For the past several weeks, we’ve seen multiple stories about gun-related businesses getting treated shabbily by financial software company Intuit.
It all started when Gunsite Academy was contacted by Intuit—the parent of TurboTax and QuickBooks—and told that there was concern because it believed Gunsite made gun sales made directly to customers. The only problem with that? Gunsite doesn’t ship firearms directly to customers. It ships firearms to a local FFL dealer near the customer’s home.
Intuit failed to appreciate the nuance and informed Gunsite that it would no longer do business with the Arizona-based company. As a result, it stopped processing credit card payments. The fact that some of the sales were from t-shirts, coffee mugs, hats and stickers from Gunsite’s Pro Shop didn’t matter. Some sales were from Gunsite’s various training classes, too.
“It’s fine, it’s capitalism, and if you don’t want to do business with us, we don’t want to do business with you,” Gunsite COO Ken Campbell told the New York Post.
But to make matters worse, Intuit didn’t release the money from credit card charges back to Gunsite. Instead, it went ahead and credited the money back to customers. Therefore, Gunsite had to track down customers to get them to pay their bills for services rendered. Gunsite had just switched credit card processors to Intuit this past spring.
Lone Wolf Distributors and Flint River Armory reported a similar story about Intuit. Honor Defense had its own headache with regard to Intuit.
There is a bit of good news, however: after the story went viral, Gunsite has just announced that it has received “fair compensation” from Intuit for the “untold man hours” spent sorting this mess out.
“They wanted us to educate them about the gun industry, and they said they were trying to comply with the requirements of their finance partner,” Campbell told the Post in a separate article.
“We have resolved the issue with them and made them whole,” added Rob Lanesey, Intuit’s chief communications officer. “That is all about the experience they went through.”
Here’s Gunsite’s statement below:
Gunsite Academy’s Intuit Statement
On Tuesday afternoon June 12, 2018, Intuit contacted Gunsite again and offered a fair compensation for the losses experienced by Gunsite Academy, Inc. for the many hours spent sorting this issue out. This offer was made in good faith and not in response to threats of litigation, etc. They explained they were trying to make things right with Gunsite.
Gunsite appreciates the remuneration made by Intuit to help defray our costs and more importantly we hope that the experience will help them better understand the firearms industry and how sales are made. The firearms industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries and the customer base must follow stringent federal and state regulations as all retail transactions are face-to-face, including a mandatory Federal NICS background check.
Thanks are also offered to the Gunsite customers and firearms industry partners for their patience and support during this time. The “Gunsite Family” and firearms industry were very supportive from “re-paying” their bills to contacting Intuit expressing their frustration and displeasure.
We look forward to having this issue behind us and refocusing our energies and efforts to continue to offer the best world class firearms and safety training.
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