Witness to stupidity

[Dark Psion]

Unfortunatly, it was in front of me as I was checking out at the grocery store Sunday.

The lady and her daughter had a cart packed full of stuff and as the cashier finally gets to the end of it, the lady hands her half of her welfare card.....and then the other half.

Yes, her card had broken in two and she was still using it.

The cashier told her we can't take a broken card, and the Lady was off!

The account is still good
They let me use it at other stores
I don't have time to get a new one


But a manager came over, said no and basically told the lady "you want these groceries, hand me your credit card."

I guess she wanted the groceries.

[SteverinoNY]

I admit the lady was a complete fool for thinking she could use a half of a welfare card. In her defense, the ones in New York State are complete pieces of crap and break really easily (and the barcodes wear off after no more than 2-3 weeks use). I don't know how your store works, but at mine we can enter them in using the entire number on the front (I think its 20 digits long). Also, we require that the customer shows an acceptable state issued ID if using the card in this manner.

That being said the people who demand we punch in the cards that have the number worn off (or written on a piece of paper) and throw a hissy when we cannot are in the same category as this woman. She's truly one of the stupid people we have to deal with daily.

[Horsetuna]

To preserve the signature on my bank cards I put clear tape over it. Its' really helped.

It may work with barcodes too, or are these the swipey kinds? I dont know if tape would interfere with the magnets (I would guess not but I got lectured once for taping a card like that. sometimes it helps the readers pick it up)