On Sunday, the day when many families head to stores to stock up on groceries for the week, was met with issues in the checkout line. The Electronic Benefits Transfer system was down. EBT is a system for issuing welfare payments electronically by means of a payment card that recipients use to make purchases. The issue causing many people headaches is statewide and in multiple other states, but at Findlay Market, vendors say there was no warning about the outage and they had to turn away customers that didn’t have cash. One vendor says that half of his business comes from people who use EBT and today, he had to be the bearer of bad news that the system was down. “Terrible, this is probably my record worst Sunday I’ve had in the three years I’ve owned the place,” Roth Product owner Dario Guintini said. “Since the EBT was down, folks realized they can’t get their meals for Sunday dinner or dinners throughout the week.”He says a lot of his customers rely on him to carry EBT.”Didn’t get an email or call which you think someone would,” Guintini said. “I even called my merchant supplier and they didn’t even know it was down.”Many people have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the outage. One woman said she had to buy food for her seven kids and she was turned away at Walmart because EBT is down.Another woman said her daughter had to leave behind $100 worth of food at Walmart. Someone else said they heard an announcement at Kroger about the EBT outage and saw people get out of checkout lines. Torry Young, a worker at the Findley Market, can’t help but shake her head at the situation, saying “it’s really difficult to say that to people because you want to help them. You want to be able to meet whatever need that they have.”Over half of the places at Findlay Market use EBT. Guintini says it makes up 60% of his business, but the worst for him is seeing the look in his customers’ eyes. “I sadly had to turn customers away,” Guintini said. “Even some folks I knew, and they’ve been coming down here for a long time. I gave them one or two items they needed but I can’t give away everything.”Officials say that Ohio’s EBT vendor, Conduit INC, had an outage Sunday and EBT service was restored midafternoon.
On Sunday, the day when many families head to stores to stock up on groceries for the week, was met with issues in the checkout line.
The Electronic Benefits Transfer system was down. EBT is a system for issuing welfare payments electronically by means of a payment card that recipients use to make purchases.
The issue causing many people headaches is statewide and in multiple other states, but at Findlay Market, vendors say there was no warning about the outage and they had to turn away customers that didn’t have cash.
One vendor says that half of his business comes from people who use EBT and today, he had to be the bearer of bad news that the system was down.
“Terrible, this is probably my record worst Sunday I’ve had in the three years I’ve owned the place,” Roth Product owner Dario Guintini said. “Since the EBT was down, folks realized they can’t get their meals for Sunday dinner or dinners throughout the week.”
He says a lot of his customers rely on him to carry EBT.
“Didn’t get an email or call which you think someone would,” Guintini said. “I even called my merchant supplier and they didn’t even know it was down.”
Many people have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the outage.
One woman said she had to buy food for her seven kids and she was turned away at Walmart because EBT is down.
Another woman said her daughter had to leave behind $100 worth of food at Walmart. Someone else said they heard an announcement at Kroger about the EBT outage and saw people get out of checkout lines.
Torry Young, a worker at the Findley Market, can’t help but shake her head at the situation, saying “it’s really difficult to say that to people because you want to help them. You want to be able to meet whatever need that they have.”
Over half of the places at Findlay Market use EBT. Guintini says it makes up 60% of his business, but the worst for him is seeing the look in his customers’ eyes.
“I sadly had to turn customers away,” Guintini said. “Even some folks I knew, and they’ve been coming down here for a long time. I gave them one or two items they needed but I can’t give away everything.”
Officials say that Ohio’s EBT vendor, Conduit INC, had an outage Sunday and EBT service was restored midafternoon.
