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While in business for over two decades Intrigue Jewelers experienced no issues with our credit card procedures
until recently. Though out the span of two months there were two different customers who fraudulently caused
our business charge backs and a loss of valuable merchandise. Our merchant service provider did not follow
up on what we provided to the card processor, that all charge backs were immediately paid for in full, which
cause our business to be placed on the Match List.
Match is a death sentence for any business!!!! Our credit card processing was terminated because Intrigue
Jewelers was now on Match. Majority of our daily sales come from credit card transactions, this in turn caused
a lot of stress and frustration. In turn we had to find an alternative method for our credit card transactions.
which we found through Square. This alternative method was extremely costly and time consuming.
Thanks to Joe Radest- 1ststeptechnologies, our life saver, who went above and beyond to get us off the
Match list. Words cannot describe how much we appreciate all his hard work and dedication to helping us. In
addition, a special thank you to Anish Desai- Star Gems for recommending Joe Radest.

hat would your jewelry store do if one day your merchant high ticket watch two months earlier which now comes back as a
services account was terminated and you could not chargeback. The sale amount was $15K. That one sale accounted
Waccept any payment cards? Even worse, you tried to for 16.7% of the monthly volume in the month the chargeback was
open another merchant account only be told you’re on MATCH and recorded. Forget the 1% - 2% range - you blew right past it.
declined. What do you do?
One transaction generally should not trigger the risk level at the
The prior questions are very serious, yet overlooked by so many card processor but 1 or more additional chargebacks can! Your
merchants today. Few realize what MATCH means and the processor should be requesting sales details on every chargeback
implications. Even fewer understand how to mitigate if they find to help you defend it. With every chargeback dispute, a merchant
their business on MATCH. has 15 days to submit their reply (defense) against it. If you do not
respond, the chargeback will become final and the provision credit
MATCH is the Member Alert to Control High Risk, better
given to the cardholder will become permanent. If the chargeback
known as the Terminated Merchant File list. A business can be
dispute is ruled against you, it counts. This is where merchants
listed on MATCH for excessive fraud, identify theft, or fraudulent
overlook, or do not understand the chargeback rules. Few payment
transactions committed by the merchant. The most common listing
professionals advise you on how to handle sales, when to validate,
is excessive fraud which results from chargeback disputes. Almost
and how to validate. In jewelry, fraudulent transactions do occur.
all jewelers have experienced a chargeback at one time or another.
I have spoken at JCK and regional conferences, the smash and
It doesn’t take much to get listed. The card associations – Visa,
grab robber is the stupid one. The smart criminals are the ones who
MasterCard & Discover primarily have set a membership rule that
steal without the jeweler realizing it until it’s a month or two later
chargeback thresholds should not exceed 1% of your transactional
via chargeback! The financial consequences and your insurance
and volume dollars processed in any given month. The 1% ratio
coverage will come into play between the two thieves. Which one
is more like a guideline with very little enforcement being applied
is covered and which one is probably not?
to merchants who exceed that ratio but remain under 2%. Yet
with jewelry it doesn’t take much to move into the volume dollar Back to Match, your processor notifies you, because of Excessive
processed range. Take for example, your store averages $90K Fraud “chargebacks” they are placing your business on MATCH and
monthly in sales processed by credit & debit cards. You sold a your merchant account has been terminated. That is your notice.
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