I hate the term "snail mail" because it is unfair to the post office. It assumes using the internet is instantaneous.
The internet is not instantaneous. First, it assumes the recipient is ready to read email at any time of day. Some people only check their email once a week. Second, it assumes the recipient will respond immediately. Some people never respond; lots of companies take two to three days to respond. Third, it assumes that any message sent is instantly available to the recipient. Many factors can lead to delay of email.
Any of the servers involved in routing a message from sender to receiver can be overloaded and thus delay the message by minutes or hours. A message may be sent by a third party who may take a few days to send it but with the time stamp of the original message.
This just happened to me. I received a message from a vendor dated 16 Oct 2010 04:27:31. However, it was sent by the third party at 20 Oct 2010 07:12:36. The times are PDT. The USPS generally does a better job; a first class letter put in a box before the last pickup on Saturday may be delivered Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, depending on the distance.
Worse, the address of the bulk mailer makes the email look like spam. However, the mailer has a legitimate URL; its home page lists "Enterprise Email Marketing" as one of its services. I guess I won't be sending this email to the Anti-Phishing Working Group.
