Is a read receipt proof positive that an e-mail has arrived

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A client of ours is denying reciept of an e-mail we sent - we have a read
receipt from them for the day after we sent our e-mail - is it possible they
didn't receive the e-mail???
 
A read receipt is is controlled by the client on the receiving end. It's not
legal proof but you can be about 99% that they indeed received it.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1
 
When an e-mail arrives in your inbox, Outlook will show the preview of the
e-mail in the bottom window. After about 5 seconds, the e-mail is marked as
read and any return receipts sent (either automatically or by
user-intervention depending on the users settings).

Just because an e-mail has arrived in an inbox doesnt mean that it has been
read by that person.


Roady said:
A read receipt is is controlled by the client on the receiving end. It's not
legal proof but you can be about 99% that they indeed received it.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----
jasonp51d said:
A client of ours is denying reciept of an e-mail we sent - we have a read
receipt from them for the day after we sent our e-mail - is it possible
they
didn't receive the e-mail???
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
jasonp51d said:
A client of ours is denying reciept of an e-mail we sent - we have a
read
receipt from them for the day after we sent our e-mail - is it
possible they
didn't receive the e-mail???
Click to expand...


It only proves the *someone* opened the e-mail. Unless the recipient is
claiming that someone hacked into their account or they claim they don't
have control over their mailbox or share it with others (which means
THEY are still responsible for the use of that shared mailbox) then they
read it. However, that doesn't mean have any legal grounds based on an
indication that they read the e-mail. How do you know you sent it to
the correct recipient? Could be you sent to a valid e-mail address and
THAT recipient sent back a read receipt, and it could be you used the
e-mail address you were given but the customer misspelled it but it
happened to match another user's e-mail address. Unless you are willing
to subpoena the ISP to get some proof that your customer is the one that
actually owns that e-mail account, you really don't know who is using
it.

Talk to your lawyer. Proving legal responsibility for e-mail delivered
documents is damn tricky, especially since e-mail delivery is not
guaranteed, hackers do invade e-mail accounts, and you'll need proof
that the customer actually owns that e-mail account. Since you decided
not to divulge what was going on regarding what you sent then you chose
to keep us in the dark. You'll need to provide more details to your
lawyer.
 
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