do you think this is offensive?

P

powerdog

Veteran
In this age of offense we live in, I can never tell what some people might object to.

What do you think of sending emails with a return receipt? Does it imply lack of trust? Is there a PITA factor in the email recipient having to click OK for the receipt?
 
Waste of time. Most people turn off that requirement in their email program...assuming they use a "real" one.

On top of that, some email server strip it out before they even get to the recipient.
 
Its appropriateness depends on the situation. When I worked in corporate America, it was indispensible, especially the little function which told me when e-mails were being deleted without being read . . .
 
You both make valid points. BUT, the question is, are you annoyed by emails that have a return receipt request?

I like it because it's often the only way I know someone got my email. Some people, if you don't ask a direct question, read your email but don't acknowledge getting it.
 
I would say it depends on the importance of the message being communicated. I mean, you wouldn't have a return receipt for an e-mail to a friend to meet for lunch. However, you might want a return receipt for an e-mail with an attached invoice (for instance) to a business for which you've done work.

As to your question about being annoyed, no, it doesn't annoy me.
 
I allow my email program to send them...sometimes...depending on my mood. :) It probably works out to half the time. :)
 
I think it's usefull, especially (as noted above) when the e-mail itself doesn't envoke a response but still needs aknowledgement. I'd rather click [ok] then hit reply and type up a return message saying "yes I got your invoice, thankyou".


Now everyone please PM me to let me know that you read this.



- Mikko ... sometimes wonders if they got my acknowledgement message when I hit [ok], I wish they'd let me know.
 
A friend and my mother has theirs on auto reciept and asks every damn time they send an email and my friend that has it spams fowards all the time.

We use it when we are in production to make sure the crew has received and read the production notes which I think is a valid use. If you are using it to solicite something or asking a favor that the person may not want to do is questionable. No one wants to be monitored.
 
i always wondered why some company never came out with auto reciepts that are transparent to the end user.. so they dont know that you know they read it. seems kinda sneaky, but very valuable.
 
My home email account, well one of them, has that function turned on... but I only get a receipt on one out of every 50 emails I send...

I don't think its offensive or insinuates a lack of trust, but it's just one of those things that I have turned on.

-Jeremy
 
Jarred Land said:
i always wondered why some company never came out with auto reciepts that are transparent to the end user.. so they dont know that you know they read it. seems kinda sneaky, but very valuable.
Click to expand...

There are several "return receipt" web sites available (e.g. http://www.returnreceipt.com/returnreceipt/login.asp, http://www.readnotify.com/readnotify/email_tracking.asp, etc) which allow you to track your e-mail including being notified when the person receives it and when they actually read it, etc, etc. It is "transparent" in that it doesn't ask them to approve the receipt since it is just a function of the tracking rather than a direct receipt.

The biggest problem with return receipt in e-mail is that most of the time it doesn't work. It usually works in a corporate environment where everyone is standardized on an e-mail server/client setup, but for general web e-mail unless they use the same mail client as you it usually gets ignored.
 
Jarred, I'll have to try Larry's links, because that invisibility is what I'd wrongly assumed about RRs.

I get them for about half of my emails, but they don't really eliminate ambiguity. Sometimes they make it worse. I wrote to a prospect and asked to set up an initial meeting. Saw he'd read it, but he never replied. So I didn't know if he went on vacation or just was not interested. It was more awkward to follow up by phone because he knew I knew he'd read it and not replied.

(I just noticed, Larry's 2 URLs are for the same company, LocalNet. Descriptions, pricing, etc. identical.)
 
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