The Dirty Receipt Trick

It's a new trick being used by retailers these days to prevent customers claiming damaged goods, refunds, and returns. I hereby give it the name it deserves - The dirty receipt trick.

The trick is simple. You select the items for purchase and head to the cashier. The cashier checks out the items, you pay for them and check the receipt to ensure that everything is in order and head back home. Upon reaching home, you find that the wonder broom that you bought with a 3 month warantee is broken in 3 places. You click your tongue in irritation and look for the receipt so that you could return it back to the store. Upon finding it in your jeans, you stare in horror at the condition of receipt. Blackened beyond recognition, the numbers on the receipt are no longer legible, useless for anything and certainly would not be accepted by the store.

What happened to the receipt you ask yourself? The answer is simple - dirty tricks by the retailer. The new scam is to print receipts on some weird kind of paper that when rubbed, blackens itself so that the numbers are no longer visible. The tricks works brilliantly when the customer puts the receipt into the pocket of theirs jeans or trousers. The act of walking causes the fabric to rub against the receipt thus causing it to blacken and hence saving the company from any returns or refunds that the customer might claim.

But wait, the trick doesn't end there. The paper is so cleverly designed that if by chance, you are smart enough to save the receipt until you get home and file it away safely so that no more rubbing can take place, another phenomenon occurs. The letters and numbers on the receipt start to fade for no reason at all. After a month, the letters are barely visible and again the receipt is useless for claims.

The audacity of companies to play such dirty tricks on their customers is unbelievable. Such actions should be challenged vehemently by consumer groups and be put a stop to. Unfortunately it's one thing to write about it, and a totally different thing to convert the writings to actions. I don't know if anyone else has written about this, if so, other consumers can write more articles and hopefully the issue will become big enough to challenge big companies to issue legible receipts.