email deleted when use READ RECEIPT in Thunderbird (latest)

Topic

New Reply

I have sent someone an email and used a read receipt option, then got a message back with wording like –

“MESSAGE NOT READ , message has been deleted.”

Is this due to a company using an email filter so they cannot receive emails with a read receipt option?

Reply | Quote

Replies

Not necessarily.

There are various explanations for this, including:
1] They have read the email in a preview pane – which doesn’t actually open the email – and then deleted it.
2] They have a received the email at two locations/mail boxes, read it at one without sending the Read Receipt, and deleted it the other without reading it (again).
3] They have deleted the email without reading it.

It is possible they have set up a filter to delete mail from certain recipients, or based on a SPAM score, but I think it unlikely anyone would bother sending that sort of response if they had. Not all email users are actually aware they are acknowledging read receipts, so it may or may not be deliberate.

The best way to find out is to send another email asking them…

Reply | Quote

I cannot ask them as it was for a job application.

Could l assume they might have deleted the read receipt and therefore the mail would have been flagged as “NOT READ”?

Reply | Quote

I don’t think so.

Roughly speaking:
1] The mail arrives in the recipients client (e.g. Outlook). The client could be set up to ignore (not send) Read Receipt requests, ask each time if it should be sent, or always send a Read Receipt.

2] If a Read Receipt is acknowledged, it is usually not shown in the recipients Sent Items, and may only appear briefly in their Outbox. It is a ‘raw’ message, over which you generally have no content control. In other words, the average user can not stop the receipt being sent or delete it.

3] Your client (Thunderbird) can not distinguish between an email being read or not if no Read Receipt is sent – you can not prove a negative. In other words, Thunderbird can NOT state a sent email was NOT read.

4] A Read Receipt can state two things: The email was read, or it was deleted without being read. If the Read Receipt was deleted by the recipient, you would not have received any message.

You probably need to make a judgment call yourself on this. If the email was sent to job-applications@company.com, the chances are that it may have been delivered to multiple people, and so one of them could have read it, and the other deleted it. If it was sent to joe.bloggs@company.com, it could still have been sent to multiple postboxes.

Personally, I would send in your job application again, stating you have received a receipt stating your email was deleted without being read. Your email could have been deleted accidentally, in which case there would be no problem in sending it in again. But, if they have deliberately deleted it without reading it, they sound like an employer I would not want to work for, so you have nothing to lose.

Reply | Quote