This may be news to some retailers that did not have problems with the Iowa EBT system this month, but for many retailers, it has been a maddening process as the Iowa EBT system that processes the SNAP (formerly food stamp) benefits was updated early this month, with some resulting problems. The Good News: It appears now the problems have been resolved with a lot of hard work and persistence by several IGIA members.
Iowa EBT started a new contract with its EBT processor – Affiliated Coupon Services – early this month and, with the new contract, a new system was switched over to. ACS, which processes EBT SNAP (and other) benefits in many other states, has programming that offers many features, of which some states choose some features, some choose others, etc.
The State of Iowa is no different and chose features it felt fit the needs it had. One of the features available the State of Iowa chose not to go with was a program called “auto card replace.” The “auto card replace” program is set up to automatically replace cards that have been manually entered a certain number of times.
Unfortunately, ACS did not turn off the “auto card replace” program for Iowa and, when the new system was implemented in early July, cards that EBT SNAP recipients used that were manually entered because of defective magnetic stripes or other issues, were not authorizing payments to retailers. The result was cards were being declined, SNAP recipients could not purchase food and stores could not do anything about it except try and explain to customers who needed food that the system was not working. Almost nothing is worse than hungry customers who cannot buy food they thought they could.
As more and more stores reported problems, the Iowa Department of Human Services staff recognized the problem and got ACS to turn off the “auto card replace” feature. For the most part, this fixed the problem.
But, that wasn’t all. It was soon discovered that outages were occurring daily – often at the busiest times of day for retailers. The problem was traced to a “bug” in the software used by ACS (Siebel software), which was fixed by re-installing corrected software. Soon, many stores reported other issues pertaining to not getting balances back for customers and clearing transactions. I received several calls from stores, and pretty soon the common denominator seemed to be all the stores experiencing problems were using RBS World Pay for processing.
Since RBS World Pay is not a member of the IGIA, I did not have a “good contact” to call directly. I encouraged some of IGIA’s larger members to call RBS and get to the bottom of the problem. As I have found in a dozen years of leading the IGIA, if you get a large customer calling a supplier of goods about a problem, they can get a much faster reply and suddenly have an interest in “working with the IGIA to fix the problem!”
After several phone calls (and finally getting all parties to talk to each other), the problem was discovered through a process of elimination. A BIN number set up in RBS World Pay’s software for EBT only cards was being routed to SHAZAM by mistake, instead of to ACS – the State of Iowa’s processor. Once identified, it did not take long for the problem to get fixed, and it appears no major issues have arisen since then.
Well, actually there is one issue out there. For a long time, retailers have complained that the card quality of EBT SNAP recipients have been a problem. The “auto card replace” issue showed that there are approximately 23,000 cards out in the state that need to be replaced because they were being used frequently manually. The Iowa Department of Human Services recognizes this is a problem – not only recipients but stores that have to manually key in cards. It slows down transactions, costs more and makes SNAP recipients uncomfortable, like they are being “singled out” for using an EBT SNAP card (and this reason was one of the main selling points for going to EBT in the first place!).
The Iowa DHS is looking at sending a letter to those 23,000 defective card holders, asking them to call in on a toll free number for replacement cards. I believe you will see the Iowa DHS put a greater emphasis on this now that it knows how big of a problem it is.
Lastly, I need to give kudos to Iowa Department of Human Services Program Manager Tracy Penick, who just took over in the role for the recently retired Jan Walter (who left some big shoes to fill!). Tracy has bent over backwards to keep the IGIA informed, so it can relay things to its membership. Tracy answers her cell phone on nights and weekends (I personally can vouch for that!) and will call members back.
IGIA retail members the association has e-mail addresses for received a special Alert on Friday, July 16, about issues with EBT. In fact, the Iowa DHS and IGIA had plans to keep IGIA members in the know over last weekend, when it appeared there might be more problems with EBT.
If you have an e-mail address and are an IGIA member (in particular a retailer), you got timely information. If you have not given us your e-mail address (used only for IGIA purposed and never given out to others), you did not know what was going on. Help yourself out by sending your e-mail address to Cara Corkrean in the IGIA office at ccorkrean@iowagrocers.com as soon as possible.
And, if you are not an IGIA member, and are reading this – what are you waiting for? Better call the IGIA office right now at 800-383-3663 and join today. Don’t be “in the dark” the next time an emergency pops up or help is needed with regulatory agencies! We can help!
Have you ever had the thought that you were missing something but didn’t quite know what or how to put a finger on it? I realized this last week at the IGIA Convention as we were going through the convention and I was wishing that all IGIA members could have been in Okoboji to hear some outstanding speakers and have interaction between industry members. I just have to tell our members about it! And then, I realized, I was only doing Jerry’s Jottings every other month now because of the six times per year printed Scanner schedule we started in January.
So, since I did not want to wait until August, I told Phillip Nicolino (IGIA Communications Specialist and guardian of communications keys!) I wanted to start doing a short version of Jerry’s Jottings every other week for the E-Scanner. By the look in his eyes, I could tell he thought I was crazy (because it will be 26 more deadlines he will have to come in and remind me of!), but I got him to agree, so here we are!
Here are three things I want to touch on this week:
The Behind the Scenes Work on Debit Card Interchange on the Federal Level:
As I am writing this, the Senate is taking the final vote on the Financial Reform Bill that includes the Durbin Amendment on debit interchange the entire retail community fought hard for. It has passed, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill.
Unless you were living under a rock with no Internet access for the past two months, you have received several e-mails from the IGIA about contacting, calling and writing the Iowa Congressional delegation to support the Durbin Amendment. Thanks and congratulations! All your work paid off! Frankly, without your contacts, the amendment would not have been included as Sen. Charles Grassley was key in supporting it in the face of fierce opposition from the credit card companies, the bankers and the credit unions. We literally had to fight fire with fire on this issue.
When opposition went to making mass calls to Congressional offices, we turned the IGIA membership loose on making contacts with the Iowa’s Congressional delegation. When the bankers and credit unions submitted an opinion-editorial article in The Des Moines Register, we responded by penning an Op-Ed piece endorsed by both the Petroleum Marketers and the Iowa Retail Federation the next week (that was greatly appreciated by many in the Iowa Congressional delegation). Here at the IGIA office, we wrote individual letters to the delegation, talked to their staff and coordinated with national groups such as the Food Marketing Institute, National Grocers Association and National Association of Convenience Stores on this issue.
Believe me, this was not easy but is a great first step on this issue. Personally, the more I heard the other side and some of the propaganda they were putting out, the madder I got and the harder I and the rest of the IGIA staff worked on it. Normally, we have not had to do many “mass” grassroots efforts at the federal level. Due to the political makeup of the Iowa delegation, it is usually pretty clear where most of them always stand. This issue was different. It was a challenge but, in a perverse way, was fun (it’s always more fun to win!).
Now, if I can convince more of you to come to Washington, D.C. next year for the Public Policy Conference, you can get a chance to meet and thank those who helped us and learn more about how important Iowa is going to be in the political process the next two years!
IGIA Convention has Turned Into Attendee’s “Passport to Prosperity”
The weather was great, the food was terrific and the speakers during the education sessions were even better, said many IGIA convention attendees! Building around the convention theme of “Passport to Prosperity,” speakers elaborated on several areas, including Desi Williamson bringing it to IGIA attendees on a personal level with “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way;” Drew McLellan on “The Thrill and Threat of Social Media;” Garry Smith, of American Pop Corn Co., on the challenges of running a three generation business; and Gen. Timothy Orr from the Iowa Army National Guard.
Gen. Orr gave a presentation on how the Iowa Army National Guard is preparing for nearly 3,000 personnel to deploy to Afghanistan. That was not only interesting in how they are doing it logistically, but had many more correlations to how business people can approach running their businesses than what I might have envisioned previous to his presentation. In fact, so many in the audience were scribbling notes during Gen. Orr’s presentation that he has agreed to provide it to IGIA.
If you are interested in any of the PowerPoint presentations given at the convention, please contact Carolyn Bahnsen at cbahnsen@iowagrocers.com and we will try and get them to you.
Election 2010: Breaking It Down
Starting next week, look for a new feature in your e-mail inbox. The IGIA will begin a feature series on Iowa legislative races, statewide races and the Iowa Congressional delegation races that culminate on Nov. 2, 2010 (Election Day). IGIA Legislative Counsel Scott Sundstrom made a terrific presentation on several key races to watch in Iowa this year and, based on feedback from convention attendees, we are going to turn it into electronic newsletter that’s sent every other week starting next week and running through Election Day.
A big part of what the IGIA does is tied to the legislative, and in turn, political arena. The more knowledgeable and interested IGIA members become, the better the chances are of electing legislators who support our industry’s views.
Both Scott and I will break down many of the races across the state, as well as give you the feedback from legislative leaders and report on public polling of races where available. The plan is to feature between 2-4 races each issue. We believe it will help educate IGIA members on candidates and make it easier for them to get involved in the process. It will be quick, fast-paced and a must read for those even slightly interested in politics.
As always, I will appreciate your feedback and suggestions!
Desi Williamson opened the speaker presentations this morning with an unbelievable message about inspiring yourself to be better. His personality and energy put the audience on the edges of their seats wanting to hear more.
Some of key points taken from Desi this morning:
- Motivation comes from the outside and in. Inspiration starts on the inside and comes out.
- Uncomfortable feelings -- that's where the growth of life comes from.
- Emotion creates motion.
- Spend 80 percent of your time working on the solution and only 20 percent on the problem.
We’re completely looking forward to hearing Desi’s second presentation of the convention Friday morning!
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