If you’ve been using Outlook 2003 for checking an IMAP account, I would highly recommend a switch to Thunderbird.
Whenver you delete a message in an IMAP account, using either Outlook Express or Outlook the application ‘deletes’ the message by striking out the message indicating that it was flagged for deletion. However, to permanently remove the message you still have to click on Edit and then choose Purge Deleted Messages.
What is even more annonying is that in Entourage, one can setup an IMAP account and not have to deal with the above. Why is there different functionality in two products coming out from the same manufacturer.
Update: I’m going to try using the custom view in Outlook 2003 to prevent deleted messages from being displayed. Other than that, the best option appears to be continuing to send in requests to the [email protected] mailing address or to rant in the next beta test for Office.