Message Receipt

Hi! I use Thunderbird, but what I'm looking for doesn't necessarily have to be integrated into the Thunderbird program. Maybe I can't just attach or paste it...

I was wondering if there's such a script/feature/tool/widget (I'm not sure what you call it) wherein when I send an email, the recipient will have no choice but to confirm receipt to be able to read the message. He may actively click a button, or just by reading the message, the confirmation is auto-sent.

Currently, Thunderbird has a confirm receipt feature, wherein a small window pops up asking for you to confirm receipt or cancel notification. It actually bugs me when people don't confirm on important messages, leaving me to have to follow up on their receipt. It was there for a reason (grumble!).

Thanks!

IMHO, not only do "Read Receipt"s border on being insulting, they can also be invasive and malicious.

When a "read receipt" is returned, additional technical information, such as who it is from, the email software they use, and the IP address of the email server is available inside the headers of the read receipt. (Watch out for new more targeted phishing schemes).

When a spammer adds a "read receipt" request to an email message and the recipient or their email program sends an automatic reply, it immediately proves to the spammer that your e-mail address is legitimate and active. (Be prepared for an onslaught of even more "male enhancement pills", "replica watches", etc. spam).

Hi, spywaredr! Thanks for the input. I never saw it as insulting... hmm, interesting. Whenever I got work mail (from email addresses I know) I never gave it a second thought and just clicked on the confirm button, so I never considered it as offending when it is the other way around.

Also didn't know about the ++info on the header. Normally, whenever a recipient would be considerate enough to confirm receipt, I'd just get a really short template email saying so, like to: from: subject: receipt date: something like that, nothing overly informative. Maybe it's with my settings.

For personal mail, I don't use it. It's just useful for work mail wherein I either need a documented confirmation of email receipt or just to know if the email they're expecting reached them because some clients need to play tag (calls, follow up email, sms) for me finally get a "oh yea, got it three days ago. it's a good thing you called about that". And I'm not talking about bugging them with unsolicited email, I'm talking about email that they know need their attention. Normally, I add a polite "Kindly confirm receipt of this email." note at the end, but only a tiny some do so. Exacerbating the issue is our current server (though we're currently fixing it by transferring webhosts soon) which is unpredictable. At times it's prompt with email delivery, sometimes, it gets delayed by hours, sometimes even days and there are few few times not at all.... so those are the reasons why.

That said, maybe it's not a good idea to make it auto sent, but make them click on the button (just one nothing to choose from) or something so they know they're actively confirming.

Using the Thunderbird feature, I actually don't get it why one would click on cancel instead of confirm button (meaning it's not laziness) when there's nothing extraordinary in the email content, just normal work sutff (studies, quotations, billing, discussion of projects)... I actually find it inconsiderate esp when there's a "kindly confirm receipt of this email" at the end, but that's them.

I don't like read receipts either.....I click the OK button when its a client...BUT they don't get it, that just because I read their mail that I have time Right Now to reply.....

The following will shed a little light on some of the other options to can look into.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_tracking

Hi, Steve. Thanks for the reply. Read the page you linked to and I guess what I'd like would be the read receipt, same as what I'm using now but just modified to just "confirm", "not confirm or cancel confirmation"... Reading about it more, I don't understand how it can discourteous (as mentioned in the wiki article) if the email's not unsolicited, but if that's a common sentiment I guess I'm stuck with the 2 option button.

Yea, I don't demand for an immediate reply, I just need to know they got it and they can call or email back at their convenience, at least I have peace of mind that ball's in their court. I would just find it less naggy and more efficient than having to call someone up 4 times a day just to check if they got the email.

What are a couple of reasons why you think people don't get your mail?

I learn the hard way from time to time when my clients spam filter doesn't allow my mail with attachments through. Some let the mail through but strip out the attachment. A few - stop the mail all together...

Please take into consideration , I only read receipt important emails client are expecting:

Big problem would be the hiccups in delivery time, as mentioned above. There are times the delay takes hours, sometimes days and sometimes not at a ll without the benefit of a bounce notification (i've no idea where they went). So it's a carousel of what-happened-to-the-email if I don't hear a pip from the client over urgent matters. I hate bugging people needlessly so I find this more efficient. I hope once we've transferred hosts this won't concern me as much.

I guess I also just feel better when I know for certain that an important email reached the recipient (and didn't get buried under their spam folder or got lost somewhere along the electronic highway care of some unfortunate glitch) without having to be naggy about it.

I Googled "Email Receipts"
This is the first one on the list of many:

What is E-Mail-receipt ?

E-Mail-Receipt is a totally new system that sends you an automatic receipt as soon as someone opens - displays - the e-mail you sent him.
Compared with what is presently available on the market, this system offers multiple advantages, including :

the creation process of the receipt is simple and cost effective (receipts are FREE, read confirmations cost 0.025 ),

the confirmation of the receipt arrives immediately,
sending the receipt requires no action, confirmation, e-mail sending whatsoever from the recipient,
the privacy of your message is absolute : the content of the message as well as the e-mail address of your recipient are NOT known by the system. In fact this data does not even pass through our servers !
http://e-mail-receipt.net/intro2.cfm

Thanks very much for the help.. googled the keywords you gave, email tracking... wow some of them are REALLY creepy invasive! Like one service can notify you not just the receipt but every time it gets read! Yikes!