The Missing Link
Yesterday morning, I'm running a few errands. At about 10 am, I decide to stop and have a little breakfast. By breakfast, I mean a doughnut and some chocolate milk. Breakfast of champions.
I go to the self-checkout counter and tried to pay for it with my Link card. DENIED!! For those who don't know, Link is the card in which the state pays out benefits such as food stamps and emergency cash. I figured I entered a wrong password so I tried again. DENIED!!! It said to ask for help so I asked a Dominick's cashier. She had no idea and said to call the Link help number. A lot of help she was but she's probably wondering if she'll have a job in January, when all the Dominick's stores close, so let's give her a break.
Over the summer, I had an issue with my card being denied. They were changing the cards from 19 digits to newer 16 digit ones. About a month ago, I tried to make a purchase with my old card and it was denied. It said the card was disabled. We had something in common.
I called the help desk and within five minutes I was sent a new card. A few days later it arrived. I was a little inconvenienced but I lived.
old link card
new link card
I figured this was the same thing. I called the Link help number. Plugged in my card number. The automated voice said "card number can't be found in system."
Oh shit!! I'm thinking wtf did I do? But since it was a Saturday, I can't do anything until Monday. No need to stress over it. Time for football. Bring on Oklahoma & Texas. Northwestern & Wisconsin to follow. OY!!!!! But I digress.
A few hours later, I heard the system was down in Illinois. Phew!! It might not work but at least it wasn't my fault.
Then I heard it wasn't just local but in 17 states. Not working for my breakfast was too much of an adversity, but what if you had a family and this was your weekly shopping day. Yeah, that's a big deal!
So I went back to Dominick's last night. Just wanted an update.
The cashier told me he had heard two things. It might be working again on Monday or it may never be working again.
That's what I get for asking an "expert".
By the way, the cards started working again this morning.
apple fritter
You may be wondering what I did for breakfast yesterday? I bought the apple fritter with cash.