Consumer campaign to keep receiving printed till receipts looks like a good move – on paper

Re: Amazing technology

"If I need to go back to a retailer for any aspect of customer service I can put the receipt in my pocket and show it immediately"

Except with so many receipts, the crappy printing process / ink / paper they use means the text fades after a few months. Even if it's for a product under warranty for years.

(I've actually had a retail store clerk recommend to me to photocopy the receipt if I wanted it to be still readable after a while)

Re: Amazing technology

I wonder which is faster - Booting up a laptop/phone and starting an e-mail client/application or browsing through 100s of faded paper receipts in a drawer to find the one you are looking for. I somewhat doubt you are using the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

I agree the paper copy should be always available as an option, but make it an opt-in, rather than opt-out similar to how most self-checkouts now ask you if you want a receipt at the end, instead of automatically spewing one, just to remain discarded there or instantly binned.

Re: Amazing technology

I'm struggling to understand why you'd complain about the boot up time of your email application and ignore the time it takes to find a receipt for the dodgy hard drive you bought in mid-October last year and want to return before the warranty expires?

The huge advantage of digital receipts is searchability. Worried about spam? Then sign up using an email address that you only use for receipts.

Re: Universal store card

Or just have the till edit a programmable RFID with the transaction details on it - wave your phone over it and the phone grabs the details and stores the receipt in your own device, synched to whichever data-slurper you want, but encrypted and the store has nothing on you.

Have to agree that giving email details to a store to get a receipt is not what I want, but paper ones do tend to get lost/torn/wiped clean by the ravages of time (I have lots of blank receipts, it would seem).

Re: Universal store card

That would be very easy, but do you want all the junk marketing that will come with it?

Re: Universal store card

" the receipts could be encrypted"

It wouldn't matter if it was encrypted, just the information on where it came from would be valuable enough. But if you're encrypting it for the store to have access, then you cannot make this anonymous or encrypted.

"a mountain of your data"

You'd trust this all to some third party? This data would be a goldmine. You trust that third party to not have a peek at it? You trust them to secure it adequately so it doesn't get stolen?

And how would it all be paid for?

Re: Universal store card

"Could some sort of independent and universal store card work?"

I suppose it could, technically, but I certainly wouldn't use it. I'm not willing to use "loyalty cards" due to privacy concerns as it is, and a universal store card like that would amplify the privacy risk by orders of magnitude.

My reply is usually a stern "you don't need my email address."

Over here in Murica there used to be a "zip code please?" request when purchasing. If using anonymous cash I typically would reply either "60606" (somewhere in Chicago) or the zip code which just happened to belong to the entirety of a large local corporation once famous around the world for capturing your life's moments.

Re: Digital receipts have their uses

I have found that Screwfix are actually one of the worst offenders for trying to get your email address out of you, one branch in particular. Every time I shop in any branch of Screwfix they always ask for my email address, but this one branch is notorious, and unfortunately the closest one to my work. Once time I went in to buy a back of nuts and bolts, worth about £3.50 for which I was paying for in actual beer tokens, and the first thing the assistant asked me for was my email address. The very first thing, before I had even told them what i wanted. When I politely declined to reveal my email address, he looked at me as though I had two heads, and insisted that he needed my email address, or, and I quote, "my receipt would not be valid". Seriously.

Now, I don't know who told him to state such utter, bare-faced crap, but I suspect that it was his manager, who in turn is under pressure from his bosses to slurp up as many email addresses as possible; maybe his annual bonus is based on such metrics. In subsequent visits to the same branch, I have not been told the same porkies, but I have seen that in order to buy anything without giving your email, the manager has to be called over to enter his super-secret access code to allow the till to process it.

Yeah but don't worry, the ICO is here to make sure all that data is used correctly!

They could solve the email problem if they'd work with cell phone makers to incorporate NFC receipts. Then there would be a benefit for us as well, since all the receipts could be stored together (on the phone) rather than having to dig through email to find them.

But another problem is they expect you to hand over your phone when they need to look at the receipts. I don't want to hand my phone to a stranger to get out the door at Sam's Club.

Re: The problem is there's no defined standard, so it's roll-your-own (again)

In order to not be challenged it would need to be digitally signed otherwise you could be accused of editing it. You would also need to be able to verify the signature. You would need all that before you leave the counter. It's hardly a speedy way to achieve throughput at the store.

Re: The problem is there's no defined standard, so it's roll-your-own (again)

One other really important consideration - is that you need to be able to create an offline store for your emails, otherwise you can't access it when email is not accessible or your email account is removed / moved. If you don't have full offline access to your own data, you have no control over it.

Re: The problem is there's no defined standard, so it's roll-your-own (again)

"I want a PDF that I can save."

No thanks. I want a file format that's actually accessible. PDFs are the second worse possible repository for any kind of data. (Just after a scanned jpeg).

"So whatever codes or data it needs to carry to convince the retailer it's genuine is the job of the retailer to provide."

All it needs is a unique sale code that can be cross referenced with the retailer's own data.

Re: The problem is there's no defined standard, so it's roll-your-own (again)

>4) It should need no more data from me beyond an email address.

Shouldn't need any data from me. It is a given that the person in possession of the receipt is either the original purchaser or their representative.

Currently, the receipt will give last four digits of the payment card or says 'cash'. This is currently sufficient for returns/refunds so don't see a need for any additional personal information.

5) It needs to be in a form that will readily satisfy expense claims and HMRC. ie. I hate having to print out a load of e-receipts to attach to expense claim.

6) Additionally, it would be useful to be able to file it with any associated paperwork eg. guarantee/warranty, support agreement...

The real problem with e-anything is that increasingly, it assumes a person will have their entire life in their pocket on a smart phone. Given smart phones (as generally known) are just over 12 years old, there is alot to be said for the humble paper receipt - I've got the original receipt for some furniture my grandparents purchased back in the 1920's - not much use? very useful for an insurance claim or evidencing providence for auction...

That's quite a significant asterisk there for a lot of people. Receipts are no problem as long as you have Camscanner too.

"I'm trying to remember the last time I actually needed a receipt and I'm coming up blank."

Look on it as a backup. You want to never have to use it but if you do have to you're in trouble if you don't have it.

>I'm trying to remember the last time I actually needed a receipt and I'm coming up blank.

There are two things here, the times you've actually needed a receipt eg. return of goods, and those times where a receipt is useful, like when making an insurance claim - something you hope never to have to do, but...

A month ago, the local Tesco put a ?detection gate? at the exit to the self-service tills. It decided to beep when I left. (Shrapnel probably - during the war, I took an arrow to the knee.) The security guard monitoring it wanted to see the receipt before he was convinced I wasn't a hoodlum.

I came to the same realization decades ago, and that's when I stopped keeping receipts (except for transactions on behalf of my business or transactions involving a lot of money). It has never been a problem.

It's not a perception - it's the fucking reason!

We all know why shops started doing this, and it's not the horrible costs of paper till rolls. It's to harvest a massive number of email addresses. And that's proved by the fact that nobody asks you if you want to get junkmail when they ask for your email for a receipt - and the first email you get when you do is always a sort of welcome to you and why not have a look at our latest offers thing, and only then comes the email with the receipt. Usually followed by a voucher the next week - or just a general marketing email.

Which is why I only accept electronic receipts if I want the marketing. But all that marketing is still illegal, because they've asked for my email for a specific reason, then used it for marketing. I don't think I've ever been asked. Though I got an e-receipt from one of those gadget shops at Christmas, interested to see what offers I'd get, and they're the only one that didn't send me any junk email, just the receipt. So kudos to them.

Re: Paperless Office

>Result: more trees destroyed to make virgin white fanfold paper that mostly got immediately binned

This isn't a totally bad thing...

The Woodland Trust, whilst it maintains ancient woodlands, has recognised that for woodlands to exist, there is a certain amount of active management required. So using some paper means that someone is having to plant and maintain some commercial forestry.

Another example is the cork Oaks, with the increased usage of plastic corks many cork oaks are now effectively worthless and so get grubbed up...

Where I work we adopted electronic payslips a number of years ago. Notifications via email, but everything held online and accessed via a secure website. Actually works quite well, but I suspect that the quality of the experience depends a lot on the quality of the implementation of whatever system your employer uses....which will be dictated largely by how much they're willing to spend.

We had thousands of employees getting payslips snail-mailed to home, and the cost of all those stamps adds up, so I expect our HR bods had a reasonable budget for the new paperless system.

@iron

That sounds eerily familiar.

Charity (check)

Dozens of new email accounts for people that never go near computers (small charity, check)

No additional IT resources / support (check)

Re: Fade Away

So far, paper has survived few thousand of years, it is to early to say the same about digital data.

That's fine until they type in the receipt number to issue the refund and can't get a match on the system. At which point expect a nice chat while they wait for plod to arrive...

Re: When I last needed a paper receipt

The moral is always have a paper receipt when you leave the store.

I think it's Italy who where you're legally required to keep your restaurant receipt until you're at least 150m from the restaurant. Stops people doing a runner and then claiming that they did pay, but discarded the receipt.

Previous employer used Concur for expenses. We simply had to take a picture on a phone, add a few details and upload from a phone app or email it to an expenses mailbox from any registered email address.

Current employer has own system. We can only submit PDFs of receipts which means take a picture on phone. Transfer to my own PC as phones not allowed to connect to work laptop. Download to USB stick and then upload to work laptop. Create a word document, attach picture to word document and then print document to a pdf. Then open separate expense site which does not work with standard browser - and runs slower than a Pi proving Tesla's last theorem, fill in all details by hand including receipt ID number and then upload the PDF file and finally submit. Then wait a week for a rejection 'cos you haven't followed expense rules which are loosely based on the principles of Mornington Crescent...

Re: Receipt email address

One of the joys of having your own domain with a catch-all mailbox is you can tell them that your email address is thespammingc***tsatthisstorewillabusethisemailaddress@mydomain.com - it's especially joyful to ask them to read it back loudly and clearly to me to ensure they've got it correctly.

Re: And e-tickets

>I booked tickets for a local event. The email tells me I do not need to print this email just make a note of the booking reference.

The number of times, I've been glad I've just printed out the email receipt as it has contained a bar/QR code and the choice has been to either go through the door staff using readers or queue at the ticket desk where they will look up your booking...

Re: email it to the company

Great idea, then they can mail tailored promotions disclosing your personal details to an address you don't own. "Dear Mr. TomPhan, get a great deal on these essential accessories for your Excelsior Epilator Bundle Including Tight Spot Adapter (Hot Pink). Limited time offer!"