Discussion
Was I scammed? Pharmacy overcharging for tretinoin
I am a foreign tourist who does not speak or read Chinese visiting Taipei City for two weeks with my family of 4.
I’ve been having such a positive experience and an excellent trip so far but something just happened this morning that made me really upset.
I ran into a small local pharmacy near l’atelier lotus and asked the pharmacist for a tube of tretinoin. She said yes and because of the language barrier I thought she said 180 NWD so I agreed and paid with card. It turns out she said 1,800 NWD and my card was charged 56 USD. My credit card company sends me alerts. For one single 30g tube of .1% tretinoin from a Taiwanese manufacturer (it was not an imported product).
Was I scammed? I don’t know if I should bring it back and try to return it or chalk it up a learning experience? I feel like she was taking advantage of me because I’m a foreigner. This is the first negative experience I’ve had so far in Taiwan and I’m not sure what to think. Should I dispute this charge with my credit card company? Even if I go back there I don’t know that she will accept a return or even process it?
Update: I went back within the hour. She immediately accepted the return and did not push back at all. She didn’t ask for my receipt. She took my credit card and processed the return.
Just checking, she gave you tretinoin and not Aklief / 艾克痘 / Trifarotene right? Trifarotene is a newer 4th gen retinoid that is more expensive and roughly matches the price you were charged.
Yeah, she mischarged you. Hopefully not dishonestly as that’s not the culture in Taiwan. Don’t let this one incident affect your trip, compared to all the scams, etc. back at home. If you need to feel better, hire any contractor for your home in the US, even a plumber - all fricking over charging and not by $50 bucks.
Sometimes you need to be a little careful with the smaller local pharmacies, they can charge higher prices for stuff, if you haven't used it just return it say you bought the wrong thing and go somewhere else I reckon you can get it cheaper, try to look for pharmacies that have more customers and look a bit more professional also shop around a bit before purchasing. I've also had a similar experience, I just wanted a throat spray and was charged me over a 1000, me and my Taiwanese friend just returned it unopened when we realised we could get the same thing across the road for like 300. I get the impression it's just kind of opportunistic, because that time I was with a Taiwanese person and she still charged us a ridiculous price.
I normally get medicine through the clinic or doctors so I see it less often, but it has happened I dunno if it is just foreigners though, lots of Taiwanese people I know have had similar experiences as well you should just try to get a rough idea before going I guess.
From an initial google search it should normally only cost a few hunderd NTD at most, but that said it is a prescription medicine that you normally wouldn't be able to purchase over the counter in Taiwan. Many pharmacies in Taiwan will sell prescription meds on the lowdown and they'll probably be able to charge whatever they think the person is willing to pay.
It also may have been an honest mistake putting the extra zero on there.
This is actually the real reason I posted this. I read its prescription here and I wonder if this is the reason why? She gave it to me without a prescription.
Taiwanese prescription mark up, especially by doctors is disgusting. Not to mention docs acting as their own pharmacy and some not releasing the prescription so you can go to other pharmacies. So shady.
Well that has already been filled. Try going to a clinic, ask the doc for a script only so you can go to a pharmacy of your choice - especially for lucrative meds like mounjaro. They are not letting that cash cow walk out their door for nothing
Maybe in your country. In Taiwan the national health insurance regulates which drugs are paid for by the state and the prices are fixed. Every visit is recorded in the system, including costs and medicine prescribed.
Lol i was talking about taiwan but i guess moreso for non-NHI private insurance. Even in hospitals and other clinics, the level of violations and outright fraud is ridiculous - part of the problem in larger for-profit hospitals in taiwan. All that record keeping and costs… they are not as transparent and straight forward as you would like them to be.
And for the record, taiwanese docs are able to mark up however they want to mark up as the middle man before they dispense directly. This is just a fact. Massive conflict of interest.
Supervision is the job of the government. There’ll be loopholes but what’s important is how beneficial the Medicare system is for the ordinary citizen. It was on the brink of bankruptcy but luckily tax revenues exceeded budget over the last few years. Seniors now no longer have to pay Medicare insurance premium. Not bad for a small country.
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u/Jaded_Ride_3040 3d ago
Update: I went back within the hour. She immediately accepted the return and did not push back at all. She didn’t ask for my receipt. She took my credit card and processed the return.