EBT card problems NOT shutdown-related

[superpatriotman]

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/EBT-Card-Problems-NOT-Shutdown-Related-227521921.html

EBT cards that allow state welfare departments to issue benefits via a magnetically encoded payment strip appear to not be working across the country.

Reports from various news agencies and viewers who have contacted News 4 say the cards are being rejected at stores. Many wonder if this has anything to do with the government shutdown and furloughs.

However, those same reports say the problem is with the vendor system used to process the transactions and not related to the shutdown. It is not known how long the system will be down.

According to a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Human Resources, a Xerox facility that handles the card transactions experienced a power outage Saturday morning. The outage caused the cards to be rejected.

[Savannahmann]

1. I was just at the Grocery Store

They said it was statewide, but I see it's national after all. Wow.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Amazing co-incidence, tho.

National outage on a Sat. while gov't programs are shut down,
so there is no place to complain to.

[seattle15]

3. Not only no one to complain to...

but is there anyone able to fix it, or did the Republicans fire all of the competent people?

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. the EBT cards are issued by a contractor

and I, like most people, have no idea who that person/company is, or how tto contact them, esp. on a Sat.
Thus, there are now at least 3 different stories on DU about the problem, with 3 different reasons being mentioned about the cause.