I’m in New Zealand and like most countries around the world, we require a receipt of purchase for business accounting. Transaction receipts (both online and offline) are a fundamental requirement of sale and purchase agreements. To NOT offer them is against the law in most countries and usually considered a flag for unlawful transactions.
So I start a chat with Ring. The not so welcoming rep said this:
ME: Why does Ring not send a payment receipt and invoice for the protection plan subscription. By law, we must receive them
TEVIN P: That’s not actually true and when you sign up in the terms and conditions you agree to an automatic renewal bases which does not require invoices being sent.
ME: Well actually you are obliged to sent invoices and receipts as part of standard e-commerce. The fact that you don’t yet refer to terms and conditions is a bit of a worry. Why not make purchase history available to your own customers? You allow purchase history on hardware and show the current plan but not billing history.
Many countries Australia, NZ, Canada etc require invoices for tax reasons, why make it hard for the customer
TEVIN P: I assure you sir that is not accurate but I am more than happy to forward your feedback. As I Ring support representative my word in this official capacity requires I am truthful
ME: Assurance requires backing up with facts and evidence. All I want to know is WHY Ring does not supply its customers with transaction history against payments (financial evidence of transaction and breakdown of cost) Do you charge GST to me as I’m in NZ?
So some support reps “assurances” are apparently enough to take to the NZ Inland Revenue Service. But because I’m not a complete dunce, I went through the difficult process to demand a receipt. Once I got it I see that yes GST was charged (good to know) and that Ring uses Stripe… Stripe has full transaction histories that can be easily accessed via an API and included on the Ring account management service. But they are too lazy, stupid, or just don’t care about their obligations to their customers or their satisfaction in the product and service. Customer retention fail.