When I first got an email account, probably back in 1995 or so, I never thought that it would be anything more than a novelty, a quick way to send stupid jokes and mindless drivel to friends and co-workers.
Then, recently it dawned on me that e-mail has become a necessary fact of life. I have had my gmail account since 2005 and use it exclusively. I save virtually every email (around 6 thousand) I’ve ever received and I’m still only using 35% of my storage. A far cry from the early days of Hotmail, when you got warning e-mails from the Hotmail administrators telling you to clean it out or purchase extra storage after only 100 or so average sized e-mails.
I get all of my bank statements, my credit card statements, doctors appointment reminders. But what has really thrown me for a loop is when I went to a retail clothing store this past weekend and the sales lady casually asked me, “would you like to have your receipt now, or would you like it e-mailed to you?”. Really?? When did that start? I opted for the paper copy. Oddly, on the way home, I stopped by an ATM (which I almost never do) and it had an option to e-mail my receipt to me, which I did. And within a minute of my transaction, my phone notified me of a new e-mail.
Are e-mail store/ATM receipts a flash in the pan? Or is it the wave of the future? Is the Gap the only store that does this? I don’t know that I’d feel comfortable leaving a store with an item I’ve purchased without an actual receipt to go along with it.
Anytime they’re available I take them, particularly for expenses that I need to record for tax purposes. My electronic filing is WAY better than my physical filing.
Never even heard of this practice before now. Not sure that I would opt for email receipts just because I don’t like giving out my email address to businesses. I generally toss out the paper receipt the moment I see a trashcan so I wish I could opt out of those too.
Can’t speak for all Apple Stores, but when I was shopping in the 5th Avenue Store, they didn’t even have a register - they had guys running around with an iPod Touch scanning my credit card, giving me a bag for my purchase and emailing me the receipt.
Especially for durable electronics it seems to make sense - if I need to repair the item under warranty, I just search my inbox for “Apple Store”.
I love e-mail receipts, as I can rarely be bothered to keep the paper ones for smaller purchases (and so am hooped if I need to return something). I only wish all stores offered them.
The problem with the GAP having your email address is that they email you a sales pitch nearly every day. The Body Shop is a big offender as well. So having receipts emailed really depends on which companies I’m happy to hear from on a regular basis.
Do you not have an different account to give to online merchants? It isn’t like there’s a limit on how many different email accounts you can have, and it’s really nice to have receipts, order confirmations, and merchant contact stuff all segregated from your actual daily email box.
If you use a “Your Way Rewards” card at Kmart and have an email address on file, they will email you a receipt.
Regular receipts at so many stores are printed on thermal paper which fades after a month or two – not very useful for making a claim on a one-year warranty. On the other hand, I just bought an LED lightbulb that comes with a three-year warranty which requires an ORIGINAL (in bold and capital letters) receipt for warranty claims. I wonder if I sent in an email receipt that I printed off myself if they would assume that was just a photocopy. Actually, the warranty requires the defective bulb to be mailed back, too. It might be cost-effective to do so if it fails soon, but I suspect that by the end of the three year period that the cost of the bulbs will have fallen and the cost of postage will have risen to the point where it would be cheaper just to buy a new bulb.
I’ve also just recently run across it at an Old Navy store. Since I already get their sale emails, I opted for the email receipt. I highly doubt I’d ever need a receipt for a T shirt, so I can delete it a few days after the purchase.
We just shopped at Gap and got emailed receipts AND paper receipts. I didn’t realize they offered either/or. I thought it was because I signed up for their credit card (got a big enough discount for the day to make it worthwhile, won’t be applying for a mortgage any time soon, so I wasn’t worried about credit rating hit).
I think it’s a cool idea, now that I have a smartphone. Prior to that, not so much. I’d actually opt for both paper and electronic, given a choice - emails do get lost, and this way it’s easier to verify on the spot.