Return Receipts

Someone asked how he could know that a recipient actually saw his message.

I have been using a service, returnreceipts.com, for a couple of years 
now and have found them invaluable in that regard.

It's not fool-proof. For some addresses, it responds:


   ----- The following addresses had successful delivery notifications -----
<xyzzy@aol.com>  (relayed to non-DSN-aware mailer)

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
<xyzzy@aol.com>... relayed; expect no further notifications



as soon as it's delivered.

However, without relays, you get this as soon as it's delivered:




Your message has been successfully delivered to the following recipients:

  Recipient address: zzyxyx@verizon.net
  Reason: Message successfully delivered



and this each time it is opened for reading:



To 	  *zzyxyx@verizon.net * <mailto:stedoc@verizon.net> 
<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/pjh/Application%20Data/Thunderbir
d/Profiles/default/n74lggs8.slt/Mail/mail.xyzzy.com/Inbox?number=88892011#> 

 From 	 *pjh42@pobox.com * <mailto:pjh42@pobox.com>
Subject 	 *TEST *
Sent on 	 12-Apr-08 at 19:51:17pm 'America/New_York' time
1st Open 	
 *12-Apr-08 at 19:54:09pm  * -4:00 	(86%) Pennsauken, New Jersey, United 
States


Tracking Details

*Opened*
Opened 	12-Apr-08 at 19:54:09pm (UTC -4:00)   -   2mins52secs after sending
Location 	Pennsauken, New Jersey, United States (86% likelihood)
Opened on 	pool-71-245-212-101¸delv¸east¸verizon¸net (71¸245¸212¸101:50144)
Language 	of recipient's PC: en-us (English/United States), en;q=0.5 
(English)
Browser 	used by recipient: Moz/5.0 (Win; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; 
rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070326 Thunderbird/2.0.0.6
Accepts 	Files browser can open: i/png,*/*;q=0.5


*Summary   -   as at 12-Apr-08 at 20:04:27pm (UTC -4:00)   -   
*13mins10secs after sending
Total 	Opened 1 time by 1 reader

Pete Holsberg wrote:
> Someone asked how he could know that a recipient actually saw his message.
> 
> I have been using a service, returnreceipt.com, for a couple of years 
> now and have found them invaluable in that regard.
> 


IFYPFY  ;-)