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Another thing technology should have already solved by now. Its possible for most receipts and bills to be sent electronically. We really ought to have a univ
by stretchwithme 15y ago
Another thing technology should have already solved by now.
Its possible for most receipts and bills to be sent electronically. We really ought to have a universally trusted third party receive, forward, store everything. And indicate accept of charges.
Maybe the credit card companies should form a consortium or perhaps the Post Office should do this (assuming a huge upgrade in technical competence).
It should be possible to pay with a card and have the card company send the receipt to your mobile device and third party. And you should be able to access that data forever.
Such an entity could also help prevent identity theft, notifying you whenever your address gets changed or your credit is checked or used. You should be able to dispute charges immediately.
Scanned images may should like a good idea but these may be perceived as more easily manipulated. Will clerks treat images the same way they treat real receipts?
It would be better if the tiny amount of data these contain was certified to be true and then kept forever instead of storing bulky scanned images. You don't really need to store how the data is presented.
Not sure if the Post Office should be doing this but if the government certified that the actual data stored, you wouldn't need to store scanned images.
How we make such a transition is anybody's guess. It certainly is in Corporate America's interest to eliminate the expense of mailing statements and printing receipts. But it will be a long time before they'll be able to stop doing things the old fashioned for all of the late adopters.
And for some things, we'll always want a hard copy. Trusting corporations or the government has been known to be dumb in the past. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
- culturestate 15y agoApple has sort of begun this - if you have a credit card linked to an AppleID and use that card in an Apple Store, the receipt is emailed to you (unless you specifically request a printed copy). If you don't, they'll ask for your email address the first time you use a card and keep that email on file so the next time you buy something at that store, they don't need to ask.
- bruceboughton 15y ago.. as have most other companies.
- culturestate 15y agoHow many other large (or even mid-size) brick-and-mortar retailers do digital receipts? A quick Google session turned up a test case at K-Mart and a hockey chain in Canada.
- bruceboughton 15y agoOh sorry, misread that as App Store not Apple Store.
- blantonl 15y agoThe Federal Government would love to implement this... shudder.
- stretchwithme 15y agoYeah, probably a bad idea. At least with the mail, they had to open the envelopes. Now they can search massive amounts of information with no evidence left behind. This will probably keep evolving in the private sector, unless some dope gives the government the idea to get into it. Oops. My bad.
- nl 15y agoMany (most?) companies offer bills-by-email if you look for it. There's no need for a centralized solution - just each individual company to get rid of the paper from their process.
- stretchwithme 15y agoI agree. I guess I am a bit concerned about disputes where you don't have a hard copy of the bill they actually sent you or gave you at the point of purchase. But as I think about it, there are already third parties who keep records involved in transmitting things already and not many disputes of the type I was imagining. One can imagine how things might be abused, but where the legal system is functioning, there shouldn't be a problem. And if its not functioning, there are much bigger problems. So you're correct.