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Disappearing Ink on Thermal Paper?
dpippenger asks: "A few days ago my rear projection TV made a soft clicking noise and the color balance suddenly went a bit blue. The set was only about 3 months old and I neglected to get the in store warranty. I decided to try and cash in on the 1 year manufacturers warranty which only required an original sales receipt as documentation. I quickly opened up my file cabinet and retrieved the receipt in question. I was fairly upset to find the sales receipt was printed on a slippery thermal paper (pretty common these days) and after only 3 months was noticeably degraded. The paper was discolored slightly and important blocks of text like the model number were just gone. After some conversation at the TV repair shop they finally accepted it as proof of warranty. The problem is this receipt is my only evidence of warranty for an entire year. I have to wonder what the receipt will look like in another 9 months and if it will be unacceptable as proof of purchase next time I need repairs. Have any other readers had a similar experience or have tips on preserving these thermal receipts?"
Simple: don't put your file cabinet next to your 3GHz overheating workstation.
I don't know if it would help, but perhaps a scan of the receipt with an appropriate date stamp along with the work original would be acceptable as proof.
Like pi? Try 10,000 digits.
I always photocopy receipts so that I have another copy. I then take the original and staple it to the photocopy and file it away with the manuals and warranry information.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
Could be less of a hassle in situations like yours.
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
I bought a Replay a few months ago with a $50 rebate. I placed the receipt and form on my desk at the office so when I could find a minute I'd fill it out. When I finally got around to it, I noticed something very bizarre about the receipt. There was no text on it! Puzzled, I moved the stack of papers and discovered a half eaten cookie I thought I was going to finsih the week before.
Dammit! The oil from the cookie soaked through the receipt making it, I shit you not, transparent. Remember that episode of the Simpsons where they were at Krusty Burger and somebody rubbed the to-go bag on the wall making it transparent, and then a bird flew into it? It was just like that! Well okay a bird didn't fly into it, but I guarantee you a bird was flying when I realized I couldn't get my rebate.
Yep, that cookie cost me $50. Didn't even finish the damn thing.
"Derp de derp."
I remember Sears started using this thermal paper and after 30 minutes of arguing with the store manager about the thing, he caved in and let me get the exchange. I later asked for a new receipt to make sure this wouldn't happen again. But still they print on these thermal papers.
What I did was lamenate it and it went bad some months later (zenith TV's really suck apparently)
That same manager accepted it.
The thing about thermal paper is you have to store it in a VERY cool and dry place. If you leave it in a warm atmosphere / sunlight, the thermal paper will yellow quickly and the lettering will begin to lose its' "heated in" stability.
I don't know what to call it really. But the paper was designed to be cheap and the side effect is word fading... which is good to the mfg. b/c you can't prove you bought it.
sucks to be the customer these days.
Yes, I had similar issues with one store which I wouldnt name here. But in other case, circuit city was able to retrieve my information from their system.
Also, in a related case where it seemed quite deliberate, the manufacturer of Western Digital hard drives had some models with like $80 mail in rebate. To get the rebate, I was supposed to cut the bar-code from the box and mail it with my receipt form. I usually make a copy of the bar-code cut-out before I mail it for the rebate. But Western Digital was smart about it. The bar-code portion was shiny metallic look so that when you try to make a photo-copy, it comes out as black due to reflection which means that you are prevented from making a photocopy. I tried many photo copy machines but no luck. I finally was able to scan it and print it which wasnt as good as the original because metallic reflection. And then I mailed it to them but never got the rebate back. I called them about 8 times over a period of 4 months and they told me that they never received it.
So it might seem that seller's are not at fault but sometimes they use these tricks from thermal paper to using bar-code on reflective background to their advantage !!
Just my $0.02
I make photocopies of everything.
He who knows not and knows he knows not is a wise man. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool.
One time I washed my wallet. It had a receipt in it that I needed to keep. I went to dry it out with a hair dryer. Once it actually dried, it immediately turned black. Whoops!
it goes like this. I have a lot of out-of-pocket health costs, so much so that they up my income tax rebate by enough to make it VERY much worth saving my receipts. Especially my grocery receipts, since the diet that i'm limited to is unreasonably expensive, and i'm permitted to claim the difference on my taxes. Which means keeping every grocery receipt. Well, i keep them. And they fade out fast. GOd knows what will happen if i'm ever audited. What should i do, scan all of them and keep them on cd? Ideas welcome!
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
is used because the printers are quiet and quick, however if not stored at optimal temperature they fade fast. Make two copies of it, staples one to the origional, if your realy paranoid pay with a check or credit card and copy your monthly statement. While this all seems like a lot of work at what point is your dollar thresh-hold where you would go through this work?
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
Make a photocopy of the receipt. Register the item (I hate the latter, as it's a pain, and can lead to junk mail, but that's easier to deal with than a recalcitrant repair shop).
I've purchased most home electronics at big box stores, like Circuit City and Best Buy. Say what you will, but there was one time I needed proof from Circuit City that I bought the item, so that I could get some warranty work (I would have let them take it, but was then living several hours away from a Circuit City). They printed out the receipt, and mailed me a new copy. I've heard tell of other people presenting a driver's license with an address matching the one in their computer, and getting a printout of the same thing.
See, complying with all of the stuff that gets michael and the YRO gang up in arms can have benefits.
To be 100% on point: I have no idea how to preserve that sorta thing. Store it in the freezer instead of a filing cabinet? Or put the cabinet in a sealed container of Nitrogen or CO2 or some other fairly inert gas?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Then use some enhancement software on a scan.
Well the photocopy idea is great if you do it in the beginning.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
NEVER send in warranty registration cards if you hate junk mail.
It'll last much longer if you put it in a air-tight place. As it's a paper, you can put it between two layers of glass , or between glass and a flat surface. And away from light.
I found my [thermal paper] faxes last much longer this way.
-
Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
How 'bout a zip lock in the freezer? Throw-in one of those "do not eat," gel packs and you are done.
I don't know if they'd accept like this it or not, but-self adhesive lamination from any office supply store.
Your Credit Card Statement may work as a suitable alternative. Especially if you have an extended warrantee though your card.
-Sean
Yeah, that happens. My 68332 CPU32 Reference Manual (one copy of two, thankfully) has a nice big transparent spot on the BTST instruction page, directly though the tables telling me what that instruction actually does and its arguments. I ended up writing the program mostly without that instruction (using its counterparts on different pages), waiting for a new manual in the mail...
Every cloud has a silver lining (except for the mushroom shaped ones, which have a lining of Iridium & Strontium 90)
Demand a non-thermal reciept for anything your going to keep longer than a week. Remember the law (at least here) says that you have to keep your reciepts (that you claim on tax) for at least 7 YEARS. This means that the Tax Office can after 7 years demand to see what you have claimed and they would be mighty pissed off if all the reciepts were blank.
Not about whether the food allergies and intolerances that nearly led to my death are 'imaginary.' So if you've got a good, technical solution, i'd love to hear it. Incidentally, I'm not allergic to peanuts. And before i suddenly ended up having a reaction- which in turn triggered an autoimmune response that has already damaged organs- i wasn't sure that food allergies were all they were cracked up to be, either. May you not find out the hard way, stranger.
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
I have some of my printouts from a TI Silent-700 thermal printer that are about 22 years old, and I can still read some of them.
But some of them are completely gone, just light gray smudges on the now yellow paper.
Heat kills tham fast, and the one's that survived were in unheated storage.
I once left one of my logs rolled up on a sun warmed countertop for a little while, when I unrolled it, there was a series of lines where the theremal paper has turned brown, and nothing could be read.
Heh, put 'em in a ziplock in the fridge.
No, seriously... If your old thermal receipts have faded, they can sometimes be fixed by ironing them (no steam, just a hot iron or an incandescent lightbulb).
This only works if the thermal lettering has faded but the paper is still mostly white - The heat-sensitive layer where the original letters were is desensitized and the faded letters will not re-blacken, but the rest of the receipt will, giving you a negative copy of the receipt.
Note that this doesn't work for all thermal printer receipts, it depends on the type of paper used in the machines (the catalina coupons at most supermarkets (they print on thermal paper with red strips on the top/bottom) work, but the register tape at the supermarket I used to work at wouldn't - not sure why.
/~mikeg
To sleez their way out of any obligations.
1. Print receipt on thermo paper designed to degrade.
2. Refuse to honor warrenty/exchange on broken products with unreadable receipt.
3. Profit!
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
I have had those thermal receipts end up blank after a few months as well.
I scanned one of the now blank looking receipts into photoshop. I was able to play with the levels adjuster and most of the receipt was readable. I printed out the new one and stapled it to my old faded one. Fortunately I havent needed to return anything recently......knock on wood.....
SuperGlue
I once bought a VCR, which had the typical 1-2 year warranty from K-mart (similar to a walmart in the US, I'd imagine). After, I shit you not, one night of being left in the rain (not the VCR! The receipt) outside, still attached to the box (I'd forgotten to remove it) the receipt was totally blank. Even a forenzic scientist would not be able to retrieve the information from it, much less a store clerk. With regards to thermal printed receipts, well - as many have already said, the only way to keep those is to photocopy them. Of course, keep the original anyway; it should still be at least partially readable, and should provide further proof that the photocopy is genuine. Sunlight is another great thermal paper killer as well. It's much the same as with thermal faxes, they're notoriously dodgy, especially where the information on the document is important.
Thermal paper! Ever heard of a refrigerator?
Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last
I've had this problem more than once, and with a bit of luck and some intuition found a method to restore the thermal "image".
By gently heating the receipt at a distance with a hair dryer, I have been able to cause the original images to reappear. Note that too much heat will cause the entire receipt to darken, so you may want to test temperatures/distances on a blank area, such as the corner of the receipt.
Generally, a hair dryer on medium heat at a distance of 12" or so, waved slowly back and forth, can restore the original thermal image in under a minute. Your mileage may vary.
Ha! Yeah, those thermal prints are pretty fragile. I recently lost a couple receipts when I left a candle (don't ask) in the glovebox. We had one really hot day, and a large portion of the candle melted. All the text that was wax soaked had disappeared without a trace.
Luckily it wasn't a big deal... it was rather interesting really.
It helps, of course, that they are also very reasonable about price while at the same time having personnel that know what they are selling and good return/warranty policies... sorry, I'm starting to sound like a ****** commercial ;o)
In fact, I'm just a happy customer, which may be the fault of my local store's manager or in the whole chain, I don't know, but they seem to have a good reputation in general. They also have a very obvious mail order rebate that I've never taken advantage of and know why.
Kiwaiti
Member of the Legion Of Microsoft Haters
in addition to the thermal sensitivity of the paper, there at least one other dangerous sensitivity: plastic if you put a thermal paper receipt in a plastic pocket (or laminate it!), it will degrade in weeks, not months. so to keep a thermal printout you should keep it clean, out of heat, and out of contact from plastic.
--v
Office supply stores often carry (for lack of a better term) room temperature laminating material. It looks like an 8.5"x11" clear sticker, and is pretty easy to use:
put the laminating sheet clear side down on a table
peel off the backing paper
place the object to be protected on the now-exposed sticky side of the sheet. In this case the receipt would go print side down.
either fold the clear sheet over the back of the receipt, or trim it, or whatever.
Oh, I forgot something:
profit
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
I count all my bookstore costs (Computer books) toward taxes. I grabbed a bunch out of my wallet and the text had completely faded. If I held them at the right angle to the light, I could make out what it was. Since it was only taxes I submitted it anyway, but since then I try not to keep them in my wallet. You gotta admit the self erasing proof of purchase is a pretty sneaky trick
If a store is printing a receipt on thermal paper, they are printing it from a computer.
If they are printing it from a computer, there is a record of the transaction.
Some places require information about transactions to be kept for a long time.
If all else fails, I would ask the manager at the store to retrieve the computer copy of the sales receipt for corroboration.
You can also use out-of-band documentation to help prove your point - credit card bills, etc. to help prove the validity of the transaction.
It wasn't heat lamanent, it was the kind you peel off of an 8x11 piece of paper like a giant piece of scotch tape limiting the kind of "direct" heat or other weather enviroment variables that can effect the thermal paper.
please don't yell or jump to conclusions and use your brain for a change.
About a year ago I started scanning all my important documents into .pdf files and storing them on CD.
It's much easier than rifling through the stacks.
If you could laminate without turning the paper black.
:-)
It wouldn't really protect it from heat anyhow. It's not like a thin layer of plastic will keep the heat off. Photocopying is the best bet.
Which reminds me... thermal paper is a neat thermometer. I've noticed that leaving some receipts in the car gives me varying degrees of darkness depending on how hot the day is
...any half assed electronics store can reprint your receipt.
...enough said.