Pay attention to your own WIC check, lady!

[OfficeSlug]

Older lady comes in with a 6 month old (around that age) child in the cart. She hands me 2 WIC checks. No problem. First one is for $6 of Vegetables/fruits. Second is for milk/cheese.

I run the $6 fruit/veggie one. Total comes out to $4.18 cents. I fill in the check, tell her the total, and hand it to her to sign. She signs the check, I run it through, hand her the receipt, and start on the 2nd WIC order.

I again, fill in the check, tell her the total, she signs the check, I run it through, and hand her the receipt.

She has a 3rd order - shrimp. Paying cash. Not a problem.

As I'm handing her the change for the shrimp, she looks at the receipt for the Veggies/Fruits.

Then she starts.

"I have more money on this WIC check. Why didn't you tell me I didn't get all $6 worth?"

"Ma'm, I DID tell you the total AND you signed the check AND I handed you the receipt."

"But you're cheating me. You're taking food out of this child's mouth!"
SAY WHAT?

"Ma'm, I told you the total and YOU signed the check." I took the SIGNED WIC check out of the drawer and held it up to confirm. "You did sign this, didn't you?" Even though I know she did seeing as she used my pen.

"Yes, but you should have told me the total."

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I finally gave up, "Sorry that you didn't read the total on the check you signed or hear me say the total before you even signed the check."

I had to walk away.

Come on, PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN TOTALS ON WIC CHECKS!!!!

[Seraph]

Ugh, that's terrible. I know I've had the same situation happen, but I'm fine with being a bit under if it helps me get out of the line quickly.

I've heard some horror stories from the store near me about the veggie checks...I've been trying to encourage them to report them to the local WIC office. One of the women they've told me about comes in drunk every time she cashes her checks...and has been known to throw things at the employees if they don't move at lightning speed or speak over-politely to her.

[Legal Eagle]

personally although there's no doubt the customer was sucky, i think the system itself itself is at fault somewhat.

items like fruit/veg/milk/cheese go off and therefore being forced to buy a lot at once does not make sense, personally when i do my monthly shop although i buy a lot of tins/freezer stuff, things like fruit/veg/milk/cheese/cooked meat/juice/etc are spread out over the month if and when i need them. if i bought all my veg for the month at the beginning, they would have gone off by the last week.

[LillFilly]

Huh. I didn't know that's how those things worked; but I've never cashiered before, though I have been thhhhhiiiissss close to financial assistance.

[Seraph]

Huh. I didn't know that's how those things worked; but I've never cashiered before, though I have been thhhhhiiiissss close to financial assistance.

Wasn't how they used to, but its a recent addition. They still do the whole "you get x gallons of milk, cheese, etc"....but with fruits and veggies they now give people a few drafts for $6.00 apiece. You have to stay within that, or all heck breaks loose when you have to try and figure out what to pay extra for it.

Its ridiculous, and I'm just trying to figure out what costs we can cut so we can stop using WIC. Its just hard right now with all our bills and having to try and pay for all the house repairs....

Eh, one step at a time, I guess. We finally got off food stamps a year and a half ago, and now we're in a house. We're slowly climbing our way up.

...sorry to have gone a bit offtopic. ><

[bainsidhe]

I hate it when customers accuse you of starving their child. It has nothing to do with welfare specifically, just SCs who like to blame and guilt people to get their way and/or save a buck.

[blas]

Trust me, I hate it, too.

The last time I was accused of taking food "out of children's mouths", was when that infamous scamming bitch I've mentioned several times before at the grocery store, well, her actions got me suspended.

I was supposedly stealing food out of her children's mouths, she was trying to scam the store.....yeah um, I think it was more of me trying to stop YOU from scamming the store with eleventy coupons when you are only allowed to use one for each of the four items, not multiples of four.

[Kimmik]

thank god MI uses Wic cards like ebt cards

[BethB]

WIC has always been a bit of a pain. Not only as a cashier but as a mom. I used them for my first two but only briefly. It was less of a pain just to use my $$ and cut back on shopping at Baby Gap or Toys 'R Us. My son I used them for his first 2 yrs and still found it to be a hassle.

[TTAZ]

I'm weird. I like to make the veggie check into a competition. I like to see just how close to $6 I can get by estimating. The last one I used I got fresh green beans, 2 serrano peppers, a pkg of bean sprouts, 1 bunch of green onions, and something else I think, and that was the first time I went over.....by 8 cents.

I was laughing about it with the cashier. I told him I should have broken the stems off my peppers before I bagged them.

[Zoom]

Been doing a few WICs like that of late. If there's a more than $3 deficiency in the amount I always make the effort to comment on it, adding things like "You can buy 18 oz. more of cereal" or "You can get more fruit with this" or even "Duhhhhh... numbers are hard."

Of course they don't want to get 1) out of line, 2) more stuff, 3) back in line, 4) any more impatient than they already are.

[Tama]

It always amazes me when they do that. You IDIOT. Free food is free food!!

[Jade Panurple]

Thankfully Texas now also uses the EBT cards for WIC, so now you can spread all that out through the month.

On one of the papers you have to sign when receiving WIC (at least here, and I am sure elsewhere) is a promise to be cordial and polite to staff at the stores in which you purchase your WIC. If a store calls and complains about you, you can be taken off the program.

Not that I would want to see someone taken off if they really need it, for the child's sake.

[Magpie]

On one of the papers you have to sign when receiving WIC (at least here, and I am sure elsewhere) is a promise to be cordial and polite to staff at the stores in which you purchase your WIC. If a store calls and complains about you, you can be taken off the program.

I like that rule! If only we could get credit card companies to include that in their TOS as well.

[Tama]

Yes, that would be very helpful.