Glitch leads to cancelation of some 2nd COVID shots at Walgreens

SLINGER, Wis. - A Slinger area man told FOX6 News Wednesday, March 31 he’s been having a tough time getting his second coronavirus vaccine at no fault of his own. A technical glitch is causing the cancelation of appointments.

"So we scheduled our first vaccine through the Walgreens scheduling app," said Jeff Erdmann.

The Erdmanns, who are teachers, had a harder time than expected scheduling their second shot.

"So for mine, I got an e-mail last night that said, 'Your appointment was canceled,'" said Jeff Erdmann. "When I called up the pharmacy, couldn’t help. There was nobody there." 

Both of their second-dose appointments were canceled by Walgreens. Erdmann's wife was able to re-schedule. He was not.

"They didn’t have the Pfizer at that location, and basically, I was directed to, on my own, call the original place or call around to try and get an appointment, and that’s really where the frustration started," said Erdmann. "Not knowing who’s going to get canceled and who’s not – that’s pretty frustrating." 

As a last resort, he went to a walk-in clinic at a different Walgreens and found out he wasn’t alone.

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"They had walk-in appointments available, so I drove down here," said Erdmann. "When I got here, there were other people in line that had the same situation that got directed here to come in for a walk-in." 

After a couple days of stress, Erdmann was finally able to get his second shot and some answers from corporate.

Walgreens Pharmacy

A statement from Walgreens said, in part: "We are aware of an issue with our scheduler where patients were booked for their second dose appointments at a location that does not have vaccines available by the same manufacturer. This issue with the scheduler has since been resolved. Team members are in the process of reaching out to impacted patients proactively to accommodate them and assist with rescheduling their appointments to align with current vaccine availability. We are committed to honoring all appointments and providing second doses to all patients. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Walgreens officials said they are committed to getting those second doses scheduled and are apologizing for any inconvenience.