Firehouse Fitness sounds alarm for 7 On Your Side when member dues don't make it into new account
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) -- A retired New Jersey Police Chief and fitness buff opened his dream business with a partner- a fitness center.
Marty Khan opened Firehouse Fitness in Jersey City Heights earlier this summer in a historic firehouse on Palisades Avenue.
But soon after their grand opening, their first month of membership dues got arrested by their credit card processor for risk monitoring.
When they couldn't pay their bills at Firehouse Fitness, they sounded an alarm for Nina Pineda and 7 On Your Side.
"It's pretty scary, and its nerve wracking," said Kahn.
It's safe to say it's hard to scare this gym owner. After all, he was the police chief i Fairview, New Jersey and is a competitive body builder.
But his brand-new startup, Firehouse Fitness, was on a thin red line.
"Right now, they are holding probably $50,000 of ours," said the co-owner of Firehouse Fitness.
They had so many people sign up for automatic monthly payments that their merchant services company, which charges the cards on autofill, flagged the funds for fraud.
"Risk monitoring is supposedly investigating, (but) they're supposed to set up an appointment with us within two to three business day and nothing, no phone call, no email- nothing!" said Kahn. "We have not received a deposit since August 8. We got rent, bills, salary, and there's no money to pay these people."
You may recognize Marty; he gave us his chief hat for a day to a young boy with a rare disease and was featured on Channel 7 back in 2016.
The Chief sent a request to 7 on Your Side days before payroll was due.
We connected with Fiserv, the parent company Card Pointe, and 24 hours later all of their funds were released- about $50,000!
"We are overjoyed and relieved, thank you 7 on Your Side!"
7 on Your Side reached out to Fiserv for comment.
"We sincerely regret the inconvenience to Mr. Kahn and will be refunding the fees for our service as a gesture of apology," they said.
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