Here’s an annoyance which has happened one time too many.
The problem of disappearing cash register receipts!
I have been in the middle of a long project for which I need to save receipts (both for tax purposes and in case things need to be returned), and when I was going through receipts yesterday, I found several had become completely unreadable — one of them being just a complete blank.
The problem seems to be thermal paper, and one small business blogger advises that it is not enough to save receipts; you should always make copies:
If you buy anything from Best Buy that you might need to return in the future, make a photocopy of your receipt right after you’ve made your purchase and staple the original receipt to the photocopy. The reason: Best Buy receipts are printed on thermal paper with ink that fades so badly that they become unreadable. That makes them unusable to prove the date of purchase if an item goes bad while it’s still under the manufacturer’s warranty.
This wasn’t Best Buy; the disappearing ink seems to be a conspiracy involving most of the major chains. Might they be deliberately making it more difficult for people to bring things back?
Or, if we want to get really conspiratorial, could the IRS be working behind the scenes to encourage the disappearance of records that would support tax deduction claims? An H&R Block adviser relates how a customer lost a deduction precisely because of this problem:
If you have any thermal receipts copy or scan them as they will fade and then you have no hope of using them. I lost a $600 rental expense at an audit because my client had the thermal receipt but it was unreadable. The thermal paper is very sensitive and does not preserve well.
Sheesh, what a hassle! Especially for people who pay for things in cash. However, I would be willing to bet that the FBI forensics people have ways to read these receipts if the goal were to put someone in jail! Come to think of it, I bet IRS would use the same forensic techniques if they really wanted to….
Might there be a disappearing ink double standard?
The business blogger noticed the same thing I did yesterday; that it doesn’t take much time for this to happen:
It doesn’t take the receipts very long to fade, either. A new computer I purchased from them about two months ago has been making a lot of noise on startup and then shutting itself off after a period of time. When I looked for the receipt in my files, I had trouble finding it because the ink had already faded so much that part of it is unreadable. The date on the receipt is almost totaly rubbed off, and the year part of the date is rubbed off. (You can see the 0 for 06, but not the 6). I can’t make out the actual price I paid for the computer, either. I looked at a few other receipts I have for equipment purchased at the store over the last couple of years, and those are all but blank.
I find that folding them and putting them in a pocket or wallet only seems to exacerbate the problem.
As a libertarian I am always hesitant to call for more laws, although the post argues that this practice should be illegal:
Frankly, I think there ought to be a law against using ink that fades on receipts. But until there is, protect yourself by making a photocopy of original receipts from Best Buy and any other store that print receipts on the thin, somewhat shiny paper that’s characteristic of thermal printing.
All talk of legislation aside, I would genuinely like to know why they do this. To save money? You would think that technology could come up with a thermal ink that does not disappear.
Some people say that you can make receipts reappear by heating them up; I tried that on my blank one and it did nothing. Another site recommends using ultraviolet light.
What’s worse is that on some of them, the information has not so much faded away as it has been smeared away. If you fold the receipt against itself, put it in your wallet and walk around, it self-erases as you walk!
I guess I should be more attentive to detail, and scan receipts daily, but it’s just too much trouble.
And I once thought invisible ink was a toy for kids.
It’s for everyone now!
Comments
4 responses to “Beware of invisible ink!”
I’ve had the exact same problem. I’ve also had receipts on thermal paper where the entire receipt turned gray or black because of heat exposure, which obscured the information contained thereupon (love that word). I think scanning or photocopying the receipts is a generally good idea, not necessarily because the store will accept the copy (I suspect most won’t), but because you will have a record of the transaction information, which most stores can use to look up your transaction.
The entire point of a thermal printer is to not use ink at all, but to use heat-sensitive paper (thus thermal printer) and a print-head that heats it, rather than transferring ink.
If they’re printing using ink on a thermal roll (rather than sources confusing a thermal mark with “ink”), that’s just madness.
All sorts of things can cause the marks to fade.
There’s no need for conspiracy theorizing, either; the fact that they’re very fast, very quiet, and require basically no maintenance (vs. ribbons or ink cartridges) explains their immense popularity for receipt printers.
(Roll-printing laser printers might be possible, but they’d be expensive, larger than is wanted, and you’d need to watch toner levels…)
(I second what John S. said.)
Hmmm… No wonder receipts fare so poorly in the sun.
The principle is the same as invisible ink (if in reverse), as the paper is covered with its own form of invisible ink, and when it is heated (which it is by the register print head), the portions which are struck appear — leaving the rest of the paper still ready to turn dark on exposure to heat.
There are web sites explaining how to extract the “invisible ink” from thermal paper and use it in the same way you would use ordinary invisible ink — except it works better!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Super-simple-heat-activated-invisible-ink-not-lem/
As someone noted, thermal paper is pretty good, economical and the printer is simpler.
Most receipts, probably north of 95% are thrown out immediately or within 30 days or so which makes thermal perfectly fine.
But it is not permanent. One store, perhaps it was Western Auto?, says right on their receipts that if permanent copies are desired, the receipt needs to be copied.
And yes, I find it a pain in the ass too.
John Henry