Walmarts in small towns allowed EBT to be used without balance..UPDATES!!!!!

[EagleKeeper]

What would happen if a non-EBT item were rung up in a transaction like this? For example, the WIC program has certain brands of staple good (milk, peanut butter) that are WIC-approved and others that are not. If the EBT system were down could those non-WIC items be purchased? In other words, is the payment eligibility run when the payment is run?

WalMart's internal barcode system will separate what can be charged on a WBT system. It will bill the EBT system for what is authorized and inform the cashier of the total of what was not paid when the EBT card was swiped.

 

[EagleKeeper]

I don't know what'll be done, but I'd give people *some* room for error. Let's say they went $80 over their EBT balance. Fine. Reduce their next 8 payments by $10 to make it up. But, if they exceeded $100 over their balance?? Let a judge sentence them to community service for fraud, in addition to reducing their next (however many payments it takes) by $10 or $20.

A person is told what their EBT allotment is for each month.
They will track expenses like a hawk to get every $ of food out of the card.

In this situation, they will know what their allotment was and they know that when the total used on the card is close to the limit.

Even if it was a new month; they would know that they have $100 (example) authorized on the card.

Going into the store and grabbing more food than what is authorized in not an accident; it is fraud.

Being over by $1-5 might be an accident and they should plan for paying the overage in cash.

 

[who?]

According to CNN there is supposed to be a fifty dollar limit in these situations but the Wal-Mart employees weren't properly trained.

 

[TerryMathews]

According to CNN there is supposed to be a fifty dollar limit in these situations but the Wal-Mart employees weren't properly trained.

In fairness, most sane retailers would implement those rules at the POS level and not depend on a minimum wage cashier to remember the standby authorization limits.

 

[nanette1985]

Aren't a large number of WM employees on Food Stamps? Probably a lot of the ones who were enjoying this scam.

 

[mizzou]

Walmart allowed this to happen. They were like, "Hey, if we pretend like this isn't our fault, we can sell thousands of dollars in groceries!"

It was so blatantly obvious something was wrong, they should have acted.

Now they are going to try and pin the blame on the government, and the government tries to pin the blame on the card contractor, and the card contractor is tyring to pin the blame on etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, Walmart bases a huge portion of it's income on EBT cards. If they denied EBT transactions, they wouldn't make a profit.

 

[Svnla]

I don't know what'll be done, but I'd give people *some* room for error. Let's say they went $80 over their EBT balance. Fine. Reduce their next 8 payments by $10 to make it up. But, if they exceeded $100 over their balance?? Let a judge sentence them to community service for fraud, in addition to reducing their next (however many payments it takes) by $10 or $20.

From the article in the OP, one lady charged $700 on her $0.49 EBT card. And a bunch of them folks just left all the shopping carts that were stacked to the top with various foods and goods when the gig was not working anymore. Those were not just careless mistakes but criminal acts. Talk about blatantly abuse and fraud.

 

[Darwin333]

Well we all know about the EBT glitch. WalMarts in two small towns of Louisiana allowed them to be used even the balances did not show up..ie..a person could buy hundreds or thousands dollars worth of goods even he/she only has a few bucks in the EBT card(s).

Words spread out..and within an hour or so (video/clip in link below):




http://www.ksla.com/story/23679489/walmart-shelves-in-springhill-mansfield-cleared-in-ebt-glitch

People just have no shame and pride, not only they have the EBT cards, they tried to get even more freebies and just left a big mess when the gig was up.

I think WM should track down the scumbags that purchased goods that were way over their EBT limits and charge them with felony shoplifting.

Looks like the state is already doing that.

Takes a special kind of dumbass to think that this couldn't be tracked. Its an electronic purchase with a card that has an account number and a name tied to that account number ffs. Throw in Wallyworlds almost assuredly very eager cooperation in handing over security video to confirm the account holder was the one using the card and they are going to have a bad day. I am nor sure how the law stipulates if you are responsible for the actions of someone else if you give them your card and necessary pin # to make it work but its rather difficult to claim that you don't know who you gave your card and pin to.

 

[Darwin333]

I think that is okay because the government's money isn't being fraudentently used when a price mistake occurs 🙂

The Governments money wasn't fraudulently used in this case either.

 

[Darwin333]

I'm not blaming Walmart, but suspect their Employees were aware and informed others. I mean, it could not have been a normal situation to have an influx of people piling carts full of stuff and paying in that way.

However, I could be wrong about the Employee collusion, but it had to be apparent that something wasn't right.

Seeing how this wasn't insanely widespread and just pure common friggen sense, I can't see how there wasn't some sort of employee collusion.

Those shelves were emptier than my local wallyworld when a serious hurricane is incoming. There is just no possible way that the mangers didn't know something was going on when shittons of people quite literally emptied the shelves and all of them were paying with EBT cards. I would wager that there were VAST numbers of single transactions that exceeded the maximum possible EBT balance, not sure if it rolls over month to month or anything, but regardless dozens upon dozens of transactions like that would have raised redflags with anyone.

As I have said, the fact that very few stores had issues to these extremes backs that up.

It definitely is Theft. I don't think anyone is denying that. What PowerEngineer(IMO) was pointing out is the similarity in behaviour between these people and Us in similar situations where a clear Error is in play. You may try to downplay Our actions when there's a Pricing error, but it is essentially the same thing. I wouldn't be too smug in condemning these people, although they certainly did something unacceptable. I think it should give us all a moment to pause to reflect on what we Do when confronted with a similar scenario.

Agreed. I have seen people who I know are good and decent people take advantage of such things. "Greed" is a pretty standard and normal thing among humans.

 

[DrPizza]

A person is told what their EBT allotment is for each month.
They will track expenses like a hawk to get every $ of food out of the card.

In this situation, they will know what their allotment was and they know that when the total used on the card is close to the limit.

Even if it was a new month; they would know that they have $100 (example) authorized on the card.

Going into the store and grabbing more food than what is authorized in not an accident; it is fraud.

Being over by $1-5 might be an accident and they should plan for paying the overage in cash.

You have wayyyy too much faith in stupid people. Just a couple of months ago, I watched a couple of people go way over with their food. (They were paying cash, not EBT though; but the point still stands.) They had $40. Their stuff came to significantly more than that. It took quite a while for them to pick and choose which things to put back, and it started with, "if we don't get the cake mix and frosting, how much is that." Every time they had the cashier remove one item, they wondered if they were down to their $40 yet - and they weren't close for over 5 minutes.

 

[DrPizza]

On another note, I wonder what will happen to the rocket scientist who made the decision to, "let's let them get food anyway, we don't want them mad." Putting a $25 cap on it or something might have decreased the incentive enough so that lazy people wouldn't have bothered to go to the store. And, it would have made sure people weren't without food.

 

[VirtualLarry]

A person is told what their EBT allotment is for each month.
They will track expenses like a hawk to get every $ of food out of the card.

In this situation, they will know what their allotment was and they know that when the total used on the card is close to the limit.

Even if it was a new month; they would know that they have $100 (example) authorized on the card.

Going into the store and grabbing more food than what is authorized in not an accident; it is fraud.

Being over by $1-5 might be an accident and they should plan for paying the overage in cash.

When you use EBT, at least in my state, most store POS terminals will print the remaining balance on the reciept. You can also call an 800 number on the back of the card, to find out how much is left on it.

 

[Darwin333]

Walmart allowed this to happen. They were like, "Hey, if we pretend like this isn't our fault, we can sell thousands of dollars in groceries!"

It was so blatantly obvious something was wrong, they should have acted.

Now they are going to try and pin the blame on the government, and the government tries to pin the blame on the card contractor, and the card contractor is tyring to pin the blame on etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, Walmart bases a huge portion of it's income on EBT cards. If they denied EBT transactions, they wouldn't make a profit.

It was a very very few Walmarts out of probably thousands in the affected region. This was not a corporate decision, it sounds like it was 2 dumbass managers not "walmart". I guarantee that profit was not any sort of motivation in these select few stores ignorance.

 

[Svnla]

It was a very very few Walmarts out of probably thousands in the affected region. This was not a corporate decision, it sounds like it was 2 dumbass managers not "walmart". I guarantee that profit was not any sort of motivation in these select few stores ignorance.

You need to stop it, right there before you make yourself look even more foolish.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35605168&postcount=88

Stop call others as dumbasses before take a look at yourself first, ok?

Gotta love posters that did not bother to read the story in the very first post of the thread, yet talk like they know what the hell they are talking about.

 

[who?]

On another note, I wonder what will happen to the rocket scientist who made the decision to, "let's let them get food anyway, we don't want them mad." Putting a $25 cap on it or something might have decreased the incentive enough so that lazy people wouldn't have bothered to go to the store. And, it would have made sure people weren't without food.

They were supposed to apply a $50.00 cap in this situation but they weren't properly trained.

 

[rudder]

Now replace cheesballs with OxyContin. This will be the scene at ER's across the country when the obamacare subsidies kick in.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Now replace cheesballs with OxyContin. This will be the scene at ER's across the country when the obamacare subsidies kick in.

You are exactly right. It won't be long until they've figured out EXACTLY what to say, which ER to go to, the right way to get their drugs without paying a dime, and will resell them for massive profit.



Still LOL'ing at people who think there are going to repercussions for doing this. "My baby didn't do nuthin!"

 

[TechBoyJK]

Anyway, Walmart bases a huge portion of it's income on EBT cards. If they denied EBT transactions, they wouldn't make a profit.

Facts. You should post some.

I highly doubt Walmart is surviving on EBT revenue.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Facts. You should post some.

I highly doubt Walmart is surviving on EBT revenue.

No way wal mart is going to actually post that info, but I would hazard to guess he's right. I know that any time I am forced to go to wal mart at least 1/2 the people in line are swiping those EBT cards.

Also, when the EBT system was down our local wal mart parking lot was a desert.

It's simply the market they cater to.

 

[highland145]

$80B/yr for food stamps. $446B gross revenue for wal mart. Govt isn't telling what's purchased with the program.


Edit: check out the ebt map.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/24/top-secret-what-food-stamps-buy/?page=all

 

[monkeydelmagico]

On another note, I wonder what will happen to the rocket scientist who made the decision to, "let's let them get food anyway, we don't want them mad." Putting a $25 cap on it or something might have decreased the incentive enough so that lazy people wouldn't have bothered to go to the store. And, it would have made sure people weren't without food.

Whoever OK'd it is dogmeat. I'd bet they got their walking papers and were escorted from the building.

Even a $25.- cap would be far to generous. If the card didn't work it should have been ZERO tolerance.

Walmart corporate is perfectly aware of when the welfare checks distribute. They literally bank on it. This gaff is inexcusable for them and the thieves who took advantage of the situation.

 

[mugs]

No way wal mart is going to actually post that info, but I would hazard to guess he's right. I know that any time I am forced to go to wal mart at least 1/2 the people in line are swiping those EBT cards.

Also, when the EBT system was down our local wal mart parking lot was a desert.

It's simply the market they cater to.

You live in a really shitty area.

 

[madoka]

That will never, ever happen. You know the sort of backlash we would see from obama supporters if these people were actually held accountable?

Reminds me of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg98BvqUvCc

An Obama voter on why she voted for him:

"It was the most memorable time of my life. It was a touching moment because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he's gonna help me."

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Reminds me of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg98BvqUvCc

An Obama voter on why she voted for him:

"It was the most memorable time of my life. It was a touching moment because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he's gonna help me."

His very vocal supporters broadcasted that message to people. It wasn't anything direct from obama's mouth, but his little lapdogs spread the message that obama would "take care of his people"........