Late last week, the Mount Prospect Chamber and chambers of commerce across the country discovered that CertifiChecks, Inc. the company which administers gift certificate programs for chambers and other organizations, has ceased operations. We were not contacted directly, but rather learned of the program termination through the company’s website that a Chapter 7 filing was imminent. Numerous attempts by this organization, numerous chambers and our national trade association to reach the firm’s office and officers have been unsuccessful.

According to the official CertifiChecks company statement, any CertifiChecks gift certificates that are deposited as checks by participating merchants will be returned. This includes those issued in Mount Prospect.

To protect your company from loss, we’d ask that all businesses that accepted CertifiChecks immediately remove all related door and register decals indicating that you accept these gift certificates. All businesses should refuse to accept any CertifiChecks presented by customers.

Please advise any customers who present these certificates to contact the Chamber office and we will advise them on how to proceed to attempt to get reimbursement.

We apologize for this significant inconvenience and we share your disappointment that the program was ended without notice to us or our participating merchants. Regulatory agencies have been contacted and are examining the situation.

We will attempt to review other options such as gift cards and debit gift cards to offer to the public to encourage shopping locally.

For further information, please feel free to contact - Jim Uszler at 847-398-6616.