Always Get a Receipt

Always get a receipt.

Always check your receipt.

Call me whatever you want.  But always get a receipt whenever you buy anything.  Gas.  Takeout. Convenience store quickie items. Even when you go to a bar.

I know, you go to the gas pump, fill the tank and just want to go. Waiting for the pump to print out a stubby piece of paper is a pain. You don’t have time. Or, you go to the store or the diner and at the check out the person at the register says “you don’t want a receipt, do you” as though that’s just too much trouble.  They frown.

Why a young couple wishes they’d asked for a receipt

A young couple in Tulsa, Oklahoma goes to the Starbucks drive through. They get the same thing they’ve been getting pretty much every day for the last 16 years. One Iced Americano and a caramel Frappuccino, and off they go. They took off.  The couple pursued their normal business thinking nothing of it.  Why would they?

A few days later they went to the mall with their four daughters and attempted to buy shoes. Much to their embarrassment, their bank card was declined. They take a closer look now at their bank account electronic records.  Uh oh.  They discover a charge from the coffee shop for way over $4,000.00. For 2 cups of coffee.
Looking even more closely now they find out on the receipt, which they had not looked at until this point, the two drinks rang up at $10.90.

So far so good.  Add in the tax at 8 and 1/2% per cent and this comes to 93 cents. At the drive in window they opted for no tip.  Surprise!  The electronic receipt shows a charge for the tip at $4,444.44.  Yeah, you read that right, four-thousand, four-hundred, forty-four dollars and forty-four cents.  The grand total prints out at $4,456.  For two cups of coffee!  People sometimes criticize this particular coffee chain for expensive coffee.  But, that’s ridiculous by any measure.

Always get a receipt: Mistakes are human and electronic

Yes, it represents a mistake.  A call to corporate headquarters yields the explanation there had been a network error with the card reader device.  The company promised to make good on it.  Problem solved, right?  To make matters worse, when the couple got two checks as reimbursement, the checks both bounced. Ultimately the company made good on it.  In the end the mistake was corrected.  At the same time, look at all the hassle, embarrassment and wasted time.  Oh, at some point the couple filed a report with the local police.  All for something that could have been noticed right away had they looked at the receipt.

Why get a receipt? Doesn’t it waste time?  Doesn’t it waste paper?

People make mistakes.  Once, when I deposited a check in the drive-through electronic teller, I looked down and a huge error slapped me in the face.  The automatic fool proof banking gizmo had moved the decimal point over one digit to the left.  Big difference.  I parked.  I went inside.  At first, of course, they assumed it was my error.  But, a quick look at the deposit slip I had completed confirmed the mechanized error.

The mistake was fixed.  The account balance was corrected.  I went on with my business.

But imagine if I had not gotten a receipt.  Or, if I had not checked the receipt until days later.  I would have had to driven out of my way, or one through some interminable voice tree.  And at that point, would the original records have been immediately, easily available as they were when I checked right way?

Always get a receipt

A client suffered serious food poisoning at a restaurant.  Hospitalization level food poisoning.

You’ve read this far so you know what happened.  They left the restaurant without a receipt.  Certainly the restaurant keeps an electronic record, you say, they must.

Really?  You trust, when there’s a problem, that the entity against whom you have a claim, willingly, easily and promptly coughs up their electronic record?

What should have been a relatively simple matter of proof, a receipt confirming a service, became lost in a corporate maze of voice trees, holding, waiting, that awful hold music and … yes … ultimately litigation.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to just get a receipt?

A receipt proves your transaction

By now just a few examples should convince people that getting a receipt proves a good practice.  Here are 5 reasons to always get a receipt:

• Provides a sense of security
• Establishes an accurate paper trail at your fingertips
• Computers, smartphones and other gizmos crash
• Paper receipts do not require use of your email address or access to your digital accounts – won’t be hacked
• Resolves questions about where and when you were there

Also noteworthy is the fact that some find handling everything electronically a challenge.  Some elderly and low income folks simply lack the resources to keep everything digitally, electronically on electronic gizmos constantly being outdated by new upgrades.  Some might think getting a receipt is not “green”.  But, bear in mind that most paper is recyclable and comes from trees, which are in fact a renewable resource.

It it comes to producing proof, paper is much easier than digging into and offering electronically stored information in court.

Some 62% of consumers worry justifiably about their personal identifiable information being held by others.  It risks hacking, theft and other dangers.  Why not just grab a paper receipt and be on your way?

An attorney you like and trust

The author of this article, Attorney Andrew D. Myers, represents personal injury clients in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  Offices in Methuen, Massachusetts and Derry, New Hampshire provide in personal legal consultation.  Contact the TV lawyers and it is likely you will not meet the attorney, you will be given forms to fill out and be sent on your way.  If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident through no fault of your own please feel free to contact us.  Car accidents, wrongful death cases, injuries caused by drunk drivers, accident caused by distracted drivers, slip and fall accidents and other injuries. We offer a free consultation.  You do not pay a cent unless or until your case succeeds.

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