself the time. Says delivered, but delivery person is not responding to calls & support line does not answer. May as well go back to CVS Caremark & USPS who misdeliver my meds 50 + percent of the time… on hold while typing this.. silence… They Mail Auto Refills/ Lost in the Mail I joined Alto for courier deliveries so USPS would stop losing my prescriptions. Everything was going well, until I tried the auto refills and was surprised to get tracking info for my medication nemesis, USPS. Of course it’s MIA, and Alto is trying to mail me new refills every few days to a week apart for the next few weeks :/ I thought they consolidated orders and couriered them together. This is a mess. If I wanted mail order I would have stuck with my previous pharmacy.

by Hellspawn7

AltoPharmacy itself is glitchy and frequently gives incorrect delivery dates when checking out with prescriptions.
The service is terrible. Very slow. Only worth it for very simple prescriptions. If you have upwards of 10 prescriptions you can safely assume that they will screw up time and time again. When you have issues it will takes days, sometimes weeks for them to get back to you. Trying to get ahold of a representative can be a nightmare with wait times easily over 20 minutes, at times over 45 minutes.
They seems to save money on slashing customer service and support which ultimately wastes more of your time trying to chase down solutions for the problems their system creates.
The problem with AltoPharmacy is customer service is completely cut out. Their system is so unsophisticated that it will charge you for medications normally covered by insurance if you take a between dose of a medication (ex a 100 mg and 250 mg because the manufacturer does not make a 350 mg dose). I tried speaking to them about this and they said they would fix it but the problem remains. Not worth my time or money.
Do not get prescription needles filled with Alto, they will send subpar needles that are awful to use and retain air in the needle. Upon speaking to them they leave the message unanswered for over a week.

by Foxyeconomist

The pharmacy and AltoPharmacy have gone downhill in the last year to the point that they aren’t getting the basics right anymore. Alto keeps adding hurdles to check out: leave a tip, add other stuff to your order, leave a review. I don’t want to review every interaction I have. I don’t want to impulse buy a bunch of crap at checkout. I don’t want to pre-tip a delivery on an order you will reschedule.

They lost a prescription from my doctor. They have a button to request refills but neither of my doctors have ever gotten one of my refill requests from Alto.

Alto has rescheduled (ie delayed) multiple prescription refills for me this year, including for medications that I need to take every day or taper off. They don’t call/text you to say they are canceling. They send an in-app notification to “confirm” that they are rescheduling. The notification says “respond Y to confirm”. If you don’t respond, they reschedule anyway. I did not confirm you could reschedule, Alto, and now I’m out of my meds.

by Taysi26

Alto had been really helpful and fast with delivering my medication for about 2 years. I had an issue a few months ago where AltoPharmacy logged me out and wasn’t letting me reset claiming it was a wrong email. I called them and they said it was an issue that occurs and they merged the two existing Alto account prescriptions. I wasn’t able to have my medication delivered that day while it was sorted out, but it was delivered first thing the next morning. Yay!
Except, it happened again on 2/24 and I have contacted support five times with no response AT ALL. My last message was for them to “please, please help me and respond” but they, again, ignored me for ANOTHER day. It looks like I’m just going to have to deal with the incredibly low levels the meds are supposed to address until a new pharmacy can actually fulfill my prescription and communicate. This has been really disappointing during a scary medical diagnosis, a diagnosis which requires quick attention. It’s made my stress levels higher, which is exactly what I shouldn’t be doing. I don’t think I’ll go to Alto after this.

by Theyseemerolin

I really like the idea of this service and think it has the potential to benefit a lot of people, but it needs a lot of work. They are significantly more expensive than other pharmacies, which would honestly be okay if they were transparent about it, but they’re anything but. They claim delivery is free, and that your copay stays the same if you transfer from another pharmacy. This is simply false. My doctor wrote me six new prescriptions to this pharmacy. First off, it said “price pending” at checkout for a very, very long time. Someone even called me and tried to schedule my delivery before they even gave me a price?? Do people really just hand over their credit card info for “price pending?” After days I finally got the prices (for a minute because they actually immediately went away after). One of my prescriptions was $45 which seemed really high. I started googling it and all six prescriptions were available for significantly cheaper, without insurance. I ended up getting the $45 prescription from CVS for $11. Again, I think this service has the potential to help so many people. But it’s important to be transparent about pricing. Don’t claim your users aren’t paying more for this service when in reality they’re paying 2x, 3x, 4+x more than they would at a traditional pharmacy.

by Asdfgholqyeiofbejwldb

This used to be a great app and great service. Then over the past two years AltoPharmacy got buggy, slow and crashy, the service got unreliable, and it’s now about as bad — if not worse — than dealing with the old school chain pharmacies we all tried to escape from.

There’s always something wrong, and when there is you get a generic super long message that’s buried deep in AltoPharmacy . If you follow the notification to the message, AltoPharmacy crashes or doesn’t work properly. This has been an issue over multiple releases now.

When you respond it can take hours. Last time they couldn’t verify my insurance I just paid full price for the meds. The next day I got a message that there was an issue. Had to dive knee-deep into AltoPharmacy to find it. Guess what: they couldn’t verify my insurance. I had to explain to them that I had already paid full price and need to do follow through on their commitments to deliver the meds. What a crapshoot.

by Je Taime

Using AltoPharmacy has been the most frustrating customer support experience I've ever had filling prescriptions, which is saying a lot. If everything is running smoothly and you have no issues, AltoPharmacy is great. It's wonderful to just have your medications delivered without any fuss. Unfortunately that has rarely been the case for me. The support messaging feature means that one conversation resolving one issue can span over several days even a week—there's no support line you can call for more direct service or to address an emergency. When I eventually ran out of supplies to manage my diabetes after almost two weeks of messaging back and forth, I had to seek out emergency ones from my doctors office because Alto could not resolve the issue and could not provide me with a clear answer why in a timely manner. Luckily I checked several weeks in advance the next month because the same issue was about to unfold again without any heads up or warning. I don't blame the individual customer support agents who I suspect are overwhelmed with tickets, but the company for their lack of support and options. It's honestly unacceptable that my pharmacy would prevent me from having these supplies and would make so little effort to help.

by 31'

You have a doctor. Your doctor prescribes you a medication. The doctor sends the information to a pharmacy that fills as instructed on the doctors instruction. The pharmacist has a computer which verifies the validity of everything. The patient of the doctor now is a customer of the pharmacist who then researches the best price available for customer. Creates a business relationship. Pharmacy gives the customer their options on how to proceed. Customer verifies shipping and billing. A Pharmacy employee called a courier then personally delivers to you with live updates what the pharmacist filled. And all is happy, Your privacy is respected. The logistics are exactly as the corporate pharmacy with better prices. And modern logistics.

by Misskittyclawz

I am on quite a few different medications that I started at all different times, so I generally run into the timeframe to get a refill 1 at a time (2 if I’m lucky).
This has led to me dropping off various different medications in my regimen on at least 3 occasions, because I just slacked off and didn’t want to go to the pharmacy. And I’d feel ok without them...until I didn’t.
Alto has totally saved me, and my doctor, from going through this by pro-actively calling my doc when a refill is near expiration and automatically managing my refills on an appropriate timeline and with no effort from me (just in case).
It was also ridiculously simple to get set up as a new customer and get my existing prescriptions in my profile. I think the hardest part may have been getting up to get my wallet to enter my payment info. 🤣

by Love Yummly!

OMG - Just got my first delivery of prescriptions. I will never use CVS or Walgreens again (no offense to some of the nice people who work there). My daughter in Los Angeles told me about Alto. I live in Houston, and I’ve been going to CVS forever, so I’m like, “That’s sounds great, sweetheart!” Then one day, I got really tired of CVS never having one of my prescriptions in common - very common one, but I controlled substance that half the kids in America are probably on. I went into AltoPharmacy this morning after downloading AltoPharmacy a couple of weeks ago, telling Alto my CVS info. They got my prescriptions. So easy! This morning, I needed a couple of things refilled. I went into AltoPharmacy , saw the list of my meds, selected the ones I needed, and saw they would deliver them today - in like three hours! It was nuts! I don’t have do anything anymore but a few clicks. My prescriptions magically appeared on my doorstep. Today. Wow.

by Jegates

Alto has made getting my family’s Rx’s so much easier.
Finding time in our busy schedule to make it to the pharmacy was very difficult not to mention the price difference, options to pay with or without insurance and not having to deal with my outrageous copay. Not having to find that additional time really helps my family stay on schedule and also allows us to spend more time together.
Not having to rush makes the world of difference when you have a young child and saves the headaches.
If I end up having a problem with one of our Rx’s Alto is fast to find a solution and they keep me informed via Text, Email or even over the phone at times.
Thank you, for all you do!

by GennaPinnick

When my doctor suggested that I use Alto Pharmacy I was really surprised. I never had a physician expressed a preference for a pharmacy ever. And this was in the beginning of the whole custom delivery culture here in San Francisco. Everybody was getting in on the action.I’ve grown so battle weary of having to fight for my health care the idea of having pharmaceuticals delivered to my doorstep just felt too good to be true. It wasn’t. I have never had a pharmacy that was so attentive and so convenient. Not only does Alto pharmacy deliver my meds to my door, but their pharmacists regularly reach out to me via text, because that’s what I’ve indicated that I like, to see how I’m doing with any new prescription. I’ve never had a regular pharmacist do that! Only wish this extended up to Napa so my older family members could take advantage of this. As it is they have to go over to Kaiser Permenente pharmacy, risk being an exposed to Covid and other compromising situations in order to get their meds. Highly counterproductive if keeping your patients healthy and uninfected is your goal. Alto is great! Use them.

by Alexlavs

I have a few chronic health issues and unfortunately am on almost 2 dozen medications. Most of them I get filled at my local pharmacy, but for my specialty meds and medical devices, I get them at Alto Pharmacy.

AltoPharmacy platform makes things beyond easy. I don’t even write app reviews and never rate them, but wanted to give 5 stars and let anyone sick or needs medication that Alto Pharmacy is an actual care partner. The process is so streamlined and easy it eliminates the stress associated with the organization and hassle of being sick and taking meds. I am moving all scripts to them. Also, I split time between 3 places in Southern California and all I have to do is select which address I’ll be at and that’s where it goes. It’s even easier than using Instacart.

by Kh-roo

When my doctor suggested I try Alto a few months ago, as an anxious person, I was excited about never having to wait in long lines at the pharmacy again. But my experience with Alto has been SO much better than any traditional pharmacy. They fill prescriptions faster than a traditional pharmacy, and they offer a 6-9pm drop off window, in addition to other 3-hour blocks throughout the day.

I love that AltoPharmacy follows up with me via text and app notifications to refill my prescriptions. I’m not a person who can be trusted to refill before I run out, so this is a huge perk for me.

If you’re still reading this and not yet sold on Alto, here’s a little more about their awesome customer service and the extra little things they do to show they truly value their customers. For starters, their pharmacy called to confirm whether I’d like name brand or generic, and when I told them I was trying to use up my HSA balance, they let me know how I could switch back to generic when I’m ready to. All of the delivery people have been lovely. And they include a little caramel with every delivery — and it’s realllllyyy good.

by Ssuppeerr

Update: Pretty sure I have a crush on this pharmacy. If only dating was this lovely.

You no longer have to wait in a line full of sick gross people to get your prescription or talk to a pharmacist awkwardly in person. Alto makes everything about receiving your medicine easy: curious if there’s a coupon they’ve already applied it, have it delivered to your home so you don’t have to pick it up or wait for 45 minutes in a cesspool of bacteria inside of a Walgreens, exhausted because you’re sick and you can’t stand don’t worry they leave it at your door schedule delivery time so you know when it’s coming and receive notifications when it’s near. Even the delivery folks are so ridiculously friendly. Want to move your other prescriptions over easy Peezy. Why are you still reading just do it already.

by AthenaLV

For years I had my Rx’s at a chain pharmacy I hated going to but felt like it was the closest option. Then COVID hit and one of my very important maintenance prescriptions became very difficult to obtain. The local chain pharmacy told me they couldn’t get it and didn’t know when they would be able to. Yikes! I need that medication! Alto was listed as the preferred pharmacy on my insurance card, so I called them. Over the next few minutes, I was able to transfer my Rx’s AND get them delivered to my house, for free, the next day! They even included the most delicious salted caramel chew. I love their communication with my Rx’s and how I get notified when they are on their way and the moment they are delivered. With their auto fill option, I don’t even have to worry about remembering to order my refills. I NEVER write reviews, but I love Alto so much that I feel they deserve this positivity. I’ll never switch pharmacies again.

by King's Amazon

I’ve used this pharmacy and AltoPharmacy for several years now. I haven’t ever had a pharmacy deliver before, didn’t think any would deliver to my slightly backwater small town and certainly didn’t think they’d do it for no additional charge! Well, surprise; Alto will.

And AltoPharmacy makes the whole process so easy to request refills and get them delivered – – they even find discounts for medications that my insurance company balks at. Without exception, any rep I’ve spoken to on the phone or delivery driver I’ve experienced have been warm, cheerful and helpful, and I love that I’m always kept up to date on the progress of the prescriptions, from their request sent to my doctor for a renewal thru the filling and then status of the delivery and estimated time of arrival of the courier within the delivery window. What’s NOT to like?

by Jmora_jm

Alto and it’s app has made my life so much easier when it comes to ordering all of my IVF medications. I tend to get all my bloodwork in the morning, to determine if I can start my IVF cycle and order my meds. I typically don’t get my results till later that afternoon, and it’s usually the go ahead to start injections the following day - so I get nervous and anxious with now only having 24 hours to turn around large orders of my IVF medications. But with Alto and it’s app, I can place an order at 4pm and get my meds delivered by 9pm that same night! Plus I don’t have to wait for FedEx or track a UPS number…because Alto provides an actual messenger, dedicated to your delivery. Plus AltoPharmacy will notify you of their location and an ETA for arrival, which updates live as they make drop offs. Its such a relief to not have to worry about something as important as my IVF medication delivery, especially since the injections have to be taken at very specific times.

by Ferns Galore

We’ve been struggling through using a mail away Rx company. Using Alto is a complete relief. The ordering process is easy, the pricing is clear, it’s quick.
I had spoken to my mail order Rx company 6+x times within a 2week period, each time being told that they were ‘sorry that they had drug the order out & now that I was fully run out of my Rx, that they would overnight it to me’.
The 2nd time I was told this, I asked “when will this arrive?” “Oh!…24-48 hours on the pharmacists desk & then sent to the warehouse, & then over-nighted, as long as it wasn’t a Friday, in which case it would be sent Monday, expect it Tuesday.”
My Dr set me up with Alto, my Rx arrived within 6 hours, delivered to my door!!!!-within hours!!!! at my door!!!!

by TimeLordGQ

I love how they shopped for discounts on my meds that I didn’t even know existed. A lot of my meds are part of copay card programs and they enrolled me so that we can shave off a lot of the price. Also they pack some excellent candies with the meds and a reusable face mask. I find that they are the best delivery pharmacy that I have experienced. They are good even for those of us who are getting our prescriptions constantly changed. You don’t get that with Pill Pack or any of the pharmacies that use blister packs for their delivery.

My only complaint is the fact that I have to submit my own reciept for reimbursement from my FSA card. They process their payments through square, and my fsa card automatically rejects any card using that system.

by I Hate The Application

No more racing to get to the pharmacy before they close or get there only to wait in line for what seems like an hour. Alto delivers all your medications directly to your door and usually comes with a delicious piece of salted caramel. They even take care of all the back and forth with your doctors office. Always on time when they say they’ll arrive and the window of time is short at only three hours unlike the cable or utility company. And always a courteous and professional delivery person. Now, if we could get banks and the post office to figure out their business model to improve convenience and efficiency. Until then, the pharmacy problems of the past are solved with Alto!

by Alyce_K

I love this pharmacy. AltoPharmacy is pretty easy to use but the best part is that the people are super responsive when I have questions. I love having free delivery—even before the pandemic. One less errand to run. I also love that I can set certain meds to auto refill and that they wait for confirmation if it’s over a certain amount (helpful with new meds that I don’t know what my copay will be). I have been with them since they took over my local pharmacy as ScriptDash, and through the (relatively seamless) change to Alto. When I was working in the office, they would still deliver—despite it being a building with airport-like security. I’ve been impressed from the start and recommend this pharmacy to everyone.

by Keyanna N A

I have been using Alto for about 2 years now and I could not imagine my life without it. I am able to receive my medications quickly and on time so I actually make sure to i am taking my medication consistently where as often times due to long lines, I’d be late refilling my rx at regular pharmacies. The auto fill and reminders for refills have make this services even more phenomenal, because it’s virtually impossible to not have my rx when I need them. I just received a notification reminder that i needed a refill and 30 sec later, it’s scheduled to be delivered to me in 5 hours. Couldn’t be any more simple. The handmade caramel that is included in my packages is also my favorite part :)