My recent experience with CVS is a case in point. I went in for some basics and was checked out by a human being. He asked for my phone number, turned the service tablet toward himself and, without asking my permission, signed me up for an “upgrade” to their membership program. When I got home, I got a congratulatory message!

I tried to cancel on their website. No luck. Then I called their customer service line and got a robot (of course) and a long-winded attempt to persuade me to keep the $5-per-month subscription to their ExtraCare Plus program. The robot finally said they would cancel the charge and send me a confirmation. No such message has come in, at least as of this writing.

Whoa @cvspharmacy – your checkout person signed me up for a subscription to the ExtraCare program without asking me whether I wanted to join. Not a good business practice!

Within just a few minutes, I got a message from them on X asking me to DM my contact information. I’ve received another couple of messages telling me that they are looking into the matter.

Here’s where the internal policies about customer service veer into the world of strategy. If you look at their X feed , all you see are apologies for service mishaps. This is the lesson customers are being taught: if you try to have a relationship with a company, you get nowhere. But if you broadcast your discontent to the world, the company responds.

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