"I quit taking them," Roy Clark, chief operating officer of parent company J-F Enterprises [image-nocss] Inc., Perrysburg, Ohio, told the Blade concerning accepting credit cards. He said he took the action because BP, which processes the chain's credit-card payments, has stopped reimbursing him for the transactions. But unnamed sources, while acknowledging J-F is owed money, suggested other factors may be at work, said the report.
Clark said he hopes to resolve the situation and begin accepting card payments again. Metropolitan Toledo has 38 BP stations, most operated by Barney's, said the report.
Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP in Chicago, declined to discuss reasons behind the local situation. "We don't own or operate the sites," he told the paper. "But," he added, "I'd like to apologize to customers that metro Toledo sites have not been accepting credit cards. We're working to get the situation resolved as quickly as possible."
"I'm owed $1 million," Clark said. "It sucked up my cash flow."
One person familiar with the card issue who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the paper that the problem appears to be the result of a dispute between Barney's fuel distributor and parent company in Dearborn, Mich., and its lender. Attempts by the Blade to reach the distributor, Armada Oil & Gas Co., for comment were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Barney's has sold four of its locations to Circle K, said FOX Toledo News. Managers and employees of the three locations in Bowling Green, Ohio, and one store in Waterville, Ohio, told the news outlet that they will switch from Barney's to Circle K this week.
Circle K is the U.S. unit of Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.
Attempts by CSP Daily News to reach BP, Barney's/J-F Enterprises and Circle K were also unsuccessful by press time.
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