disappearing ink on receipts!

[erwin1978]

Do you think retail stores intentionally use disappearing ink on receipts so that when customers take them up on merchandise warranty, the store can easily deny them because they have no receipt or at least it's not visible?

I've noticed several of my receipts the print is barely visible and these receipts are only a year old. I've decided that I should at least scan them for archive so I have some sort of proof. I can at least use copies for manufacturer warranty.

My problem is I bought extended store warranty. So I do need the original receipt to bring to the store.

 

[damiano]

they probably do
if you really have some time on your hands i guess it would be nice to scan them

 

[Grey]

Its that damn thermal paper, you have to take it out of your pocket as soon as you get home and store it someplace cool and where it won't get pressed. Best buy tried to screw me once with that and I raised hell.

 

[erwin1978]

Best Buy receipts are my problem receipts. I bought the extended warranty for my mp3 player and I can barely see the price.

 

[AsianriceX]

I remember a trick we used when I used to work with that thermal paper. If it fades out really bad, grab a heat gun and blast it. The printed text will have had its ink used up already so you'll get a negative image of the receipt. Pretty fun stuff.

 

[dullard]

I was told it was a economic issue. Quality ink/paper/printers that provide permanent results is far more expensive than cheapo methods. So if you are a national chain printing hundreds of thousands of receipts per day, the price of quality ink/paper is a major expense. Cheaping out and using inexpensive thermal paper is the solution they choose.

I learned this early. I was big into bowling for a while. Whenever you got a great score you could print out the frame by frame score. But the text would disappear within a few months. So you had to sit down and copy it or take a pen a trace it. Of course bowling alleys don't have to worry about returned printouts - but they just save so much money using the cheap stuff that it makes sense for them to do it.

 

[RU482]

the problem lies in the fact that the receipt is made using a thermal printer. I've noticed that if you let one of these receipts sit on your dash on a sunny summer day, the whole thing gets bleached out.