EBT glitch in Louisiana

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPUfgLqQO0

Shoppers load up on food when EBT cards are not showing balances.

When the balances came back up, they abandoned their carts.

Let's just say the poor employees who have to restock the food and throw out the perishables have my deepest sympathies.

[AnaKhouri]

I think something like this might have happened in my state on Saturday night. I was in line to check out and the customer in front of me was having a problem so they opened another line for me. As I left I saw another customer and the first one at the service desk. Apparently they were both trying to pay with EBT and the system was going haywire, the employees called it a 'power surge' but I doubt they knew what was really going on. I hope they worked it out for those customers who were still waiting when I left, that would be a huge pain if it was their only way to pay (and a pain for the employees who would have to restock their stuff too).

[shopgirl15]

Blame Wally-World for not enforcing the $50 limit when they could have.

[Tama]

You mean blame management...cashiers were probably told to just go ahead.

[shopgirl15]

You mean blame management

Of course. I remember my cashier days too well...

[Moirae]

It's worse than that. There were people that emptied shelves at Walmart stealing thousands of dollars and walking out. I don't get why Walmart didn't just close for a few hours until they fixed it.

[Tama]

Too afraid of losing legit customers?

[Javarod]

I suspect the problem was not WalMart, but Xerox. Xerox runs the card program in a number of states, 17 i believe. Over here in Missouri where the cards stopped working, ditto for IL i believe too, and wherever Annakhouri is too. Lousiana is another of their states, though there it obviously went the opposite way. Last i heard, Xerox is blaming WalMart, and WalMart is blaming Xerox. Million dollar question is who's going to pay for it, some how i suspect us tax payers.

[mathnerd]

I'm hoping they declare it welfare/food stamp fraud and take the extra money out of the recipients' future deposits or make them ineligible to receive benefits for a period of time (or forever). Those people who abused the glitch knew how much they were supposed to get and over spent anyway. That's fraud. I have no sympathy for fraudsters.

[shopgirl15]

I'm hoping they declare it welfare/food stamp fraud and take the extra money out of the recipients' future deposits or make them ineligible to receive benefits for a period of time (or forever). Those people who abused the glitch knew how much they were supposed to get and over spent anyway. That's fraud. I have no sympathy for fraudsters.

Walmart is being held rightfully responsible for the charges because they did not impose a $50 limit like they should have.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Walmart is being held rightfully responsible for the charges because they did not impose a $50 limit like they should have.

Given the number of people in the store taking advantage, there may have been a riot if they tried to do that.

[shopgirl15]

Given the number of people in the store taking advantage, there may have been a riot if they tried to do that.

Didn't happen when the glitch got fixed. Just a bunch of abandoned carts and items to put back. And I don't think there would have been a rush of people taking advantage if the limit had been enforced - I'm guessing the influx of people happened because the first people who realized the error started calling their friends/family to come on over.

[ADeMartino]

I think something like this might have happened in my state on Saturday night.

If you're in Ohio, then yes, the EBT system went down state-wide on Saturday. It may have affected other states, I don't know. Perhaps the same glitch that affected Louisiana.

[EricKei]

Just FYI, there is already an active thread about this issue over on Fratching. Please take any talk of blame/the law/which company should pay for this over there.