Kennedy Jones
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, Nov. 15, several Jackson State University students were hit with unexpected charges to their bank accounts leaving many confused and upset.
“Initially, I thought somebody had stolen my debit card information. But as the day went on I found out that I wasn’t the only one who had all of these charges on their account,” said Ashli Coggins, a junior mass communication major from West Point, Miss.
Charges on the student’s accounts came from on-campus dining services such as Burger King, Starbucks, Heritage Dining Hall, and the Legacy food court. These charges varied by the student and dated all the way back Sept. 29. Some students were hit with several charges at once resulting in their accounts being put in the negatives.
Chelsey Jones, a sophomore mass communication major from Memphis, Tenn. was one of the students whose account was charged.
“I looked on my banking app and noticed that I had four charges from Burger King on my account on Nov. 14. I did not visit Burger King this day and I want to know where these charges came from,” said Jones.
Students were not the only ones affected however, anyone who used a debit card at the affected dining locations was charged as well.
As more people started to notice that their accounts had been charged, the demand for an explanation became overwhelming.
On Thursday Nov. 17, SodexoMagic, JSU’s campus dining service provider, released a statement via email stating the following:
“Due to a technical difficulty, some of the credit and debit card transactions made at the Legacy, Heritage, Burger King, and Starbucks locations during the time period of Thursday, September 29th through Friday, November 11, 2016, have not been processed properly and therefore have resulted in an untimely processing and posting to the customer’s account. To this end, on Friday, November 11, 2016 the credit card clearing house processed the batch for these purchases that never “hit” your credit card or bank account.”
Maya Hughes, a senior industrial technology major from Memphis, Tenn. was not satisfied with their response.
“Honestly, I feel as though they made us feel like we were the irresponsible adult’s when in actuality, they were,” said Hughes.
On the other hand, Jauan Knight, a junior political science major from Jackson, Miss., believes that students need to monitor their finances closely.
“To be completely honest it is a terribly unfortunate situation, however, people have to be a little more cognizant when it comes to their finances. If you have been spending money all semester and no money has been leaving your account, you should have noticed. If your account has fraudulent and duplicate charges, however, that is another issue altogether,” stated Knight.
Instead of looking at the situation from a negative point of view, Coggins looks at it as a lesson learned.
“It was a scandal and a shame, but it has happened before in other places. It could have been worse, but I feel like this type of adversity will help us to be safer and aware of things like this in the future.”
SodexoMagic is currently working on correcting the problem and has begun to reach out to financial intuitions to make them aware of the technical difficulty.
If a student has a question about the validity of the charges, they should speak to SodexoMagic General Manager Chris Mongeon at 601-979-3999.
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