Thanks for all your replies. Let me express what happened more clearly.

I. The Setup

I have two laptop computers running MS Office Outlook 2003.

Machine #1 which we’ll call the Main computer was set in the area of Account Properties>Advanced>Delivery with checkmarks on “Leave Messages on Server” and then below “Remove from Server after 7 days.”

Machine #2, which we’ll call the Second computer was set in that area with ONLY “Leave Messages on Server” checked.

This is POP3 e-mail the only kind offered by Verizon, as far as I know.

II. What happened

Machine #1 went to the shop while Machine #2 was here downloading messages. I assumed that when Machine #1 came back it would download all the messages that had been left on the server.

Machine #1 came back from the shop. I downloaded a week’s worth of messages. I never touched the “Deleted Messages” folder.

Machine #1 promptly dropped dead (again) so I needed to send it back for more repairs. It sat turned off for five days before I could send it back.

After turning off and packing up Machine#1, I started up Outlook on Machine #2 and it worked fine.

Eleven (11) days after Machine #1 was turned off and while it was in the shop, I started up Outlook on Machine #2 and it began downloading 3,500 messages. I had never touched the Outlook Deleted Items folder.

I stopped Outlook, went online to the webmail website and discovered that (apparently) Machine #1 had not deleted messages before and after the repair leaving a huge amount of undeleted messages.

Following a suggestion, I created a new webmail website folder and transferred the bulk of the Inbox to it. I started Outlook again on Machine #2 and it downloaded the new messages left in the Inbox.

Today, I received Machine #1 back from repair. I put Outlook into Offline mode and found when the last message had been downloaded.

I went back to the webmail website and 1) moved all messages from the new folder that had come in since Machine #1 last downloaded; 2) marked them all “unread.” This was a total of 2,485 messages. I turned off Machine #2.

I started Outlook on Machine #1, and it downloaded all 2,485 messages. Unfortunately, even after a few hours, it still hadn’t deleted any of the seven day or older messages.

I started Outlook on Machine #2 and it began downloading about 1,600 messages, most of them obviously repeats. I stopped Machine #2, went to the webmail website and manually trashed most of the Inbox. All seems fine now, but who knows?

I apologize for the length but as they say, the devil is in the details.

Does anyone have any idea what in the world is going on here?