Uh, some people really should leave home without it

Amex Sues (customer) CEO Over $241,000 Topless Bill

Yet another example of Corporate Excess and stupidity in the U.S.A. - Apparently the CEO of the company Savvis Inc., one Mr. Robert A. McCormick went clubbing with a few friends in a strip club by the name of Scores back in October 2003. That part does not seem to be in dispute.

What is in dispute, however, is the size of the bill that was run up, and the fact that to this point Mr. McCormick has apparently not paid his bill, or at least Savvis Inc. hasn't paid the bill run up by it's CEO.

Some folks might recognize part of the headline as an old American Express commercial/advertisement tag-line: "Don't Leave Home Without It" -- unless your name is Robert A. McCormick and you don't mind running up bills and then later disputing the charges.

The whole case brings up a host of questions about why someone would even have the ability to run up charges over $241,000 on a credit card that has to be paid off at the end of every month (American Express typically does not work as a revolving charge card, they send you a statement for the entire bill for a month's charges and the balance in full is to be paid off once the statement arrives).

For Mr. McCormick to run up charges in the amounts listed in the original article below (headline will be linked), he had to have some impressive credit history with American Express. Probably not that tough if it was a Corporate card (which it seems to have been) and if he used it frequently, but then again $241,000 worth of charges in a single day would be pretty darned impressive and should have raised many flags. Read the original article in it's entirety for more details on why it would seem that Mr. McCormick has no legs to stand on (though perhaps for his money he bought himself a nice stripper pole from the club) in this dispute.

Either way, it seems to be yet another fine example of a grossly over-paid CEO, given excess and debauchery in one night that is on the order of 6 to 8 times what an average employee in this country might earn. I wonder if the teachers he had along the way -- you know, fine people that earn lowly wages in the $30,000 - $45,000 neighborhood -- feel good about the fact that one of their former students is wasting that much money in just one night out.

Hmmm, where do I find the line to support taxing exorbitant incomes on CEOs again? I just might be ready to support such an effort, at least for ones that demonstrate such (alleged) complete stupidity.

Amex Sues (a corporate customer) CEO Over $241,000 Topless Bill

By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer

American Express is suing the CEO of a communications company for payment of $241,000 worth of disputed credit card charges at a Manhattan topless club.
American Express says in papers filed in state court that Savvis Inc. chief executive officer Robert A. McCormick was in the club Scores in October 2003 with at least three other men.
After McCormick got the $241,000 corporate credit card bill, Savvis called American Express and complained that some of the charges were fraudulent, the lawsuit says. The communications company said its chief disputed all but about $20,000, according to the lawsuit.
"We firmly believe that Mr. McCormick was the victim of fraud," said Deena Williamson, Savvis's deputy general counsel. She declined to comment further.
Lonnie Hanover, a Scores spokesman, said he had not talked to all of the employees involved with McCormick and could not say what the CEO purchased.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday against McCormick and Savvis is at least the third in the past two years involving contested credit card charges at Scores. One patron sued the club after he got a $28,000 bill and another disputed $129,000 in charges.
After a lawsuit last year, Hanover said that "high rollers" visiting Scores' "super elite Presidents' Club" spend thousands of dollars on single bottles of champagne and tip strippers as much as $10,000 for lap dances and for spending time with them.
The district attorney's office has said it is investigating alleged overcharging at Scores.
Hanover said that each time a patron spends $10,000, Scores calls the customer's credit card company to get the charges approved. Scores even fingerprints the customer and requires him to get on the telephone with a credit card representative, he said.
"We got authorization for all of the charges," Hanover said of McCormick's visit. "We followed proper procedures and documentation, and we were paid."
Court papers say American Express asked McCormick several times to provide in writing his basis for calling the charges fraudulent. McCormick failed to respond, and when he was billed again he once again objected to the charges, the lawsuit says.

... more at linked article

emphasis added

I would also call attention to the idea that Scores has had multiple cases of such fraud reported, in numbers that are pretty darned obscene. Personally I hope they did follow their procedures in each case, and I hope the guilty parties are nailed to the wall for the charges they ran up. Not that I'm that big a fan of strip clubs and such, but it's pretty darned stupid that anyone would go to such a place, run up charges like these, let themselves be fingerprinted and provide verbal authorization to representatives of credit card companies and then try to dispute the charges as fraudulent.

It really must be nice to get so filthy stinkin' drunk and stoned as to not be able to see the number of digits on the bill one is signing for....

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I have been hearing about the case, and I like your play on the motto!

It is time to leave that at home!

Funny tho, I have found AMEX to be the easiest to yank a charge! So far, only one has not been okayed by them, and that was I finally got the merchandise 2 weeks after my complaint, but before the dispute was resolved.

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He must have swam around the the champagne room all night one guesses.

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I used to work at AMEX's merchant services department, and we took fraud disputes very seriously. Let's try to dissect this situation, shall we?

"We got authorization for all of the charges," Hanover said of McCormick's visit. "We followed proper procedures and documentation..."

It is the merchant's responsibility to prove the charges were valid. Scores needs to come up with documentation for each transaction (assuming they were multiple transactions) and show that approval (either over the phone or through the POS terminal) was received.

...and we were paid."

That doesn't mean crap. The merchant is paid no matter what; it is an automatic computer function and does not consider the vailidity of the credit card charges. What would happen if the charges were found to be fraudulent in the course of the dispute? AMEX would yank the money from Scores' next automatic deposit. That would be fun for their accountants... try and track where that $241k went, some three months after the fact and with no warning. (We got a lot of those calls, too.)

I have found AMEX to be the easiest to yank a charge!

AMEX is notorious with merchants to really believe the cardholder over the business, though it's in each's best interest to lie/fabricate/exaggerate. That;s why AMEX puts the onus on the merchant, since ultimately it's his money and merchandise/services to lose.

Not that I'm that big a fan of strip clubs and such, but it's pretty darned stupid that anyone would go to such a place, run up charges like these, let themselves be fingerprinted and provide verbal authorization to representatives of credit card companies and then try to dispute the charges as fraudulent.

I remember working with a Nashville strip club that was proud to have Troy Aikman as a frequent customer. They had to go back and plumb the depths of that night's receipts and till takes in order to reconstruct exactly what Mr. Aikman did and did not do. Ultimately, the bar took Mr. Aikman's bill and was forced to throw it away. Yes, strip clubs are notorious for fraud, as well as internet sites and mail-order companies. That's why Scores has to basically get retinal eye-scans and affidavits from customers' attorneys in order to buy a round of drinks. Scores is just trying to cover its corporate ass and avoid a chargeback. Especially one for $241,000.

Incidentally, is this the same Scores that Howard Stern frequents with his entourage?

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Kind of validates my experiences.

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Stories like demonstrate that wealth and good judgement aren't mutually inclusive.

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