Box Tops for Education™ Reviews

I get most of my items with the Box Tops in 1 monthly purchase from a retailer that seeks things in bulk sizes. The packaging says they are eligible items, they’ve always had multiple of the printed Box Tops in the past. The retailer is supposed to be a recognized one. There was even a bonus for them not to long ago. However, when I scanned the receipts the last few months, none of the items with these supposed digital Box Tops in BoxTops showed up and there are no longer printed Box Tops in the packaging to send to the school. Only the advertising for using BoxTops to get the Box Tops is on the packaging now, but it doesn’t work. I tried contacting customer service through BoxTops each time, but never received a response. So the school gets no credit for what should have been 30-40 Box Tops.

Then let’s top this all off with I have lots of family & friends that used to save Box Tops & give them to my child. Many of these people elderly and don’t use apps like this. Now because it’s all digital the schools get nothing from them because I don’t see them often enough to scan receipts before the time limit is up. BoxTops seems to be a way to just stop giving the schools as much money because fewer people like the elderly will use it and because many receipts won’t be accepted or will be lost or unreadable. This hasn’t simplified the process, it’s complicated it.

If there is a long receipt, the items won’t scan due to the fact that the date must be shown. In addition, I saved a receipt, went on vacation, and when I scanned it the receipt expired (must scan within 14 days). That’s if I even remember where I put the receipt and if I made a mental note at the store that I had an item to scan. Kids do not get the physical satisfaction of clipping a box top to earn points for school. Scanning and writing in dates on paper to submit are not allowing the kids the proper credit. This is more work on parents and takes the joy and work off kids for their contributions towards class parties or other incentives.

In my opinion this is a scapegoat for box tops to not give as much money to the school as parents will lose receipts, unable to scan long receipts in one picture, or forget to even scan. My parents and friends would help me by saving physical box tops. This is no longer the case as I refuse to convince others to ‘simply get BoxTops ’ or ‘save receipts’.

Finally, this system leaves a paper trail and breach of my privacy by scanning my purchases into a centralized database (we can be told this info is protected, but is it really with the hackers and system breaches?). My personal info (location, time, credit card, other items purchased) are now being recorded to an external source.

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 BoxTops 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, BoxTops 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 BoxTops . 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 BoxTops 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.

I liked clipping and taping better. At least my kids got credit for their own box tops that way. Here in BoxTops it’s just a free for all for each school. I see the star where you can credit people but that only works for in store receipts and not digital receipts. Digital receipts are a PITA because if you only do grocery pick up you can’t even USE BoxTops — it just takes up space and all you really get out of it is a dashboard with your earnings. I’ve already had to contact customer service multiple times to get my Shipt/Walmart grocery box tops, and school barely started three weeks ago. Don’t get me wrong, their customer service is great, it’s just BoxTops that feels like unnecessary bloatware that doesn’t really DO anything unless you go shop in person all the time and have paper receipts. I would like BoxTops much better if there was a way to add screenshots of transactions directly within BoxTops . Even more, I’d prefer that they just go back to clippable tops, so my kids could get credit for their this app. I even tried printing a curbside pick up email receipt (7 pages of ink and paper wasted) just to scan it so I could designate a class and it said “could not find a date”. So I ended up having to email.

I am a loyal supporter of the BTFE program and have been through 3 children and 7 grandchildren. However,I am really disappointed in this approach to supporting education. I have always nurtured a learning opportunity while partnering in this program. From choosing foods at the grocery store and examining the nutritional values of these products to the cost of meals and time management to the actual clipping of the box tops, these children were learning in a very small way and at a basic level how to get involved with and help out a greater cause. This program takes the hands on time away from the child and the pride they develop while clipping and pasting and counting these tokens in preparation to proudly hand to their teachers. The scan greatly disappoints me and honestly I’m sure some high paid representatives for your company got together and decided the cost of this program was too expensive to the company and implemented this as a solution. I call shenanigans and challenge you to rethink the expense of educating a child with life skills and then tell me this program was not cost effective for your conglomerate! I’m going to have to rethink before allowing these children to select a product over a clone/generic that is of equal quality but cheaper because there is no BTFE image to scan and send those pennies directly to the schools.

I’ve contributed about $3 and change since I started using BoxTops , but my lifetime earnings show up as $2.40. I’m hoping BoxTops 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 BoxTops 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.

BoxTops has been good. I like being able to designate a class for earnings to go to for school competitions- not sure if my school knows how to look at this though. Also nice to be able to change schools from receipt to receipt to divide earnings for more than one school. Receipts are easy to scan, and instant feedback is nice. However, in the last several months it seems like I get less and less box tops. I’ve had several receipts that I had to report missing earnings on, and it’s difficult to track if they ever actually go in. Also, Sam’s Club paper receipts have to be emailed in like digital receipts. If you try to scan, it always says date missing even when it’s not. I think there are a lot of people who may not download and use BoxTops that would clip box tops, but also people who will scan receipts in BoxTops and like not having to keep up with clipping and saving. Thanks for the money for our schools, but I was happier with BoxTops when I first got it in summer 2019 than I am now in spring 2020.

I Love the this app program as it gives schools an opportunity to earn extra money for things they could not otherwise afford. I do however have a problem with them taking the this app off of products. A LOT of people do not have a way to scan receipts in to get points. I’m hearing a lot of complaints about the new way of doing things. With this app on products even the most reluctant will take a moment to tear them off the product and toss them into a cup or baggy out of the way until they see someone who is collecting them. With the new way even ppl with smartphones say “I’m not downloading another app!” Or “I’m too busy to bother with this!” Not too many people are willing to share their receipts so someone else can scan them either. I truly hope that you will find it in your hearts to go back to the ‘old way’. A lot of schools depend on this extra money during the school year.
Thanks for listening,
Brenda Hoppe

Overall I like the concept of BoxTops and the ease of BoxTops . I’m not sure why there is a “14” day time frame. Sometimes you have a receipt you forgot about and left in your purse or wallet for a couple weeks. One major improvement I’d like to see is scanning large paper sized (8.5x 11) papers. With COVID-19 we are using a lot to online ordering and door pick up for a warehouse like BJ’s or Costco. This gives us a large receipt that box tops A) isn’t always recognizing B) doesn’t pick up on redeemable items for points C) reads date incorrectly. I will continue to try using BoxTops and hope for improvements with the school year starting. It says if we believe there are items on our receipt that weren’t recognized to bring to local school. That is sort of defeating the purpose of the ease of BoxTops ./ I just don’t have time to do both. 🤞🏼Hoping for improvements :o)

I liked the traditional clip system much better! There aren’t as many digital product offerings as there were before with the clip system. :(
BoxTops and digital system is not user friendly which is why I stopped using it several years ago before the clip system was unfortunately discontinued.
I have had multiple issues scanning and entering items on the receipts. For example, if an item on a receipt isn’t recognized, you have to manually match it to available choices. Once you select the item, it is no longer available for selection again. If you bought more than one of the same item, what are you supposed to do??? This has happened to me so many times. It’s hard to get full credit for purchases.
The “NEW, DIGITAL” system is a pain to use now. Probably why not many people in our area are actually using it to support our schools anymore. I guess if your mission was to eventually phase the donations program out by discouraging people from using it; then BTFE is successfully achieving its goal.

For one, it takes 10 times as much work because you have to sooth the receipt, tape it down, and take pictures in sections, only to have it NOT RECOGNIZE a date or store or something and you have to redo it. And that’s only if you actually remember to hurry up and scan the receipt before you forget and it’s been past two weeks, which is a TOTAL bummer and angers me. Then today I tried scanning 3 different receipts and it’s didn’t recognize ANY boxtop items even though there were maybe 10 on each, all from Kroger where I’ve always shopped and it’s always recognized them. And to “report missing items” you literally have to scroll through every item on your receipt, figure out which one could be the nature valley bars and then fish out the item from your pantry and take a picture for proof...ridiculous! I’m so upset by this new “modern” way sending this app... not only are they incapable of actually functioning and at least providing a halfway decent workIng app, but there ROBBING schools of money that better education. They should be embarrassed and ashamed at this epic disaster they call an “app”.

I see that many people are having problems submitting receipts. I’m having problems just creating an account. Now it won’t even let me create an account because it now says my email is already signed up. But when I try to login with info that I tried to sign up with, the login fails and says to check my email/password. Tried to reset password but it won’t recognize my email and send me a reset link. Tried to contact customer service, but it won’t even submit their customer response form. Which is now why I am writing this review for BoxTops(the first I have ever bothered to write) because this is more trouble than it’s worth! School’s are going to be the real losers in this because I see I’m not the only one having problems with BoxTops and I don’t have time for this nonsense. It’s much easier & faster just to cut the box top out in the first place instead of jamming up my phone with yet another app. And I agree with some of the other reviewers with the fact that it was fun to have the kids involved in collecting the tops and getting prizes at school. I’m not going to keep going through this foolishness if they can’t get this together.

I love using box tops because I knowing I’m helping the kids, the teachers, the school (White Rock Jane, Missouri) and future students. I love the whole concept of helping others out..especially kids!!!! My boys are grown but I remember when box tops first started I was the one who sent off for the packet and set White Rock up with the program and both my boys was still in elementary at White Rock. This program means a lot to me because I’m unable to physically volunteer at the school due to be disabled but I can help the school with the box tops.
Thank you General Mills for giving back to our schools and our communities!!!!!
Doing good always makes me feel a lot happier...each time I scan my receipt(s) I see the bar that shows me how much I’ve helped my chosen school!!!!

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.

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 BoxTops 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.

There has been a lot of skepticism with the new digital box tops program, but I’ve adjusted my routine (scanning the receipt when I unpack groceries) and I’ve found it to be a quick and easy way to earn money for my kids’ school. There are some kinks to work out, but any time I’ve had a problem Box Tops has made it right. There are growing pains to be sure, but overall BoxTops has worked well for me. It would be nice to have an option to link to multiple schools and choose which to submit earnings to each time you scan, for families with kids in multiple schools that participate. ETA: the new give credit feature is great, but again it would be nice to be able to edit this field each time a receipt is scanned so credit can be given to a different class for multiple kids or based on different contest structures (sometimes our contests are run by class, by grade, boy v girl, or a different team system).

I get why every program is trying to go digital but this just isn’t the program to do it with. It usually doesn’t work, giving me errors such as “No date shown receipt” when it’s in plain view or saying there aren’t any box tops rewards when there clearly were (sometimes multiple). I’ve had to re-scan so many receipts that are a foot or longer in length only to get the same errors and in the end never get the credit for the box tops. I have tried submitting missing box tops but never received the credit. AND our school does competitions in each class room for box tops and now that it’s digital, I’m only able to submit box tops under one child’s name unless I want multiple accounts using multiple emails and log in and out. I simply want to throw the cardboard box tops in the jar I already have set up and each month when there is a competition at the school, distribute them amongst my three boys so they all get some credit. I have let more box tops go this last year than I ever have, and the school suffers for it. Go back to the way it was or make this better.

New and limited edition items are not added to BoxTops 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 BoxTops 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.

I like this new way to earn box tops for my school because I don’t have to stop and cut them from boxes and remember to take them to the teacher but I order my groceries to be delivered and as easy as it is to submit a picture of a paper receipt I don’t like that I have to email BTFE to get credit for the products I ordered. I don’t get an electronic receipt from Walmart necessarily it’s just a confirmation of what I ordered which they could substitute. I don’t get an email of what was delivered but I can screenshot from the Walmart app what was delivered and paid for if they would allow me to do that within BoxTops instead of emailing it. Overall it’s a nice way to collect for the school but if they could fix the electronic receipt submission then it’d be perfect. I’ve also only had to email them for missing credits because it only credited me .10 when the promo on the box was for 4 so I’m not sure how they’d correct for products that have the 4X-10X or what have you promos.

Compared to the old method, I feel like I earn way less for our schools. BoxTops was great in the beginning, but now it barely or never recognizes legitimate box tops. This program, I fear, is near its end.

Also, it’s really unfair that because my daughter’s school shares the same building as another program (she is in a public gifted school and the other program is a language immersion program) that the schools’ earnings cannot be separated. We used to rely on these funds but now not only do we have to share them with another program, we also don’t earn as much as we used to due to this digital program.

I’m pretty much done with scanning these receipts. It’s a literal waste of my time. I just don’t think earning .20 after scanning tons a receipts is worth it anymore. Sorry if I sound sour, maybe I should be grateful for the little bit of free money, but to me it just seems like this is a way for these companies to phase out the box tops program. If you’re going to phase it out, just do it—do not waste our time and hope.

At first I thought the digital option was neat, but then I realized it required a photo of the receipt. I pay digitally or order my groceries for pick up, both of which produce a digital receipt and nothing to scan. If I could upload a screenshot that may work, but it may be more the one screenshot. Also, as others have said, I have kids at multiple schools and can’t easily divide them up. Lastly, our family lives a 1000 miles away and their great grandparents love supporting by sending a card with the box tops and we are going to miss out on a lot of box top collections now that they can’t cut them out. They don’t use smart phones. It would be nice if there was still an option to cut or scan. I am usually a proponent of going digital, but I think a few things were missed with this change. Hopefully there can be some adjustments made for a better customer experience that still allows the schools to benefit the best they can.

I love that these products are supporting our schools but I’ve had at least three errors with redeeming via BoxTops in just a few months of use. I’ve contacted this app at least twice, the first time they graciously credited my account with the info/pictures I sent, but this time they took a few days to reply telling me to update my app... well the receipt is now lost and it took me another 5min to figure out how to manually update and it already was, so that didn’t help me.

So now instead of the fun of getting box top gifts from our family and friends and the joy of kids getting to contribute to their school, BoxTops takes the power out of the kids hands and makes more work for this mom. The kids who are old enough to operate BoxTops themselves don’t have schools who participate.

I still use it even though I get no personal benefit from the work of remembering to save and scan if I see a box top when I’m shopping.

Update: I have had the opportunity to use BoxTops for several weeks, and I truly hope they scrap it. My prediction of it being a hassle is absolutely correct. It never seems to find all of the qualifying items, and sometimes still won’t give credit after the items have been reported. I will probably just start making a donation rather than continuing with Box Tops... and making purchasing choices that don’t include Box Top products.

I just downloaded BoxTops because the two boxes of cereal I purchased didn’t have clip-able Box Tops. After attempting to scan my first receipt, I can already tell that this is going to be a major hassle. Trying to line up the ends of the receipt to get all of the necessary information was impossible, and after I got to the end, it didn’t even recognize the two boxes of cereal that were supposed to qualify! I did report the error; hopefully it will be addressed. I really hope that BoxTops doesn’t become the only option for Box Tops, though it probably will. Clipping is SO much easier!!

BoxTops keeps telling me I am submitting duplicate receipts when I am definitely not. I bought many boxes of Cheerios on the same day (30+), but for various reasons checked out separately, so had multiple receipts each with 5 boxes of cereal on it. BoxTops keeps telling me one of two things: “duplicate receipt” or “no eligible items” when there are clearly 5 boxes of Cheerios on my receipt. Our school has lost out on over $20 so far just from my purchases. The only response I’ve received from customer service is “please submit your missing earnings through BoxTops ”, but that is a massive pain since the receipts are not logged in my account because BoxTops refused them. My only option is a help ticket which takes forever when you have to do a separate one for 10 receipts! Ain’t nobody got time for that. NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL. Please fix the problems and improve your customer service experience. Many other companies bend over backwards to fix a problem...not so here. My account got credited a total of $2 instead of the $20+ BoxTops had missed. Not cool.

I love the idea of going digital. I have never had a problem with bugs or anything like that. However, I can’t help but feel like there were some things that weren’t thought of or thought through. For example, they make you choose one school to donate to, and that’s great if you only have one child but when you have multiple and some are in a different school, it’s hard to divide and share your earnings. The second thing I am not a huge fan of is, having to use the receipt. I like how it gets everything all at once, but there are some things that I buy that are personal and I am not a fan of sharing that. A suggestion I have is to put a barcode or something that we can scan on the inside of the box so people can’t just scan it while they are at the store.

I’m not normally one to adopt new technology quickly, but as a former teacher, I know how much needed money for supplies Box Tops for education has brought into the schools and I don’t want that opportunity to be lost. Scanning in the review is pretty easy- although it takes a minute or two, good eye sight, and a steady hand, but it is not as easy as tearing off a boxtop was. The good news is that they can’t expire this way, I can’t miss a few, and I don’t have to worry about the kids forgetting to turn them in on time. Still, I worry that many won’t take the time to adapt to the new method. If it were combined with coupons for boxtop products, I would be more likely to buy these products than their generic equivalents. A dime per product to the school isn’t enough to justify the (often) multiple dollar expense of the name brands over generics.

This new system of having to scan receipts is really hurting our districts schools, as very few parents, students and contributors are participating any longer. It was a much more user friendly system of clipping and submitting the box tops to the school and resulted in collecting at least $1000 a year. Plus it’s very frustrating how many vendors we shop at that sell products that have the box top labels that are no longer counted since the new app does not recognize the particular vendor. (I’ve had a good many recipes rejected with a note to “keep clipping and submitting.”) We no longer get credit. Plus who can remember to scan their receipts every time? I used to go from turning in at least $20 a month worth of box tops to my son’s school, and now I have a paltry $0.60 banked in my box top app. Very sad. Sometimes it’s best to not fix what isn’t broken.

I realize they are trying to keep up with the times, but this new app and scan program is just taking money from schools. What was once an easy way for family members to help my child’s school is now impossible because they do not have smart phones or tablets and they are not going g to send me receiving through the mail every time they grocery shop. I have not spoken to a single parent who sees this as a good idea. And what was so wrong with clipping Box Tops? It was made to sound it as if BoxTops was save us time because there would be no more drudgery of clipping, but my daughter liked clipping them and seeing her contributions. What was a fun art project for her by coloring the submissions papers is no more. Plus parents spend More time reviewing receipts and double and triple checking that every box top is being added, as opposed to grappa g a pair of scissors and cutting out the Box Top or simply ripping it off. Go back to how it was Box Top, it was better plain and simple.