[kirson]

Return Receipt Service

I am not affiliated with these guys in any way -- I just think this is a really cool service. If you decide to try it out, or purchase a license, please feel free to use my email address as the referral (ikirson at stonearchcapital dot com) -- I think that gives me a free month of service

http://www.returnreceipt.com/

$24/year for basic service
$36/year for advanced service
$3.99/month for monthly advanced service

Here is some information from the site

Welcome to ReturnReceipt — the most advanced email tracking, certification and security service available on the Web!

Take your emails to the next level with:

Proof of Delivery
Self-Destructing Email
Disable Forward / Print
Plus many more robust features!

And here is the most important FAQ

How does it work?
Simply add: .returnreceipt.com to the end of your recipients email address. (eg; ) This directs your email through the ReturnReceipt servers, where it is assinged a tracking code. When your email is opened by your recipients, this tracking code transmits a message to our server which confirms the date and time your email was read.

[Tom]

:o

[Mark Rejhon]

Although I don't need this service, it appears to be useful for certain mission critical applications. Like lawyers, you don't want to lose an email regarding big-money affairs. According to the quotes found on the site:

"As a lawyer, I can't live without your service."
- Gary (July 6, 2003)

"Now I can prove my email was received."
- Laurie (September 12, 2003)

"It is a great service...it almost feels subversive!"
- Douglas (May 19, 2003)

"...the main reason I use it is because I get people telling me they didn't get my email."
- Carol (July 21, 2003)

An interesting question is what shows up in the users' Inbox if you send them a ReturnReceipt email message? A link to an email stored on the ReturnReceipt website? This sounds like the only way to make it pratical/possible to have the features described at this time, with current email client capabilities...

[Mark Rejhon]

kirson -- your email ends in stonearchcapital dot com? You must be an investment firm, then? This service does totally make sense for certain kinds of important emails that might go on within an investment firm.

other readers -- I have a question for other forum members, are there other people in this forum site that use return receipt services or similiar? Or are such services useless to you?

[kirson]

Mark,

Yes, an investment firm - but I actually don't very often require return receipt. Improtant information usually engenders a follow-up phone call.

As far as I can tell, the email arrives the same as any other email - in theory, there is a banner that says a return receipt was requested, but this feature can be turned off. I have no idea how they can possibly offer the self destructing email message - but they claim they can. I will play around with the service a bit more, and see how it goes.

I did contact customer support to see how this would work with the Blackberry environment. In essesnce, you can track emails sent FROM the Blackberry, but the service does not work for email messages sent TO the Blackberry -- only works for messages sent to conventional email services.

Ian

[HCTech]

Then obviously, kirson, you would be interested in Hillcast's Midcast pro to get streaming quotes on your BB! :D

[kirson]

LOL -- we invest in private companies -- very hard to get quotes on those