How to Read Worn Out Thermal Print Receipt

Faded receipts and proof of purchase

Thermal receipts fade, but that doesn't mean your rights do.

Last updated: 28 December 2015

You might have noticed that many retailers are getting rid of ink printers and replacing them with faster, less expensive thermal ones. To print a thermal receipt, a heated stylus passes over thermal paper, which is coated in a chemical that darkens when heated.

Unfortunately, the chemical layer remains active after the receipt is produced, so it's sensitive to low-cal, heat, friction, abrasives and plastics, and can fade or darken chop-chop.

On this page:

• Receipt rights
• Other examples of proof of purchase
• Stop receipts from fading
• Take receipt photos with an app
• Putting retailers to the test
• Complaints about fading receipts

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How practice I know if I have a thermal receipt?

To cheque, scratch a bare part with a fingernail and look for the tell-tale blackness marker.

Receipt rights

While it's alarming to pull a receipt from your wallet after a few months and discover it has magically turned into a blank piece of paper, don't panic! A faded receipt doesn't necessarily mean the expiry knell of your tax records, return rights or warranty periods. If a receipt is faded beyond recognition (or if yous've lost your original receipt), there are other means of providing proof of purchase.

Which is lucky because while the Australian Consumer Constabulary (ACL), businesses must provide consumers with a proof of transaction for goods or services valued at $75 or more (or for a less expensive buy by asking), there's cipher in the legislation that specifies how that receipt should be printed and in that location's no legal onus for a receipt to be remain legible later on the initial auction.

"At that place'southward nothing in legislation that prevents retailers from providing receipts that may fade," says Grant Rasmussen, director of investigations at the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. "Nosotros were hopeful in that location would be advances in the quality of thermal paper then that receipts final longer, simply I don't think we're seeing those advances as nevertheless. The retailers are aware of our concerns."

Other examples of proof of buy

Constitute a piece of blank paper where your receipt used to be? Never fear there are enough of other means to provide proof of your transaction.

According to NSW Fair Trading examples of proof include:

• credit card or debit card statements
• handwritten receipts
• lay-by agreements
• a confirmation or receipt number provided for a telephone or internet transaction
• loyalty menu recordings
• photos or photocopies

Finish receipts from fading

For the all-time take a chance of keeping thermal receipts legible for a few years, you need to store them correctly:

• Don't store receipts in plastic sleeves.
• Do store receipts abroad from heat and light.

Just sometimes at that place's not much that tin exist done to preclude the decay.

Ultimately, the all-time way of keeping thermal receipts is to brand a copy of them. Photocopies should suffice as proof of buy, according to consumer rights experts CHOICE spoke with, but we've heard of some stores (contrary to Australian Consumer Law) refusing to laurels them. For these cases, the original receipt stapled to the copy and/or a complaint to the ACCC should piece of work better.

Take receipt photos with an app

Got a smartphone or tablet? So do yourself a favour quick smart and download the free ACCC Shopper app. The app allows yous to have photos of your receipts and store them it also has handy info on your consumer rights as well as running alerts for when your souvenir cards expire.

Other departments of fair trading and consumer affairs take released their own versions of the app, including NSW Fair Trading's ShopSmart, Queensland'south BuySmartQld and Victoria'south MyShopRights.

Putting retailers to the test

In May 2013, Selection asked shadow shopper Lisa (not her real proper noun) to contact five stores. Lisa told them she had bought an item that was faulty, simply her receipt had faded before she had an opportunity to return it. Here are her experiences:

• At Myer, Lisa's story met with niggling resistance. "The receipts do fade, they don't final forever," a Myer customer service amanuensis acknowledged. "Yous should photocopy them." The agent told Lisa she could utilise a tape of her credit carte du jour transaction, her MYER I (Myer's loyalty plan) buy history or the date of the purchase every bit proof of buy, and Myer would attempt to reprint the original receipt.
• Similarly, JB Hi-Fi was willing to reprint a receipt if enough information could be gathered from the original, or if a bank argument was provided.
• Bunnings told Lisa it could utilise the original receipt's data or a credit card/bank statement to reprint the receipt, but only at the manager'southward discretion.
• When Lisa approached Coles with her problem, she was told the supermarket can reprint receipts if there's enough data on the original, or search for the receipt using information such as the shop the item was purchased from and date of purchase. Flybuys, Coles' loyalty plan, likewise records a transaction history and tin exist used to reprint receipts.
• Woolworths offered to provide a copy of the receipt if the transaction time was available, but otherwise offered to swap Lisa's faulty production for a new one without proof of purchase.

Complaints most fading receipts

When nosotros asked CHOICE members what they thought of fading receipts, the response was vocal.

• "If the warranty is for two years, printing a receipt that lasts about three months is in my opinion like printing a legal contract in disappearing ink!" says Simone Johnston.
• Nicole Lewis had an issue returning goods to one store with a photocopied receipt. "We photocopied a receipt like some of the stores tell us to do, but when we went to return a faulty product to Target, it said it doesn't accept photocopied receipts."
• "I had issues with a receipt that was left in a hot machine one time and went blackness straightaway. I didn't even get the chance to scan that i!" says Ray Joeh.
• "What if you don't have a scanner, computer or smartphone?" asks Wendy Lindsay. "Why should I have to pay to have a receipt photocopied because businesses are besides stingy to go rid of thermal printers? I have a lot of problems with fading receipts as I live in the torrid zone. Receipts are lucky to last six months."

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Source: https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/your-rights/buying-guides/faded-receipts

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