store receipts

Murphybear

RefluentBeans said:

This thread is getting into a crucial topic. For in store purchases, there is no legal obligation for retailers to offer a no-fault return. Thus, any returns for effectively change of mind is more than you’re legally entitled to. What this means is they can change their policy at any time, and you have two choices - either accept the new terms or withdraw from the contract (by not purchasing). 

Of course, this doesn’t affect your statutory rights, and the retailer would have to accept a bank statement or other proof of purchase to find the receipt on the system, or allow that a bank statement is enough proof of purchase to allow for the statutory rights to return if the product is faulty under the CRA. 

In addition, retailers haven’t got to accept cash (and in fact many large retailers may see it as risky and expensive - having to organise collections, audits, risk of loss, accidental error, higher risk of fake currency etc). To a lot of people, cash is certainly not king. 

To combat the ‘not everyone has emails’, ‘older people are being discriminated against’, and the other claims in the same vein - there is this mythical old person who only deals in cash, cannot use phones, cannot use email, and cannot use email - and can only be contacted by snail mail. That person doesn’t exist. In 2019, 92% had internet access - from the ONS. Between then and now there was a global pandemic where the world went pretty much online - that number is now much higher now. The people without an email address (or claim to not have an email) are either lying, or are genuinely in the small fraction without internet access. Arguably, those people in that smallest fraction of society should receive help to get them into the 21st century, as internet access could well be perceived as a necessity. Just the same as electricity. 

Ultimately - people have the right to choose where they shop. No one can force you to buy from New Look or Dunelm. If you don’t want to give out an ensil (even one designed for junk) then that is your choice, but retailers have a choice in how they operate. 

Sorry to disagree but that person does exist.  I live in sheltered housing where there are 33 people aged 55 - 97.  I know at least 2 who are part of your “mythical old person”.  I often buy things online for them and they give me cash.  Many don’t go out of their flat often and the vast majority have landlines.  

Most elderly people in social care do not use the internet either.  

According to the Parliamentary library documents in 2023 7% of households did not have internet access.  There are loads of articles about internet usage and the problem is the actual figures vary a lot between articles.  

PHK

sheramber said:

Where I lived  until recently 90 % of the residents were seniors who did not own computers nor smart phones. 

Goods were bought by cash which obtained from the local sun post office.

Nearest town with. Library was20 miles away. Not exactly convenient. 

My local council is intending for the library  to go to self service due to lack of money to pay staff. 

The people I  see using the internet there bring there own laptops. 

No computers in sight.

This is so patronising. Its also simply untrue. Older people, make up the highest adoption rate of streaming services, we use our smartphones or debit cards to pay, we zoom and facetime, we Whatsapp and use social media. 

There are technology averse people but they exist at all ages. 

RefluentBeans

Murphybear said:

RefluentBeans said:

This thread is getting into a crucial topic. For in store purchases, there is no legal obligation for retailers to offer a no-fault return. Thus, any returns for effectively change of mind is more than you’re legally entitled to. What this means is they can change their policy at any time, and you have two choices - either accept the new terms or withdraw from the contract (by not purchasing). 

Of course, this doesn’t affect your statutory rights, and the retailer would have to accept a bank statement or other proof of purchase to find the receipt on the system, or allow that a bank statement is enough proof of purchase to allow for the statutory rights to return if the product is faulty under the CRA. 

In addition, retailers haven’t got to accept cash (and in fact many large retailers may see it as risky and expensive - having to organise collections, audits, risk of loss, accidental error, higher risk of fake currency etc). To a lot of people, cash is certainly not king. 

To combat the ‘not everyone has emails’, ‘older people are being discriminated against’, and the other claims in the same vein - there is this mythical old person who only deals in cash, cannot use phones, cannot use email, and cannot use email - and can only be contacted by snail mail. That person doesn’t exist. In 2019, 92% had internet access - from the ONS. Between then and now there was a global pandemic where the world went pretty much online - that number is now much higher now. The people without an email address (or claim to not have an email) are either lying, or are genuinely in the small fraction without internet access. Arguably, those people in that smallest fraction of society should receive help to get them into the 21st century, as internet access could well be perceived as a necessity. Just the same as electricity. 

Ultimately - people have the right to choose where they shop. No one can force you to buy from New Look or Dunelm. If you don’t want to give out an ensil (even one designed for junk) then that is your choice, but retailers have a choice in how they operate. 

Sorry to disagree but that person does exist.  I live in sheltered housing where there are 33 people aged 55 - 97.  I know at least 2 who are part of your “mythical old person”.  I often buy things online for them and they give me cash.  Many don’t go out of their flat often and the vast majority have landlines.  

Most elderly people in social care do not use the internet either.  

According to the Parliamentary library documents in 2023 7% of households did not have internet access.  There are loads of articles about internet usage and the problem is the actual figures vary a lot between articles.  

Okay - they do exist in some contexts (like protected care). I’m afraid, taken as a % of the population, it’s a rounding error to 0%. Even in your case, it’s less than 10% of the population of the sheltered housing. Whilst we should make protections for these people, the protections need to be more general. The ‘what’s wrong with just keeping it the same, it’s the way we’ve always done it’ isn’t a good way to do things, and so to mandate that all retailers must offer paper receipts with no questions to be asked to ask for personal information wouldn’t work because that’s not how things work currently (think of membership only stores who require member details, or the last time you got a receipt from Starbucks even for merch sales), and there’s some industry’s that require details (eg buying a car - can’t have a go at a car dealership for wanting to know your name!) 

Interestingly, do the people in sheltered care you know go out by themselves shopping? What protections are in place to stop them being victimised? It’s definitely something I’m not aware of, and so curious. 

sheramber

PHK said:

sheramber said:

Where I lived  until recently 90 % of the residents were seniors who did not own computers nor smart phones. 

Goods were bought by cash which obtained from the local sun post office.

Nearest town with. Library was20 miles away. Not exactly convenient. 

My local council is intending for the library  to go to self service due to lack of money to pay staff. 

The people I  see using the internet there bring there own laptops. 

No computers in sight.

This is so patronising. Its also simply untrue. Older people, make up the highest adoption rate of streaming services, we use our smartphones or debit cards to pay, we zoom and facetime, we Whatsapp and use social media. 

There are technology averse people but they exist at all ages. 

I can assure you I did live in a rural area where the majority of people were over 70 who saw no need for mobile phones or computers. Compound that with many of the houses having no mobile signal and others a very unreliable signal. We had to go the bottom of our garden to get a signal. Not much fun in pouring rain or snow or when blowing a gale .  Yes, there are still such places. Too many hills  blocking  signals. 

One resident had never been further than 20 miles from his home. 

SJJ32

SJJ32 said:

I was just looking online because I was in newlook earlier and they said they had to have my email address. She was happy to give me a paper receipt if I gave my email too but I could not have a paper only receipt. It makes no sense to let me have a paper receipt if I give my email too. I don't want to give my email address out. It's purely to get you on a mailing list.

[Quoted post removed by Forum Team]

More annoyingly I had to go in to a different store over the weekend to buy something for my daughter, after scanning my card the cashier said your receipt has gone to your email address. So they are storing a degree of card data and email addresses without consent too! 

cannugec5

tedted said:

my mother in law is 92 never been on the internet never had a smart phone no email so people shouldn't that everybody does

My mother is in her late eighties. She has a smart phone that she doesn’t know how to switch on any more. 

She wanted an email address for those occasions when she is asked for one. I created one for her, and with her full support I check it for messages regularly. She gets about one a month, usually  of no interest. But if it is important I can let her know. 

My point is, that older people (I’m a pensioner myself) can be supported into the digital age IF THEY SO WISH. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

cannugec5 said:

My mother is in her late eighties. She has a smart phone that she doesn’t know how to switch on any more. 

She wanted an email address for those occasions when she is asked for one. I created one for her, and with her full support I check it for messages regularly. She gets about one a month, usually  of no interest. But if it is important I can let her know. 

My point is, that older people (I’m a pensioner myself) can be supported into the digital age IF THEY SO WISH. 

Worth noting there's a lot of lonely people out there with no one else in their lives to help them.

I agree the whole elderly thing is a stereotype, there are many reasons people may not have the ability to get their head around modern tech and be put out by an increasing digital age. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

DullGreyGuy said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:
They couldn't careless about the planet that's for sure.  

I wouldn't be so sure in this day and age... ESG is increasingly becoming a thing investors are talking about etc. Sure it's great when you can combine it with data and cost savings but I wouldn't be as cynical as to say the environmental benefits are an unfortunate consequence. 

Set up an insurer that will only write ESG positive clients, normally getting the investors to back broad spectrum insurers is really hard because some will like Casualty but hate Property or some don't want any more North America exposures etc. Our ESG insurer however was massively over subscribed by those wanting to support it and got highly favourable terms. Surprisingly even certain clients explicitly wanted to be insured by the ESG part of the business rather than the regular. 

Sorry just saw this, there may be a trend towards this kind of idea but ultimately it all leads back to a desire to generate profit rather than any real concern about the planet. 

New Look is fast fashion, the basic aspect of their entire business model is environmentally unsound. 

jon81uk

SJJ32 said:

SJJ32 said:

I was just looking online because I was in newlook earlier and they said they had to have my email address. She was happy to give me a paper receipt if I gave my email too but I could not have a paper only receipt. It makes no sense to let me have a paper receipt if I give my email too. I don't want to give my email address out. It's purely to get you on a mailing list.

[Quoted post removed by Forum Team]

More annoyingly I had to go in to a different store over the weekend to buy something for my daughter, after scanning my card the cashier said your receipt has gone to your email address. So they are storing email addresses without consent too!

By "scanning your card" do you mean a loyalty card? In which case they do have consent to store your email address.

In John Lewis, Lidl and M&S scanning my loyalty cards gets me digital receipts.

PeteG1

Many supermarkets and hardware stores are stopping issuing paper receipts (or asking if you need one), but don't offer the facility to email (Tesco, The Range, Aldi etc), as it would take too much time.

But what happens when you need to make a return (for any reason) and have to wait past the 28/31 day return period to get your bank/credit card statement?

Purchase an item on the 1st of the month, and your bank statement won't turn up till at least the 8th of the following month (longer in some postcode areas due to royal mail issues). Credit card companies state purchases can take up to 6 weeks for an item to appear on a statement.

So do you argue with the store, refuse the sale in the first place, or stay put at the till until a manager is called to authorise a receipt in the first place.

A few years ago Tesco started refusing to issue refund receipts (when they paid the money back to the original card). I had a 'discussion' with a store manager. I pointed out that there was NO proof that I had returned an item, and they still had my money, so I needed proof in case they mislaid the transaction. A receipt was grudgingly given . Thankfully this policy seems to have gone away now.