Online glitch reminds us to keep cash handy

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    Like many folks, I don’t carry much cash around, thanks to my bank debit card.
    Every retail establishment, gas station and restaurant I patronize accepts them. Swipe the card, type in four numbers, decide whether you want any cash back from the transaction, and you’re all set.

    Of course, if the computer system is down or there’s a power outage, you’re stuck. If you don’t have enough cash on hand for the purchase, it could also be embarrassing. Ask anyone with an EBT card who tried to buy groceries about two weeks ago.
    Due to an attempted upgrade of the nationwide computer system, thousands of EBT cardholders in 17 states – including Maine – were stuck in checkout lines with full baskets and no way to pay for them. The system was repaired within a day, but I’m guessing there were some red faces at the vendor’s company headquarters.
    I’ve been through a few debit card glitches already this year, but they were minor compared to the EBT fiasco. About a month ago, I swiped my card at the supermarket and nothing happened. I swiped it again – zilch. On the third try, I noticed about a dozen people at other checkout counters sharing the same puzzled look.
    Fortunately, I had about $25 worth of groceries and $40 in my pocket, so I simply paid cash and left. Others may not have been so fortunate, although the system came back online a few minutes later with one caveat: it processed debit purchases as credit card transactions.
    Relying on computers to work 100 percent of the time – or be 100 percent accurate – is equivalent to walking on a tightrope. I have three or four flash drives I keep handy in my home office. Unfortunately, I don’t always keep them in the USB ports where they belong.
    We have power outages frequently in St. Albans. So when I write a story or column at home, the first thing I should do is back it up on a flash drive. Sometimes I don’t. And a few times I paid for my brain cramp by retyping the story from scratch.
    Gas stations that demand pre-payment before you pump the fuel used to irritate me. Now I understand why they do it.
    So while it’s nice to live in an electronic world, never assume it’s going to be perfect. So my advice is to keep enough cash handy to get you through the day.
    One story that made the rounds years ago was Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ remark that if automotive technology was as good as his company’s, “We would all be driving $25 cars that get 1,000 miles to the gallon.”
    General Motors responded with 10 reasons why this isn’t necessarily true, including my favorite one: “For no reason whatsoever, your car could crash twice a day.”
    Mike Lange is a staff writer with the Piscataquis Observer. His opinions are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.