Troubleshooting
Did they get it? Did they open it?
Two different questions, and the second matters less than it seems. What counts is whether they replied.
**Arriving and being opened are two different things, and only the first can be known with certainty.** The second depends on things you do not control —whether their mail loads images, whether they glanced at it on a phone— so it is not worth building any decision on it.
What is known, and how reliably
| Question | How reliable the answer is |
|---|---|
| Did it leave here? | Certain: the time is on record |
| Did their server accept it? | High: a rejection shows |
| Did a person open it? | Low. Do not decide anything on this |
| **Have they replied?** | **Certain, and the only one that matters** |
Important
**The useful question is not «did they open it?» but «have they uploaded what I asked for?».** If they have replied, when they opened it is irrelevant. And if they have not, knowing they opened it on Tuesday helps you not at all: the action is the same either way, which is to ask them again.
When they say it never arrived
- 1
Check the address, letter by letter
By far the most common cause, and the quickest to rule out.
- 2
Ask them to look in junk mail
The second most common, and they will not look there unprompted.
- 3
Resend the link and tell them by another route
A call or a message: «I've resent the link, check your spam».
Watch out
Before concluding that email is broken, check for a simpler explanation: **it may have reached the wrong person at that company**. A generic office address, a mailbox nobody watches any more, or the sales rep instead of whoever handles paperwork. Nothing is broken there — you just need to ask who to address it to, which is a one-minute conversation that saves three resends.
›Is there a read receipt?
Not as a certainty. What is recorded is whether they replied.
›They say it never arrived — do I resend?
Yes, but check the address first and tell them by another route.
›How long before chasing?
Whatever you stated in the request. If you stated nothing, that is the real problem.
A real case
The situation
A supplier insists nothing arrived, and the address had one letter wrong.
What you do
- Checks the address letter by letter before resending
What you get
It lands first time instead of being resent three times to the same wrong place.
The situation
You spend two days watching whether the email was opened instead of calling.
What you do
- Switches the question to «have they uploaded it?» and, if not, calls
What you get
The decision is made on the reliable fact, and the time spent watching is recovered.
The situation
You keep chasing because the email does not show as opened.
What you do
- Checks whether they replied rather than whether they opened
What you get
Somebody who already delivered is not chased.
The situation
The recipient reads it in a preview pane that does not register.
What you do
- Looks at the response rather than the open
What you get
The signal watched is the one that matters.
The situation
It shows as opened but nothing has been done.
What you do
- Sends a reminder with the deadline
What you get
The nudge carries what is actually missing.
The situation
It does not show as opened and they did deliver another way.
What you do
- Checks the file before chasing
What you get
An unfair chase is avoided.
This article answers
- find out if they opened my email
- the supplier says it never arrived
- read receipt for document requests
- how do i know they saw the request