I just want to give people with the Mountain State Card a heads up; watch you're food stamp balances carefully! I just found out on Memorial day - the hard way.
Having been in the store to get some food for a holiday BBQ; the cashier rung my order and I swiped my card and it approved (thus pulling the funds out of my ETB balance); then found there was a $4.24 balance not covered on the card. When I asked the cashier why; all I had was food and nothing else (otherwise I might not have caught the error).
Turns out apparently they were selling hotdogs (normally they don't at this location, was a holiday thing) and they didn't ring as food stampable and had to be rerung with a food stamp "modifier". So instead of just voiding off the hotdogs and reringing these, the cashier voided and rerung the entire order and ran my card again. Not only charging me the original purchase amount of $9.53; but also the $13.65 that should have been rung to begin with. Leaving my foodstamp amount short for the month by $9.53.
This may not sound like much; but when you're a single mother of two and working 48 hours plus a week to make ends meet (and they never do), this can be a couple gallons of milk, eggs and cerial.
As soon as I discovered the discrepancy; I took the reciepts to the customer service (store manager wasn't in), I spoke w/Adam and a CSR and they just kept saying the original transaction was aborted so the card was never charged. I had even shown them the Kroger reciept from the night before and the EBT balances just didn't jive with what they were telling me.
They advised I needed to go to my local DHHR office and have them remedy the situation. I did this only to be told by the worker/screener; no, Walmart has to remedy as it was their mistake (even if it means they have to give me a store credit). By this time I'm feeling like a yo-yo going back and forth.
Yesterday I stopped by the store yet again and spoke w/Connie and Rosie (Store Accountant) and really coudn't give me any insight, just said we should've been over/short on that day if this was the case - we'll call you Monday moring and let you know.
I showed them the reciepts and they still insist the transaction was aborted; and I informed them that yes - it may have been aborted on their end, but the card had already been processed for the $9.53 which is not automatically taken off the the EBT card. So somewhere in limbo; Walmart hasn't screwed me or other customers, but they have in fact screwed the State of West Virginia.
Just a thought, how many other customers bought these hotdogs on Memorial day and either were charged cash (when using the EBT card) or had the whole order rerung and were double charged and didn't notice it.
I just want to let others know; that yes I do get some state assistance. It's not because I'm stupid or undereducated; it's because I am a single mother trying desparately to raise her two children on a $7.00 job (highest pay in this area BTW) and working overtime since March.
I have done auditing in the past and I can add 2 2 and come up with four.
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