Doesn’t recognize purchases
Hardly ever recognizes purchases on printed receipts (when I actually get those). It had an option to click report missed earnings which I went through all those steps and still never got them. Many of us now shop online with pick up and we can’t upload those receipts. Forwarding the email of those receipts hasn’t been convenient and often missing qualifying purchases too as they don’t fully open the receipt document and only look at the brief preview of your receipt within the email. Then when you attempt to email back to correct those missed earnings I haven’t gotten replies or seen it resolved. Many of our family who used to clip and collect for us don’t want another app and account to deal with so they instead hand me a pile of receipts. Low and behold they won’t work past 14 days of purchase which is usually all of them. I’m usually all about going digital for convenience but this app just isn’t hitting the mark. Our school went from a couple thousand a year to less than $200 since we’ve gone digital. No longer worth promoting.
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Response from developer
We are so sorry that the app has missed Box Tops for you. The easiest way to receive the proper credit is to report them using the "Report Missing Earnings" option in the app right after you scan. If you still are not receiving the proper credit for your receipts, please reach out to us at BTFE.app@genmills.com with an image of the receipt and the amount you were expecting to receive. Thank you for supporting your school!
App almost never finds Box Tops on my receipts
I miss just cutting and submitting physical Box Tops. Not only is it a pain to hold my phone with the precision of a brain surgeon to take pictures of my 2-feet-long grocery receipts, but the app almost NEVER finds eligible Box Top items on my receipts. We’re a family of 6, with 4 kids ages 6 and under... I have to believe I’m purchasing Box Top items... Yet, in 2 years, I’ve only been able to collect $5.70 for my kids school, out of probably $15,000 in grocery receipts?... c’mon.
Furthermore, I know I can “report missed earnings”, but when I’m putting away 300 items in my pantry, I’m not spending time accounting for every Box Top item that may get missed... Nor am I spending time reporting those missed items. The app is supposed to eliminate that work. It’s actually creating double or triple work!
It’s MUCH easier to physically clip the Box Top during package recycling and throw it in a ziplock baggie. How many dollars are schools missing out on, I wonder?
Furthermore, I know I can “report missed earnings”, but when I’m putting away 300 items in my pantry, I’m not spending time accounting for every Box Top item that may get missed... Nor am I spending time reporting those missed items. The app is supposed to eliminate that work. It’s actually creating double or triple work!
It’s MUCH easier to physically clip the Box Top during package recycling and throw it in a ziplock baggie. How many dollars are schools missing out on, I wonder?
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Not convenient
New and limited edition items are not added to the app in a timely manner (or at all for some seasonal items, apparently), yet receipts have to be scanned within a few days. Also not every store offers an itemized receipt (such as the local deli where I buy a lot of cereal). There needs to be a better way of manually redeeming box tops. Yes, I know you can report missing earnings. I’ve had to several times. It’s several steps just to *maybe* be credited the 10 cents days later.
Older people who used to collect them for their grandchildren aren’t downloading the app and saving receipts. Even if they did, instead of being able to divide them between schools they’d have to pick one to give them to. My kids’ school would often have contests and the class that brought in the most box tops would get a small party or prize, and that’s not possible now. There is nothing more convenient about digital box tops if most of the earnings are on receipts that get thrown away.
Older people who used to collect them for their grandchildren aren’t downloading the app and saving receipts. Even if they did, instead of being able to divide them between schools they’d have to pick one to give them to. My kids’ school would often have contests and the class that brought in the most box tops would get a small party or prize, and that’s not possible now. There is nothing more convenient about digital box tops if most of the earnings are on receipts that get thrown away.
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So upset with this new system and App!!
Our school has been negatively impacted BIG TIME with the implementation of this new system and app. Our school went from making more than $1,000 each year to this year we will be lucky to make $200 and that’s simply because we still have people turning in the old style of box tops. As coordinator I constantly remind people to scan they’re receipts...but honestly who’s going to remember to do that with the way this year has been for most people?!?! When I do have receipts turned in and I scan them the app tells me there’s no date on receipt...when there ALWAYS is. Or it’s the receipts not readable, when it clearly is. I was willing to get on board when Box top rolled out this new program and tried to stay positive but now I’m convinced it was just another ploy to give the schools less money while ‘appearing’ to still be helping. 😡. I am sure there are those schools that have had success with this but we have not and as a whole school everyone is very frustrated.
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This app never works
I can’t figure out why this app can NEVER find the Box Top products on my receipt. Ever. I’ve tried it dozens of times with every update and it just doesn’t work. I know it can read the receipt because the list of items I purchased comes up. It just doesn’t recognize which items are participating in the program, and even when I try to add them manually, scanning the UPC, it still doesn’t pick it up. It is SO frustrating and way more work than just clipping the box tops and sending them to school. Worst app ever. I think this is a scam to avoid having to give money to schools.
Update: I’ve scanned dozens of receipts and it still has never, ever, not even once recognized an item on a receipt. I always get an email back saying “something went wrong. We couldn’t read your receipt.” But the app read the receipt fine...it just never credits the BoxTop items. Still maddening.
Update: I’ve scanned dozens of receipts and it still has never, ever, not even once recognized an item on a receipt. I always get an email back saying “something went wrong. We couldn’t read your receipt.” But the app read the receipt fine...it just never credits the BoxTop items. Still maddening.
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They need to work out the bugs...
Now that most of the box tops have transitioned to being digital, I decided to download the box tops for education app. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well. I’m not sure what is causing these issues, but it is very frustrating to not get credit for items with the digital box tops. On a couple of occasions, we bought Pillsbury toaster strudels and toaster scrambles, but the app only gave us credit for the toaster strudels. Both items had digital box tops. On a few other occasions, we bought Trix cereal with digital box tops. Again, the app said we didn’t have any eligible items on our receipt. For the toaster scrambles, I scanned the barcodes and submitted them for review in the app. I got an email saying they are reviewing the missing earnings and will get back to me within 14 days. They never got back to me on either occasion. For the times we bought Trix, I scanned the barcodes, but the app said they didn’t match any eligible products. So, I added them manually. I received the same email saying the missing earnings are being reviewed, but I doubt they will get back to me within 14 days. I think they should have just stuck to the clippable box tops if they weren’t prepared for all the issues that came with the digital ones.
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Response from developer
Hello! Thank you for reaching out. If you believe that we missed something, go to the home screen of the app and tap on your school name at the top. Then tap My Earnings so you can see all of your Box Tops earnings. Tap on the transaction you believe to have missing earnings to see the details. If you don’t see what you are looking for, tap the Report Missed Earnings button and then tell us what items we missed and how many Box Tops you were expecting. We will get back to you within 14 business days.
Harmful, inequitable data grab
Moving from box clippings to receipt scanning is a blatantly inequitable change designed to gather data about consumers and exclude the very families from participating whose schools likely need the BTFE money the most.
Technology and opportunity gaps, combined with the possibility of a data breach containing geolocation data and private information about shopping (name of store, time of visit, items purchased, cashier’s name, etc) are absolutely not necessary to donate to our schools. What was once a charitable project has become just one more opportunity for a corporation to harvest data from consumers and boost their bottom line. Kids can’t participate anymore (our kids enjoyed cutting out the box tops for us), receipts “expire”, glitches or bad photos disqualify receipts, and access to smartphones and data plans should not be required to participate in this program.
This is just a bad, bad, bad idea from the perspective of schools, students and parents. Were any of these people consulted about this change? Or was it just the board of directors with charts about how much money the company will save? Think about it.
Technology and opportunity gaps, combined with the possibility of a data breach containing geolocation data and private information about shopping (name of store, time of visit, items purchased, cashier’s name, etc) are absolutely not necessary to donate to our schools. What was once a charitable project has become just one more opportunity for a corporation to harvest data from consumers and boost their bottom line. Kids can’t participate anymore (our kids enjoyed cutting out the box tops for us), receipts “expire”, glitches or bad photos disqualify receipts, and access to smartphones and data plans should not be required to participate in this program.
This is just a bad, bad, bad idea from the perspective of schools, students and parents. Were any of these people consulted about this change? Or was it just the board of directors with charts about how much money the company will save? Think about it.
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My contributions don’t match my earnings to the school...
I’ve contributed about $3 and change since I started using the app, but my lifetime earnings show up as $2.40. I’m hoping the app update fixes this. I wonder how many schools have the wrong amount donated? Also I consistently have to resend in my digital receipts in order for them to be counted. I noticed that on weekends I always have to wait until a week day to resubmit and if you discuss it with customer service (via the website) they direct you to take a picture write out all the products you should have received money for and give a bunch of personal information which isn’t time saving or more convenient at all. I also have lost the opportunity to donate via my Sam’s club purchases because the app doesn’t recognize them as qualifying purchases and it doesn’t tell you but there is a two week window to submit your customer service request or you miss out. I’m ready to start clipping my box tops again so my kids’ school has the requisite year or two to turn them in and not 14 days before the BTFE organization and I can’t respond in a timely manner and lose out on dollars worth of box tops for schools.
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Response from developer
We're sorry to hear you are having issues. This doesn't sound right - please reach out to our app team and we are happy to troubleshoot your earnings history. T
No way to reset password
I use facial recognition on my phone. I tried to link BoxTops to a bulk purchasing app, but it would not accept my typical password or any of my other ones to link. Then I tried to login to BTFE manually and it would not accept the password. Clicking “forgot password” to get an email to reset a password put me in a ridiculous loop to enter my old password in order to change it to a new one. I did get very quick customer service response saying to delete and reinstall the app—that did not work, same issue; OR to login from the website, not the app in case I initially set up the account from the website. I set it up from the app, but figured it was worth a try. No, same thing. They just need to email a reset link that does not require the old password to be entered.
I gave the app two stars instead of one because I love that we are not having to clip box tops anymore. I am sure it also speeds things up for the food manufacturers, too.
I gave the app two stars instead of one because I love that we are not having to clip box tops anymore. I am sure it also speeds things up for the food manufacturers, too.
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Can’t Ever Read My Receipts
Switching to an app was the worst plan ever. It’s horrible, and it can’t ever read my full receipts. In three months and $1500 worth of groceries, the app has recognized $0.60. Shame on you, Box Tops, for finding a way to get OUT of donating back to our schools. I’ll go back to buying cheaper brands and just handing the money over to our school directly.
UPDATE: The developer sent a response with “tips” which were completely useless. Tried them all—none of them worked. And the “report earnings” option is not only faulty, it’s not feasible. It does not work, and to report entirely by hand the would-be claimed items on a receipt with over 200 items means this app is not supposed to be convenient for the consumers—again, the convenience is for Box Tops as they now get to proclaim a community service they don’t actually provide.
EVERYONE, buy GENERIC STORE-BRAND, and then DONATE your savings DIRECTLY to your school. They’ll come out better that way, honestly.
UPDATE: The developer sent a response with “tips” which were completely useless. Tried them all—none of them worked. And the “report earnings” option is not only faulty, it’s not feasible. It does not work, and to report entirely by hand the would-be claimed items on a receipt with over 200 items means this app is not supposed to be convenient for the consumers—again, the convenience is for Box Tops as they now get to proclaim a community service they don’t actually provide.
EVERYONE, buy GENERIC STORE-BRAND, and then DONATE your savings DIRECTLY to your school. They’ll come out better that way, honestly.
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