Why are automatic receipts going to the wrong person (wrong email address)?

[thedoghikingclu]

Hi, my customer keeps getting her receipts emailed to her husband and she does not want that. I do not manually type in anything when charging her card, but somehow his email keeps getting them. How can I make sure the auto receipts go to her, not him anymore

[Russell]

Hey @pcgranny - I moved your post to this thread where other sellers have asked the same question. 

@BTI is spot on with possible reasons why this could be happening. You can also check out the Best Answer on the first page of this thread for more information. 

[xclaim]

My customer is upset !!! She only swiped her car and did not enter email address and I did not collect email address but all of her transactions with me are mailed to her daughter.

How can this be resolved. She does not want to make future transactions.

Her email is not entered within my dashboard and she has not used square with this card.

How can this happen.

[mremele]

It happened because her daughter used that card at a different store and typed in her email address. Now every Square transaction using that card is tied to that email address. 

The question is, how do customers change their email addresses within Square? I have this question, too.

[Russell]

Hey there @xclaim - I'm so sorry to hear that you had to deal with an upset customer regarding Digital Receipts. The feedback @mremele is totally accurate. We have no way of knowing where to send a receipt unless a customer enters it. Once contact information is entered, it becomes linked to the card. Often times, customers will forget that they let a friend or family member use the card. 

Make sure to let your customer know that her daughter can click "Not Your Receipt" to unlink her email from this payment card. 👍

[ashc]

Hi @tritom,

I merged your post with an existing thread on how to unlink the phone number/email for digital receipts that you can send to your friend. 

He just needs to look for > Not My Receipt? or Manage Preferences at the bottom of one of the digital receipts to unlink his phone number.

[moonmade47]

My Square receipts are being sent to my husband's email. He is not associated with my business. This just started after years of using Square. He is confused as well. 

[ashc]

Hi @moonmade47!

It looks like there's a few threads that already exist in the Community with this same question so I moved your post to one of them.

There's directions above from @George on how to unlink your husband's email address from your card used for automatic receipts. It sounds like your card was used at one point at a Square seller and his email address was entered. 

The option at the bottom will either say Not Your Receipt? or Manage Preferences. You can permanently unlink from there and then enter your email address the next time you're at a Square seller. 

[moonmade47]

Thank you!

[bookstore2]

I received a call from someone who is receiving the email receipts intended for one of our customers.  She is a business person who has a Square account.  She is concerned that the charges are being applied to her account - but doesn't think they are.  She definitely wants her email disconnected from the other person.

[dpeterson101]

Hard to believe this post is 6 years old and this is still happening. I have two customers that work closely with each other, and one keeps getting the other's receipts. Even though they are two different email addresses. 

This actually happened to me (the owner of the store) and one of my employees. When we 1st started with square we tested a doordash order to see exactly how the system worked. I used my credit card and sent the order to the ee's house. Three weeks later I'm at a trade show buying something and the ee says, "hey what's this charge?" My charge went to her email. I may have to start asking vendors "Hey before you hit the card are you using square? I may not be able to buy from you. I can't get a receipt."

Come on square, these are basic items. 6 years is long enough to fix a flaw. 

dp

[JJ_]

Hey there @dpeterson101

Square utilizes an automatic receipt feature that is connected to a buyer's Square Profile. This means that if you make a purchase using someone else's information this data would be stored attached to the payment method used,  with the goal of speeding the process and not having you enter your email every time you buy from one of our Sellers.

You can always adjust your data and communication preferences by visiting profile.squareup.com

I hope this information is helpful and I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

[dpeterson101]

@JJ_ Thanks for the tip. As an individual I just made the change. As a retailer using your system this is just flat out wrong. Square POS should NOT be changing individuals profile information on the fly. I bet this has happened at least 1,000,000 since the original 2016 post. Obviously not important to Square, but end users are left apologizing to customers.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Square should put ppl in the field.

[_Violet]

Hi @dpeterson101 Alanah here, stepping in for @JJ_
 

Sorry to hear that someone else has received your receipt by mistake. I can certainly provide some more context behind how this can happen.

When a customer uses a payment card for the first time to complete a purchase with any Square Seller, they're asked at the point of sale to enter an email address or phone number if they want to receive a digital copy of their receipt. At this point, the email or phone number that they originally entered will be attached to that credit card - and going forward - a receipt is automatically sent to that email or phone number when the credit card is used at any Square seller until you opt-out of receiving digital receipts or update the contact information linked to the card.

Square does not change this information. Unless the receipt recipient chooses to opt out or update the information that has been linked to the payment card, our systems assume that the email address or phone number (entered by the customer during their first transaction where they requested a digital receipt) is correct. You can find the instructions for updating the receipt contact information here in our Support Center.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[rkamper]

You're missing the point.

If a stalker has his email address associated with my purchase, it shouldn't be his call to "opt out" of notifications of my purchases and location. I should be able to remove his email address from my card number.

[dpeterson101]

I don't think that is what is happening. In one case (the test doordash order) I added the ee as the customer yet used my cc. I didn't change ANY emails, your system placed my "unassigned" cc # to the customer's email (who in our test case is an ee and in our POS system). 

In the next case, our Square POS has both emails in our customer's profile. Both buy from us regularly, and they have interactions with each other as well. So, customer 1 ask me for a receipt from customer 2 (it was a donation). Once I sent the old receipt via email to customer #1, customer #1 started getting emails from other vendors using square purchased by customer #2. Customer #2 (and #1) are well known to us and have complete customer info in our square POS.

There is no way this is correct, stop doing it!

[_Violet]

Hi @rkamper and @dpeterson101

To be clear, an email address or phone number is linked to the payment card at the end of a transaction with a Square Seller. That means your card would need to be present at the time of the transaction before any information can be linked to it for Digital Receipts. In the links attached, you can learn more about automatic receipts with shared cards and Square’s Privacy Policy.

If you or one of your customers would like to unlink the contact information associated with the payment card you can contact Square Support and our Support Team will be able to complete this action manually from their end if you do not have the receipt.

Once the contact information is unlinked, the cardholder will be prompted to enter the correct email address or phone number during the next transaction.

[rkamper]

Yeah, when I get a few hours, I'll call and go through each of my credit cards with them to make sure they aren't linked to any other email addresses.

It's a problem though.

Employees at any kind of festival could be putting their email addresses down when a customer makes a purchase. Divorced couples could be spying on estranged partners' purchases. Current couples could see what's being purchased as a surprise present.... All while the purchaser doesn't know his/her purchases are being telegraphed to email addresses they don't even know about.

This is a huge invasion of privacy. A huge hole in security that's being ignored. It sounds like your only solution is to encourage every card holder to call Square support just to make sure all their purchases aren't being telegraphed to rogue email addresses. That's the only way to know?????

[dpeterson101]

I'm wondering if I go to the customers last transaction and then send them an email to the correct email address.... Would that fix this problem (and yes Square, Squareup, Block this is a problem)

[rkamper]

Yeah, I don't think that your solution is really relevant to the problem.

While the link you sent allows me to update MY communication preferences according to my email, MY credit card number is still attached to someone else's email address.

That means I would need THEIR permission to remove MY credit card number from their email.

That's bad. Really bad.

It means there is an easy capability for a stalker to put his email address on a victim's purchase and then see everywhere they go and everything they buy. There's a Twitter feed about it.

[Candlestore]

Why can't us business owners just ask if they want the receipt emailed?  I mean when I do a sale, some receipts are automatically sent, and I inform my customer where the receipt went.  Some go yea that's fine others go this was going to be a gift for my wife, now she knows I was here.  

Other sales pop up asking me if i want the receipt sent to  phone email or print and have the last 4 of the number, 1st 2 of email and 1st 2 after @.   why can't square have all receipts or at least the option for us to ASK how they want the receipt?  This would avoid sending the receipt to the wrong person or the correct spouse and ruin a surprise.  It could be a toggle on/off in the dashboard under receipt settings.   Like Automatically Print a receipt or Manually.  I do manually since a lot of my customers do not even want a receipt.