Get help

Email admin@carbora.org.uk with what happened and, if you can, which shop or sticker was involved. This is a one-person project, so give it a day or two rather than expecting an instant reply — but every message gets read.

Nine times out of ten it’s where the phone is held. The reader isn’t in the middle of the phone: on an iPhone it’s the very top edge (hold the top of the phone flat on the sticker), and on most Android phones it’s the middle of the back. Rest it there and keep still for about two seconds — a quick tap often starts a read without finishing it.

A thick case, a card holder, or wireless-charging accessories sit between the two aerials and can stop it reading. So can metal: a sticker on a metal counter or shelf edge will be temperamental for everyone.

If it still won’t read, tell us which shop it’s at — a dead sticker is something we want to know about quickly, not something to guess at from our end. You can always press “I’ve been here” on the shop’s card instead; you’ll get the visit, just not the partner double.

A few things can cause this on purpose, not by mistake: that shop was already stamped today (each shop earns points once a day, resetting at midnight, so the same door can’t be pressed or tapped over and over for points), or the sticker isn’t set up yet. If you pressed “I’ve been here” at a partner shop and then tapped its sticker, the tap tops your stamp up to the partner rate rather than earning a second one. If none of that explains it, email us.

We don’t check where you are when you press it — by design, so that we never have to know your location. That means points only mean something if everyone presses it honestly. If you think someone in your league is inflating their score, tell us and we’ll look.

Download or delete everything held about you from Account in the app — both are real, immediate actions, not a request that waits on us (how to delete your account). See what we keep and why for the full picture.

Carbora lists Oxford’s independents from public information — name, address, what kind of shop it is — so people can find you. Being listed doesn’t mean you’ve signed up to anything. If something’s wrong, or you’d rather not be listed at all, email admin@carbora.org.uk and we’ll correct or remove it, usually within a couple of days. If you’d like to become a partner — a sticker at your counter that’s worth double points to visitors — the same address works for that too.

In the app, tap anyone in a league to report or block them. Blocking hides their name from you in every table you share, and they aren’t told. You can also email us with what happened. See the terms for what’s not allowed.