Thinking of dumping plain text receipts

Is it finally time to go total html

[lgn1]

We used to send a plain text message with an html attachment, but we get alot of messages saying they can't open the attachment.

We are thinking of just sending the whole reciept as an inline html document, to solve this issue.

I assume that most people and companies have upgraded their mail package, so they can read simple inline html documents.

The lastest number I have is from 2002 where 90% could read html formatted text, 3% could not, and 7% didn't understand the question.

[lgn1]

Well I got no responses, so I guess HTML email is nolonger evil :)

I guess like designing for 640 x480 resolution, or using safe web colors, some controversies die a natural death.

[Durham_e]

lgn1,

the question I think you probably should have asked is "what
are my chances of getting HTML through to customers over text"

That would likely have given an answer far more useful than how many now have HTML capable email software.

Whilst I think practically anyone can now receive HTML email, text will more surely get past spam filters etc than HTML, although of course it does lack the branding impact etc.

My experience with email newsletters certainly indicates that text is more reliable.

[lgn1]

Im not sending a newsletter, Im sending an order receipt,
so if they can't read the receipt, it does not matter, I still made the sale.

Doing an order receipt in plain text, is just plain ugly.

[jsinger]

"Doing an order receipt in plain text, is just plain ugly."
---

A minor consideration. And text can be prettied up.

As always, the easy answer for me (if I wondered about something that trivial) would be to find out what Amazon and a few other biggies do.

We do a text receipt, btw. No attachment. It covers quite a few things (like a mini-FAQ) Mostly I'm concerned with getting it thru to the customer

[LostOne]

I'd like to learn more about this. We do most of our business by fax, but some don't have a fax machine. It's especially important people understand shipping because it's not as simple as sending it UPS. Our products are large as we use common freight carriers and not UPS or Fed Ex.

Although we have our shipping information on the website that can be clearly accessed from every page, we find it's important to send more information before the customer recieves the products. Such as how to count and recognize the size of the packages and what they look like.

For now we do it with fax. It isn't the greatest because some images are blurred. Problems are happening with those that cannot recieve any faxes because they are not counting the packages and calling AFTER THE FACT that they did not get item A or B. Or some items were damaged yet they didn't indicate it on the delivery receipt and everything was signed for in good condition.

We need to implement a system that can be printed out and my thought was a PDF file?