to think that people who demand "EMAIL READ" receipts are bossy control freaks?

[morningpaper]

What's the MATTER with you? Why do you want to know WHEN I read my email?

And no I'm NOT going to send you a read receipt you control FREAK.

how did the read receipt help then?

BiteofCock, I have been guilty of trying to ring people if they haven't answered my text!If you feel hassled you are probably less likely to reply?

Life was much less complicated when we only had landlines or knocking on people's doors!

I wouldn't ever do this when sending a personal e-mail but I can see it's useful in a work setting.

I never reply to them either. And if you still have so much trouble getting people to do what you want them to Fibilou, they obviously don't work!! Try phoning people, I would.

YANBU - unless the sender suspects that an email account might be dormant.
As others have said, a read receipt only means that an email has been opened and not that it has been read, let alone understood or actioned.
If an email is that important a follow-up call may be appropriate and is far more effective imo.
I loathe them basically. Although this might be related to a former colleagues fixation with them for the mmost trivial crap

"Try phoning people, I would"
Reponse officers out in cars aren't very easy to get hold of on a phone, hence why our communications are mainly email. And as we have to log everything an email is in black and white while a phone call is not recorded.

And yes, of course I phoned people if things are urgent. However it's not very easy to phone an officer working 11pm-7am when I work 8-4

I really can't understand why some of you have such a problem with read receipts.

Depends! My work email has a habit of ending up in peoples spam filters.

If it is an important email then I occasionally request one just to know that the email has made it.

More often than not I phone to check it has been recieved instead. Seems friendlier.

I think a lot of you must work in much smaller organisations than me ! I could never spare the time to ring people to check they have received email as i probably send out roughly between 100 and 150 emails per day.

so you receive 100-150 read receipts a day?? That must be tedious in the extreme.

what happens if the person also has an automatic read-receipt-request? Do they get sent a receipt when you read their receipt? does it go on forever?

No, I only send read receipts for stuff that I need to know the person has acknowledged - like "can you please phone your victim as she phoned me asking to talk to you" or "you need to attend court on the 17.11 to give evidence in a trial"

I don't put them on everything, I would be inundated wtih receipts !

Agree with MP - the fact that you have sent the email is enough.

If it came to a point of contention, the fact that you can demonstrate that the email was sent to Mr X on such and such a date is enough in itself. The people who bustle about and say 'ooh Mr X actually opened it at 8.56 on the 15th October' are bosom wobblers imo who expect laudatory comments about their expert organisational skills, when in fact when and where it was opened is a moot point.

The whole concept is pointless and invented for Monicas.

Eurgh! A friend of mine used to do this when we worked together, she did with texts too.

I don't think they should be used for personal communications. I find it a bit stalkerish.

"The whole concept is pointless and invented for Monicas. "

Or someone like me that may send someone an email asking them to do something urgently before they go on 4 days off to prevent the excuse "I didn't receive the email until I got back from my rest days". Well I have a read receipt saying you did so it ain't going to be me getting a disciplinary to explain why a case has fallen apart at court because an enquiry hasn't been completed, wasting several thousand pounds of money and hours of court time

I think they lull the control freaks into a false sense of security. Maybe your colleague read your email but gives your project low priority. What then? How's a little email saying they opened it going to help you when you miss your deadline. The most effective people at work don't rely on email, they make calls, and just rely on emails for stuff that has to be 'in writing'.

When I had a job (Redundanct now) I had a colleague who put read receipts on EVERY
THING! I read with interest here that it's used on idle members of staff!! It used to drive me so mad that I deliberately didn't open her e-mails or opened them and didn't do anything for ages...

On my last day in the office I opened all the unread e-mails in my inbox she must have got hundreds of receipts in her inbox. Is this why I'm now out of work?!!

Although the colleague in question sent me a lovely leaving card and gift on my last day saying how much she'd enjoyed working wiht me. She has a job and I don't perhaps that's the moral of my story.

Fibilou - your last scenario sounds like the perfect time to phone someone to make sure the very urgent thing gets done before they go on four days rest. Just out of interest, if you did not get a read receipt back from that person, would you follow it up with a phone call? You'd probably have to really wouldn't you?

The problem is that they aren't actually reliable.

I've never used them in personal emails, but when I was at work (I ran an IT Helpdesk) we used tog et asked about them all the time - it was always so people could cover their backs (99% of the time every question was about people covering their backs).

However

Some email systems aren't compatible with read receipts from other email systems
Some email admins turn them off completely because they clog up the system (it essentially doubles the amount of emails that a system has to deal with)
Some comapnies have email filters that block receipts like this
Some individual users receive requests for read receipts to be sent and click "No"...

And numerous other reasons...

So essentially I hate the things because generally the person who has asked for a read receipt has done it expecting it to work when in mnay many cases and for many reasons, they don't....which generally causes stress and bad feeling with the sender who is thinking they have been ignored when in all liklihood they haven't.

I used to have to use them.

My job was to book rooms and trainers/teachers for a well known banks Training Courses.

I had to read receipt request the trainers to make sure they'd got any emails about schedule changes, because once they'd read the email, my duty was done and it was up to them to pay attention to what the email said and not the changes in their diary.

"Fibilou - your last scenario sounds like the perfect time to phone someone to make sure the very urgent thing gets done before they go on four days rest. Just out of interest, if you did not get a read receipt back from that person, would you follow it up with a phone call? You'd probably have to really wouldn't you? "

Well, the difficulty for me is that I'm a police officer working in a witness unit with the CPS. Most of our work involves liasing with response officers who are out and about a lot of the time and not contactable in the same way another office worker would be. We don't have radios in our unit so can't radio someone up. So Officer A might be out all afternoon, I send them an email and try to phone them but can't get hold of them (very common); I go off duty adn they might not be in until 11pm the next day - when I'm not going to be able to speak to them. Then I might be off or they might be off so it could be 6 days before I can speak to them.
Yes, it would be ridiculous if I relied on read receipts to ensure that everything is done BUT if I come in the next day and see no read receipt from the officer I assume that they haven't been able to deal with my enquiry so I will make endeavours to get it tasked some other way. If I've got a read receipt then I won't worry as I assume it's in hand and would only chase up if the actions weren't completed by the time CPS have asked for them.

Oh, and our work email is set up so that you can't choose not to send a read receipt - it automatically sends it once someone opens the email.

I do it in my job - frequently my emails are informing people of court dates that they need to attend and our clients are notorious for forgetting to turn up. Often they'll blame this on not receiving the email so i need to make sure I cover my back. If I haven't had a read receipt I know they might need reminding.

Wouldn't do it any other time though!

I think it's totally acceptable when it's to do with work. I used to work with 130 students aged 17-18 and whenever we sent them letters (often about something to their advantage) 129 would vociferously claim: "I never got no le'er!"

If it wasn't for the one student who would come in with the letter asking for it to be explained - bless! - I would have been down the sorting office with a big stick with nails in it.

Wish I'd had read-receipt email in those days.

But if it's nothing to do with paid employment I am with MP.

I even got a read-receipt email from "Umbrella Heaven." Presumably they need legal proof that I am wilfully ignoring my rain-protection needs this autumn.

Rather than the truth which is "Umbrella? Loooxury mate, loooxury. When you've got a toddler in a push chair you get soaked in the school run and liiiiike it."

people who are incapable of reading email without a hissy fit are wussie. wake up,snap to it.read the fucking email and send a receipt you Luddite

"I do it in my job - frequently my emails are informing people of court dates that they need to attend and our clients are notorious for forgetting to turn up. "

A familiar tale !