Anita Harkess

Jan 17, 2025

Follow up appointment process (for dangerous reaction to meds prescribed) was a nightmare

My first appointment (online video call with a nurse practitioner) with Redbox RX went smoothly, and I was prescribed generic Lexapro, and SSRI for my severe anxiety. I started taking the meds, and after 8 days, was very ill (headache, more extreme anxiety, racing thoughts, and my family told me I was picking fights with them, being mean -- not myself -- and not making sense). This is a dangerous and relatively common side effect of SSRIs. I tried to talk to a provider about this, but my first appointment, yesterday, got me online with a black screen. Eventually, the provider came on in chat and told me that they could see and hear me fine, but could not figure out why I could not see or hear them. Then they hung up on me. The appointment website has no visible way for me to contact customer service or find out what to do next in a case like this, and the provider had told me nothing. I stayed signed in on the website while, in another window on my computer, I searched through Redbox emails, but found no way to contact tech support or customer service. Eventually, I went to the main Redbox website and found a number to call. It told me it was after hours and I should call the next day. (It was afternoon where I was. I have no idea whose hours they were going by.) I dug through the site further and eventually found another number to call. (I do not remember how -- remember, what I wanted to be seen for was too much seratonin in my brain, causing me to be very confused.) Someone answered this one, but as they did, a provider came on in the website I still had open. This time, the video chat worked just fine, but this provider looked at the forms I had filled out to schedule the call, told me my case was too complicated for her to handle, and told me she'd put in a ticket to reschedule. Today, I signed on for my rescheduled appointment, and I got another provider who could not be seen or heard. Again, my video and audio were working fine. Again, the provider just hung up on me. I got kicked back to the waiting room, where I sat wondering what to do. Again, there's nothing to click to open a chat with customer service, no number to call, nothing. Eventually, a text chat window opened. The chatter did not explain who she was. I think she was customer service for Redbox, but that was never identified. I explained what had happened ... ... and meanwhile, my phone pinged and showed me a text from the provider, who told me my phone was turned off and my online video wasn't turned on. I replied, pointing out that none of that was true (my phone was how I got her text, and video chat had been working fine from my end, and had worked fine the day before with one provider), and asking what to do next. The provider has never replied to that. The customer service person (?) from the web chat then video called me in the website. We were able to see and hear each other just fine. She told me she would see if she could find another provider for me today, and if not, she'd get back to me to reschedule. She told me it would be 4 minutes, and I should stay on hold on the website. I stayed on hold for half an hour before I gave up. As always, there was no way to check to find out what happened to whoever had been talking to me before. There was no other way available to ask for tech support or customer service. Just a note on the webstie telling me to keep waiting "and a provider will be with you shortly." An hour after today's scheduled appointment, I gave up and called the number I'd found on the website yesterday. This time, someone actually answered. She read the provider's notes and told me the problem was that I hadn't turned on my video on the website and I wasn't answering phone calls or texts. I pointed out (as I had in the unanswered text to the provider) that none of that was true, 50% of the people who tried to talk to me on the app's video were able to do it just fine, and the problem was clearly not from my end. She insisted it was my problem. I pointed out that I no longer had the spoons to fight through this mess, given that I was trying to be seen for severe anxiety and a reaction to my previously described meds that causes confusion, pain, and more anxiety. I said I wanted my money back. I now have my $25 back, the same severe anxiety I had before (plus this traumatic experience), and I'll be coming down from seratonin syndrome on my own. I have no access to medical help or advice with that or with the problem I came in with. At no point did anyone I talked to clock that I was suffering from a potentially life-threatening reaction to the medication Redbox's providers had given me. I have stopped taking the medication now because reading the Mayo Clinic's website (yes, Dr. Google) told me to do that. Redbox has been no help at all -- in fact, it has been physically dangerous. This has been a horrible experience that I would not recommend to anyone.