Hay,
Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp., Stay Out Of My Business!
Who
Died And Made Them God!
An Editorial by Mike Lipshultz
|
Hay,
Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp., Stay Out Of My Business! Who
Died And Made Them God! An Editorial by Mike Lipshultz |
Here
at BizNet OnLine Magazine we believe that every business should not only adhere
to all the rules and regulations that govern their business, but should do so
very willingly and not come even close to braking the law!
We
also support the rights of every business to select who they do and do not want
as a customer.
What
we don’t like is someone putting their nose into someone else’s business,
and telling them what they can and can not do, especially when they don’t know
what they are talking about!
Well
the good folks over at Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp., appear to
believe they know more about the law then the Firearms industry does and have
moved to interfere with credit card charges made for the legal and legitimate
purchase of firearms.
Hay,
don’t care… Hate them dam gun folks…..
Well who is to say that your industry won’t be next?
Do
you want your bank to be giving you grief and aggravation and hurting your
business, because even though they are wrong, and you have tried to explain it
nicely to them, they insist on messing with your livelihood!
Hay,
Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp., why don’t you stick to the
banking business and let the Feds worry about the firearms industry!
Below
you will find more information on this sent to me by a representative of the
firearms industry.
Should
Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp., contact BizNet we will print their
response below as well.
“Hey
Mike,
At this point our goal is to educate the public, specifically members
of the firearms industry (manufacturers, retailers and distributors),
regarding the refusal of Citi Merchant Services and First Data
Corporation to process any non face to face credit card transactions
involving firearms.
This is obviously a fluid situation and the strategies that we employ
today, education, could drastically change tomorrow. No options are off
the table.
Below is a brief synopsis of the situation. Feel free to extrapolate
from this and/or quote me.
Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp. are refusing to process any
non face to face credit card transactions involving firearms. This
includes business to business transactions between federally licensed
firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers -- a move which will
severely limit available inventory of firearms to military, law
enforcement and law-abiding Americans.
The first company to be affected by this decision appears to be firearms
distributor CDNN Sports Inc.
CDNN was contacted by First Data/Citi Merchant Services and told that
their account was being terminated and funds were being seized for
selling firearms in non-face-to-face transactions -- despite the fact
that this is perfectly legal and commonplace.
After reviewing the letter (on Citi stationary) we ran in our Bullet
Points publication (and posted on our website) a statement notifying the
public of this anti-gun policy. We were then contacted by Cit Merchant
Services / First Data and asked to remove our posting from the NSSF
homepage. We asked them to send a written statement to us confirming a
change in their policy.
What we received was an e-mail in which Citi Merchant Services and First
Data sought to clarify their original statement; however, after reading
the e-mail, it was clear that no clarifiaction was needed, they actually
confirmed their anti-gun policy.
So -- we responded to them by saying that we would not remove our
posting and offered them a simple lesson in firearms law and a
backgrounder on why their policy was ignorant and dangerous.
Specifically I said:
Their anti-gun corporate policy is based on ignorance of the law as
applicable to the sale of firearms. It is perfectly legal, in fact
commonplace, for a federal firearms licensee in one state to sell a
firearm to a non-licensee (consumer) from another state. What they fail
to appreciate is that the firearm is not shipped in interstate commerce
directly to the consumer. Rather, as required by federal law, the
firearm is shipped by the selling licensee to another federal firearms
licensee in the state of residence of the consumer who is purchasing the
firearm. The consumer acquires the firearm from that licensed dealer in
a face-to-face transaction after completion of a Firearms Transaction
Record, commonly referred to as an ATF Form 4473, and a
federally-mandated background check to ensure that the purchaser is
legally permitted to buy the firearm.
Furthermore, the policy of First Data and Citi Merchant Services
interferes with the receiving and shipping of inventory from and to
federally licensed firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers.
This inventory supplies not only law-abiding Americans, but military and
law enforcement agencies as well.
As the trade association for the firearms industry, the National
Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) wants to make sure that Americans are
aware of the anti-gun business practices of these groups. And by all
means, if individuals want to voice their discontent to senior managemnt
at Citi Merchant Services / Citi Group or First Data -- we've made the
appropriate contact information available on our website www.nssf.org/
Good luck with your article, Mike.
All my best,
Ted Novin
Director of Public Affairs
National Shooting Sports Foundation
11 Mile Hill Road
Newtown, CT 06470-2359
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association of the
firearms industry.”
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| Because It's The Right Thing To Do. | ||
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