I have not experienced any problems with sending emails. B.t.w., when an admin creates a gift certificate, it is not set to automatically send an email. I can add a setting to allow for an email to be sent in this case as well.

When a certificate is purchased by a user, it either sends an email to an existing user, or creates a new account and sends an email with the acct info / certificate info. Also, this has been set up and tested for a site that does not have anonymous purchases.

EDIT: I just tested (with alpha 8 ) the case where recipient email address is NOT for a registered user. It emailed correctly. I'm thinking your email got blocked by a spam filter, did you check the spam box?