E-mail reliability at risk

NEW YORK - Sometimes the only way to know whether an e-mail got through is to call.

Just ask Ashley Friedlein, who runs E-consultancy Ltd. in London. He never heard back from a correspondent in the United States, a subscriber of Verizon Online. So he phoned and learned his e-mail was never received.

"I wouldn't have known anything about it had I not called to check" he said.