I’ve adapted pretty well to the limitations of BES-less BlackBerry service over the last 11 months, but there are a few things about it that still irk me.
The most bothersome by far is the way the BlackBerry handles read-receipt requests. Whenever an email is received on my BlackBerry that includes a read-receipt request, the BlackBerry replies with an e-mail saying:
Your message has been delivered to the recipient.
This is particularly frustrating because it’s not accurate. The message may have been delivered to my BlackBerry, but that doesn’t mean it’s been delivered to me - and certainly doesn’t mean that I’ve read it. This is supposed to be a read receipt, not a delivery receipt.
I believe that at times this gives people sending me e-mail an incorrect view of my response to them. Scenario:
- Someone sends me an e-mail at ~8pm.
- They receive a response around 8:05pm with the
confirmation 
- Sometime the next morning, maybe 8-10am - maybe later, I have time to read and reply to the message.
The same thing can happen during the day as well if I’m in a meeting, etc. While I may be responding within an hour or two of seeing their e-mail, the darn BlackBerry auto-response can make them think I’m responding many hours later than that.
As far as I can tell, there is no way to turn this off. I can’t find a setting for it on the BlackBerry, nor in my account on blackberry.com, and the BlackBerry tech support reps I’ve spoken to don’t know how to disable it either.
It bugs me every time too because I BCC myself on e-mails sent from my BlackBerry with a rule to auto-file them properly in my IMAP account. I’m effectively SPAMming myself with these things.
If anyone has any tips on fixing this, please share them.
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Thomas R. Hall adds this Comment:
So I may be off on this because I do have BES, but on my non-BES mail accounts, I see an option. You may not have it on BIS, though.
1. In email, go to Options > Email Settings.
2. Click the dropdown “Message Services” and choose the account in question.
3. Change “Send Read Receipts” to No.
Hope it works for you on BIS.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Jure Cuhalev adds this Comment:
With my BlackBerry Curve I can set this option in my Email, Options and then
Confirm Delivery -> No
Confirm Read -> No
Send Read Receipts -> No
March 12th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Alex adds this Comment:
Thomas– I don’t have those settings in my BIS config screens.
Jure– They are all set to No already. Since the BlackBerry seems to ignore those settings I called and spent about 2 hours on the phone w/ BlackBerry techs regarding this issue. I really wish the settings worked, but they don’t (at least for me).
March 12th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Thomas R. Hall adds this Comment:
Sorry that I wasn’t of any help, Alex. I know what you mean about this type of thing being annoying.
If you have more than one email account, are all of them set to Send Read Receipts to No? There is a discussion I saw that may be of interest on the AT&T forums.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Yes, they are both set with “No”s down the list.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Thomas R. Hall adds this Comment:
Okay, and doing the steps listed in the linked post didn’t help? (battery pull and resending service books)
March 12th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Diggy adds this Comment:
Hey guys, I was super annoyed by this notification isse as well. What worked for me on my 8320;
When you are in your email inbox be sure a message in your message list is highlighted then hit your menu button, scroll to options, email options and check to see all it opted NO.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Jennifer adds this Comment:
I had this same problem and spend 30 minutes on the phone with my provider this morning. They wanted me to uninstall the daylight savings patch (thats about when this problem started happening) and reinstall another file they sent me today. I am a skeptic of anything that rhymes with “uninstall”. Instead, I followed Diggy’s instructions, and he was spot on! That was the problem! Its fixed! Thank you!
March 14th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Alex adds this Comment:
I tried this - they are all set to No for me already.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Diggy adds this Comment:
Well Alex,
If you are positive you followed the steps given and made sure you were ‘inside’ the email message area (a message in your inbox was highlighted) when you ran through the menu/options/email settings AND you were scrolled to the ‘date’ menu bar (no message highlighted) and did the same steps, you must have a different kind of issue. Maybe try sending your service books again if you’ve completed all steps.
I’m glad it worked for you Jennifer!
March 14th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Perhaps I don’t understand the steps. When I have a message selected, or not, or however I get into the E-mail options area, it always shows all of the options set to No. I assure you, I have tried this numerous times over the last 5-6 months.
March 14th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Diggy adds this Comment:
It seems as though you do understand the steps, especially if you’ve been working at it for months now, must be super annoying! I hope you get it situated. The steps I took required to do both, with an email message highlighted and without, in both of my email address inboxes. If you tried that and sent your service books as well, sounds like you may have a little more complicated issue on your hands.. Which BB model do you have?
March 14th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Steve adds this Comment:
I actually have this problem too BUT it only happens when I am sending an email to another blackberry user on the same network (ATT in my case). A normal email to joe blow email account doesn’t have this only when I am sending to someone else using a blackberry. When it is received by them, the checkmark has a little “d” for delivered and I get the bounce email confirmation.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
dtb adds this Comment:
I have the same problem with “Read Receipts” and have listened carefully and tried all the suggestions in this thread. I would add that one factor may be that email to which the undesired Read receipts are sent are all received through a BIS email account that connects to OWA (Outloot Web Access). I have apersonal BB but receive work email via this OWA connection. The OWA server in question is connected to Exchange 5.5. All email received via this link receive a Read receipt upon delivery to my BB. VERY ANNOYING - I am considering cancelling the work email link just to prevent co-workers from thinking that I have read their email…
May 5th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Arthur adds this Comment:
The problem is a privacy issue. The read receipt reveals your blackberry carrier email address in the attached details.txt file:
Original-Message-ID:4291231532
Final-Recipient:username@tmo.blackberry.net
Action:Delivered
So if you’re using an email alias that forwards to your blackberry email, your blackberry carrier email is exposed, which most probably you don’t want to happen.
I also haven’t found a solution. This happens on Tmobile with a Pearl and a Curve.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:56 am
PaulQ adds this Comment:
Arthur…..
Can you explain why that message is a privacy concern? I’m not challenging you - I want to understand it.
I have an TMo 8320 BES… same problem.. equally annoyed!!!
June 29th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Blackberry Bold adds this Comment:
Sounds like everyone is experiencing the same issue with the Tmo 8320. Yep, it certainly is irritating.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Mike adds this Comment:
This discussion thread might help with the problem that people are trying to describe.
http://forums.crackb[...]kberry-1463/
September 25th, 2008 at 3:34 pm