Is it Time to Ditch the Fax Number?
The precursor to the modern fax machine was patented in 1843. Business fax technology caught on widely in the mid-1970s. So why, thirty years later, are those of us on the cutting edge still wasting our time wrestling with (and paying for) ways to hook into this last-generation network for sending around images of paper documents?
I don’t know about the rest of you, but over the last decade I’ve been through a ridiculous number of alternatives in my search for a workable fax solution:
- PC fax cards
- Dedicated fax machines
- Outlook add-in software
- Online fax-to-email gateways
Every one of these things has ended up requiring time, expense, and configuration. Meanwhile, I’ve been sending and receiving fewer and fewer faxes every years, as even my least up-to-date clients have managed to migrate themselves largely to e-mail. Maybe there are some industries where the fax machine remains an essential tool, but the sort of consulting I’m in doesn’t seem to be one of them.
So, I believe this is the year that I’m finally going to pull the plug on this piece of 19th-century technology. I’ll remove one bit of contact info from my business cards and signature block, and make myself that much simpler to contact. If I simply must send a fax to someone still living in the last generation, there’s always FaxZero. And if a customer asks for my fax number, I’ll tell them I’m not reachable by carrier pigeon either.
Am I crazy? Do you still find fax availability worth paying for?
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I agree! In fact, I had new cards printed and nixed the FAX number. I feel so contemporary.
OneSuite offers an inbound fax number for $1 a month, which is about all I find it to be worth. Faxes come straight into your email. You can use your normal landline to send them out.
The reason fax technology has survived is that luddites who refuse to use modern methods of communication are looked on as distinguished, or traditional, rather than as idiots. The next time someone asks you for a fax number, ask him if he will be making his next visit to your office by horse :P
Ditch it. VP at a software company, working remotely 3-4 weeks per month, sending/receiving contracts and other documents requiring signatures and I do it via scanner. If someone can’t e-mail something to me, I feel A-OK about leaving it as their problem.
In fact, this article has made me feel motivated to throw away my (disconnected) fax machine.
I don’t pay for my fax number, but as I have to have a landline to have ADSL I put a fax machine on it. It’s a thermal one, I certainly don’t use it enough to buy a plain paper fax machine.
I would love to be able to do this, however, my biggest supplier has two delivery options, fax or snail mail. I am tied to what they will do. I have given up my dedicated fax line and fax machine, and use myfax for all incoming faxes.
Right now I use MyFax.com, but only to receive signed freelance contracts. I’m also going to look at Echosign, which offers a free option and digital signatures, which is about all I need.
I used to use my computer and scanner to send and receive faxes until my scanner died and I ditched my land line.
I have to keep my fax number on my business card because I use it so rarely that I don’t have it memorized!
I’m using a free eFax number for receiving faxes. I’ve had this service (did I say FREE) for more than seven years. People fax from their machines, and I get the fax as an e-mail attachment.
eFax charges for sending faxes, so I don’t send through them. I send the few faxes (maybe a dozen a month) through the built-in fax driver in Windows. (I’m using XP.) These few faxes go out over my telephone line/modem.
I rarely print anything faxed to me, unless a signature is required.
To make it most simple for myself, (especially since I send less faxes than I receive… I email everything) I signed up for PFax aka Packetel. It’s 3.95 per month, and you can receive unlimited emails, and they are forwarded to up to two inboxes.. I’ve never had any problems and I have been using the service for several years now. I def. have pushed the envelope on volume. If you are interested in signing up, use promotion code hwmvd24085 as they have a nice referral service… aka you and I both get a free months worth of service.
As far as sending faxes.. I just use Faxzero.com Their service allows me to send 2 faxes a day for free (per email address), up to 3 pages.. I just go to their webpage, upload the doc and send. I don’t have to have an account or anything. If I need to send a large fax, they require you to pay $1.99. My experience has gone pretty well.. the only time I had a problem, they sent me a credit for 2 free “premium” faxes.. and the problem was my clients fax machine was turned off..
I still use the fax on a regular basis. But I use my cell phone as my only phone. I sometimes have to send out contracts to people who don’t know what an email address is, let alone a cell phone. I also have a FREE efax number that I use infrequently (sp).