GymJunkies.com Takes A Hard Hit from Amex

Have you ever wondered what would happen if your primary payment processor went on the fritz or decided not to play ball any longer? Well GymJunkies.com recently discovered that their payment processor, American Express, decided to put them on an exclusive list that bars it from taking payments. No more sales, no more billing.

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GymJunkies which sells fitness-related goods and services hit a wall. Hard.

What List Did GymJunkies Join?

It’s great to be considered one of the cool kids. At school we kinda wanted that and it may not have happened as we would have wanted it. No matter. We can join a cool list and feel better. Or… not.

In the case of GymJunkies, the list they joined was a MATCH aka TMF list that’s also known by its longer name: Terminated Merchant File. That’s one list that you never wish to be on.

What Is a MATCH?

A match is usually based around merchants that have done something wrong. The easiest way to get on there is through a fraudulent series of transactions or excessive chargebacks from customers. Every payment processor has their own acceptable level of chargebacks and this is worth looking over.

GymJunkies Called Amex

The owner of GymJunkies called up Amex Customer Services to try to get to the bottom of it. He spoke to a Miss Trutti who informed him that a standards violation had occurred. There were no losses shown on the account though which means that no fraud had likely happened to create a negative balance.

With the Amex blocking, GymJunkies was unable to take payments through them but also a future merchant application with VISA or MasterCard was unlikely to succeed either because of the MATCH status at Amex. No charges for fitness training or merchandise could be made. GymJunkies had zero income coming in and no way to bill their clients.

Time for the Lawyers

Eugene Rome of Rome and Associates was hired to represent GymJunkies against Amex. They specialize in payment processing problems. Ultimately, GymJunkies sued Amex.

Amex’s first attorney from Shook Hardy and Bacon said that they didn’t know why the company was put on the list. Later, the attorney for the firm was removed and Siena Caruso stepped in. This lawyer merry-go-round happened again and StroockLavan were then hired by Amex.

And eventually…

What Happened Next?

With the higher-powered lawyers who stepped in and Amex taking things more seriously, finally enough smart people looked at the case and made some discoveries. It turned out that someone had taken the identity of the GymJunkies owner, used a fake SSN to obtain additional cards using their name, then charged a bunch of stuff and then charged them back.

Amex didn’t just go away quietly; they filed four lawsuits through various subsidiaries along the way. They wanted GymJunkies to drop their lawsuit or they threatened to tie the case up for months or years in arbitration. The battle continues on between GymJunkies and Amex into month nine. The business is not able to process payments and is effectively stuck. The company is asking for the support of the wider internet community on the issues this problem has raised.

It could happen to your business too.