We recently assisted a customer who needed a receipt to prove they were the original owner of a product. This customer was the original owner, however, they had not kept the original receipt. The original receipt was required for a major warranty issue. The alternative was purchasing a new product – which has a price tag of over $1200 USD. The receipt needed to show that the purchase was made from an authorized retailer to allow the manufacturer to begin processing a warranty claim.
Unfortunately, the company that sold this customer the product was no longer in business. It seems the massive internet retailers had put this small shop out of business shortly after the original purchase. The customer was therefore unable to request that the store could re-print a copy of the original receipt.
This customer decided it was worth making a receipt as authentic to the original receipt as possible to insure that the manufacturer would honor the warranty claim and replace the failed component. The customer identified several receipt templates within the ExpressExpense receipt template inventory that might closely match the original retailer’s receipt. In this case, he determined the “Custom Logo Receipt 4” receipt template most closely resembled the original receipt.
The customer then used his credit card company’s website to find the date, time and amount of the original purchase. In this case, the original purchase price was $4289.95. The customer recalled that the main item was approximately 90% of this purchase total on the receipt and the other 10% of the purchase price were a few additional accessories.
Using the receipt template on ExpressExpense called the “Custom Logo Receipt 4” – the customer filled out the receipt fields carefully. Date and time of purchase, store name, store address, city, state, zip and phone were all entered into the receipt template to match the original location and time of purchase. The receipt template was then completed by adding details of each item purchased under the “Itemized Items” section of the online receipt maker. Quantity, item description and item price were all included to complete the template inputs. Sales tax was calculated and entered into the receipt template by referencing Avalara’s tax rate look-up tool (https://www.avalara.com/taxrates/en/calculator.html).
Once the receipt template form was completed, the customer adjusted the font typeface within the receipt maker tool and generated the customized receipt by clicking “Make Receipt.” The customer was also able to locate the (now permanently closed) store logo using Archive.org and Google Image search. This logo was uploaded to ExpressExpense and cropped to fit the receipt perfectly.
This customer took the additional step of printing the receipt to a thermal printer. Hopefully, this would guarantee this receipt would be accepted by the manufacturer. A bluetooth mobile printer was purchased for approximately $55 (remember, this is a $1200 warranty claim!) from Amazon.com and then downloaded free app called Express Thermal Print (by ExpressExpense) from the app store. Within a few minutes of installing the app, the receipt was printed to 80mm thermal receipt paper.
Since this original receipt was dated over 2 years ago, the customer decided to rapidly age the receipt to match what a 2 year old receipt would actually look like. The receipt was folded in half and lightly crumpled to reduce the crispy “brand new” appearance of the receipt. To age the receipt even further, the receipt was left in a window with direct sun for 1 day. This exposed the photo-senstive thermal paper to UV rays and caused the receipt paper to slightly discolor. This method of UV exposure is a very effective way to accelerate the aging of thermal printed receipts.
A few tips from this success story:
- Sometimes it is necessary to create a receipt when you do not have the original receipt.
- ExpressExpense’s receipt templates create authentic-looking receipts
- Cross-reference credit card or bank statements for original purchase price
- Consider adding any additional items to the receipt (ie: accessories)
- Identify the sales tax for the location using Avalara’s taxrate lookup tool https://www.avalara.com/taxrates/en/calculator.html
- Printing a receipt to a thermal receipt printer will provide the highest quality final product
