Credit service Intuit has stopped processing payments on gun purchases not conducted face to face, leaving businesses out of pocket and furious.
Intuit is used by businesses to process credit card payments, and in the event software owned by the company believed the sales were gun-related, money was credited back to the customer, The New York Post reported.
But in some cases, business owners claim purchases of t-shirts, coffee mugs or gun safety lessons were affected, and the money was returned to the customer regardless of whether the product had been received or used.
This forced business owners to track down the customer and plead for their money back.
Credit servive Intuit have stopped processing payments on all gun sales not made face to face
The company says they require face to face sales, and the customer to swipe the card – not for the number to be keyed in – for all sales of products protected under state or federal law
Intuit said in a statement on Monday while they respected the US Constitution and the rights it provided to citizens, it could not allow payments for products regulated by federal and state law to be made over the phone or over the internet.
This includes gun purchases, but also tobacco, animals, alcohol and pharmaceuticals.
‘Our company does not prohibit any of these regulated industries — including the firearms industry — from using QuickBooks for payment processing,’ the statement read.
‘However, for these transactions our bank partner requires them to be done face-to-face. To meet this requirement, our policy today requires the customer to be present to swipe their credit card.
‘When transactions are ‘keyed in’ by the vendor – including online and over the phone – Intuit cannot verify that the customer was present.’
In one case, a business owner in Arizona was told the company would no longer process payments on guns, even though buyers were having to go a background check before they could receive their weapon.
In many cases, business owners found money was being refunded back to the customer, even for services already rendered or products already shipped away
Judge Andrew Napolitano said Intuit had made a ‘terrible business decision’ with their policy
Ken Campbell owns Gunsite Academy. He provides markmanship training and sells weapons – which are shipped to a licensed gun shop near the customers home, not directly to a purchasers house.
When his payments began to bounce back to his customers, Campbell says he called Intuit, who said the company was under the impression firearms were being sent directly to customers.
But when he explained that was not the case, the company did not budge on its policy.
Judge Andrew Napolitano told Fox Business the company was well within its rights to enforce this policy, but said it was a ‘terrible business decision’.
‘They can choose their customers, their clients unless that choice is based upon some protected aspects,’ he said.
Napolitano said the company should have made the policy clearer to its clients.
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