EBT Issues with Coupons at Publix?

[AshleyDillo]

Is anyone else that uses foodstamps to pay for their purchases at Publix having issues?

I typically split my order so that all the non-food is separate. If you don't the coupons come off the food total so you have to pay more out of pocket, so it's just easier to do it that way.

It wasn't until recently that I've been having problems when using EBT on all food purchases where I have a lot of coupons. After the order is rung in and coupons scanned when I try to pay with EBT the computer spits back an error and the cashier always has to call a manager for an invalid tender type. The manager then has to manually key in the pre-tax price and I have to slide my card again. Sometimes the managers are clueless and type in the post-tax price and it ends up telling them to give me back the tax as change! It holds up the line and becomes frustrating to use coupons with EBT because of this--it stumps the cashiers and a lot of the managers? Is this just a north FL issue, or are other customers coming across this? Any Publix employees out there care to shed some light?

I'm beginning to think it might be easier to just not use coupons and go up to customer service and have them ring the coupons up separately as a credit to my EBT card!

[curly1534]

Usually the message that will appear is "Over tender not allowed". This can occur when either you use a payment before you use your EBT card, for instance you want to use a Publix gift card or cash and pay for the rest with your EBT Card or when a particular coupon is not coded to take off a food related item. For instance when looking at your receipt you should see a lot of "F"s on the side of your receipt. Well the manufacturer coupons are mostly coded to take off the food order so those will have "F" next to it. But some of the Publix coupons are not coded to take off either the food "F" or the tax "T" so that coupon will have a blank next to it. This blank is what is screwing up the machine. It counter acts with the EBT and thinks that this is a payment. Another reason that this can happen is when a cashier inputs a competitor coupon as "Grocery Non Food" and the tax is subtracted "T".

So whenever this does happen and the message appears, just look at the screen on your side. Look at the total before tax and ask the cashier to input that number before you slide your card. This will work 99% of the time.

Sorry for being so long, hopefully that was not too confusing.

ETA: Also if you did bring your coupons up to the customer service desk to be put back onto your EBT Card, it will not work. For some reason, coupons can not be added back onto the EBT Card. Bringing up the coupons would take double the amount of time and be more confusing. :)

[rumrunnergirl]

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[cahileman]

The "F" designates it as a food coupon. When they are entering my coupons, I keep a close watch on the screen. If any start ringing up without the "F" beside them, I immediately let the cashier know. Usually they will manually enter that coupon as a food coupon and there wont be a problem. Those who don't heed my advice, ultimately end up calling a manager over and the manager tells them what I just did. Oh well!!

Hope this helps!!