Daily News: Shopping Chaos In Lousiana...

[Zguy28]

Shopping chaos ensues in Louisiana Walmart stores after EBT cards stop showing credit limits.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/chaos-la-walmart-stores-ebt-cards-dump-spending-limits-article-1.1484953#ixzz2hjLKPb3T

 

Walmart shoppers cleared shelves and filled shopping carts to overflow after a software snafu removed spending limits from their EBT cards.

Police were called to help deluged clerks at stores in Springhill and Mansfield in northern Louisiana Saturday night.

 

There were no injuries or arrests after the feeding frenzy caused by a power outage during a routine maintenance test by Xerox of their government-funded debit cards.

 

 

Perhaps explains why the stores stopped processing EBT recently. I remember a clerk saying that at Target when I was checking out. Crazy.

[Corcaigh]

Wal-Mart should face consequences of not taking action and temporarily suspending acceptance of payments. Can the card provider decline to pay the transactions that exceeded a reasonable card limit as fraudulent?

 

And the folks who ran up the bills should lose those benefits until the balance is made good.

[twa]

when the limit was announced as back online they scattered like ****roaches 

 

I could understand the store allowing $100 or so to keep from making people go hungry.....unlimited is foolish as Corcaigh noted

[sacase]

I seriously doubt a day is going to matter. In my younger days, when my son's mother and I had our son and we were living together we had EBT. I HATED it, I felt so low. The sad part is, we had a lot more than we needed per month. We ate well. I don't know how it is done now but we got paid on the first, we shopped for the whole month. People are not going to go hungry in one day, I am sorry. Honestly, people who spent over their limit should have their privileges provided and be charged. They know how much is on that card. If they went 10 dollars over, that is one thing, but if they went hundred of dollars over.....they were committing fraud and theft. 

[No_Pressure]

At the Wegmans where I work, I'm trained on the front end so I cashier from time to time when they're swamped. I used to be there full time when I started (and I'm still the fastest) but now that I graduated and I'm working on finding a career, I've moved up to different departments. Anyway, this weekend the EBT systems were messed up and we stopped accepting EBT payment methods for groceries. I'm now wondering if this is what that was about.

 

As far as the program itself goes, like with many programs you have people who really hate having to use it, and who can't wait to get off it. I always feel bad, especially since the cards for EBT must have been contracted out to the lowest bidder and they're ****ing terrible. The strip stops working after like 2 days, and the cashiers all end up having to enter all 59238 numbers on the card by hand while impatient and judgmental customers stand behind them in line and sigh loudly. Most people who use them are buying practical groceries which is encouraging to see- the items which will give them the maximum value over a long span of time, provide the most meals for their family, and keep them from having to come back to the store and face potential embarrassment for the longest possible amount of time.

 

Then there are people like I saw the other day who were using their EBT cards to buy a case of monster energy drinks, a 6.50 container of freshly prepared sushi from our sushi bar, bic lighters, premium pizza ingredients (totaling about 14 dollars for a make it yourself pizza) and 2 bags of Doritos. I question their food choices, especially since they're basically wasting government money on things which won't help them very much or last very long. They'll just end up spending their own money in the end to feed themselves for the rest of the month which seems to defeat the purpose of having EBT, aside from the fact that they're using it to support their taste for premium/non-essential food items.

 

Contrary to popular beliefs these people are not the majority however, and I always try to make the people who I can tell are uncomfortable using EBT feel a little bit better. Hopefully they won't need the support soon, and I'm sure nobody will be happier than them to become self-sufficient.

[skinsmarydu]

Contrary to popular beliefs these people are not the majority however, and I always try to make the people who I can tell are uncomfortable using EBT feel a little bit better. Hopefully they won't need the support soon, and I'm sure nobody will be happier than them to become self-sufficient.

Some stories I hear make me proud of my stepdaughter. She uses her EBT very wisely...buys potatoes in 50 lb. bags, eggs by the case, etc. She's gotten a better paying job, gets overtime, and consequently had her benefits decreased. But she knows that this is how the system works...now that she needs less help, those funds can help others.

(I know I complain about her from time to time, but that basically stems from all the dumb **** she did to get into the position of needing help in the first place, after having the world by the tail as a teen.)

[CrabR]

what I hate abut the EBT card is you can buy almost any food even junk food and restaurant carry out, When I worked at Giant in the early 70's you could not buy junk food like sodas ice cream etc. I also see the Independence card [not sure what it is] gives you cash back. I have been in line and the person in font of me bought 1 item and asked for the rest in cash back. Then i go outside and see them getting into a new card

 

Just like SS disability there is a lot of fraud and they should hire people to work on a percentage basic and cases they can prove where they claimant is  using them fraudulently. I think all programs should be reviewed every year especially SS disability.

 

They people in this case should easily be found by their card, make them pay it back

 

Many need it but then there are many who just freeload off the gvt