Who uses fax machines these days?

[ctt1wbw]

So, our old job last year required us to use a fax machine to fax over summaries. I could never figure out why people continue to use these pieces of **** devices. I can scan a document and email it faster, and you know that if it's a business you have to fax billing sheets to, that they have a network with an email server and a laser printer, right?

So now, I got a new job as roadside assistance for the insurance companies and the company I work for requires us to fax our insurance call sheets to them... again, a damn fax.

We cut our home phones off to save money since our whole family has iPhones now... so no fax machine in the house.

So. We had to fax our first order last night. We went to Office Max, cuz it was the only place open at 8 pm. You know they charge $1.25 PER SHEET??? Per sheet!!! To fax!!! Even to an 800 number???!!!! Holy **** balls that's crazy. That's $1.15 MORE than it costs to make a photocopy of a page on the Xerox!

[Angelo95210]

Yeah I agree with you but there are still a lot of company using faxes so we have to cope with. Moreover on a legal aspect I think it has more value than email.

For my company I know that some of customers like to fax orders rather than emailing. But I use an online fax service (eFax not to quote it) which allows me to receive faxes by email. I would never buy toner again lol !

[toolbox]

At work we still have ours and most of the customers i look after have one too. Mostly for sending purchase orders or legal documents.

[Johns12]

I still use mine in my home business.

[ctt1wbw]

I prefer to scan and email. Saves on the phone bill. Plus, the output looks exactly the same from an email versus a fax.

What are some good reliable ways to scan documents and use the computer to send them to a fax machine? I've never ever done that before.

[hmmfe]

I own a business that sells and installs phone systems (among other things). I can't believe that virtually all installations we do still have several fax machines that are used as part of their normal business process.

A recent installation at a company of about 200 people had 15 fax machines! The really funny part is that they'll use the fax to send a contract and will fax all 80 pages of the contract rather than just the signature page. Crazy people.

[hmmfe]

What are some good reliable ways to scan documents and use the computer to send them to a fax machine? I've never ever done that before.

There are several email-to-fax/fax-to-email services out there...

efax
send2fax
smartfax
faxzero

[Gregg2]

We have one at home. It gets used as a copier mostly, but once in awhile we'll fax something out, and once in a great while, to get a fax. We don't have a scanner. Don't need one, what with the fax machine doing the job.

[Zombie Acorn]

All of the businesses I do work for use fax machines, atrocious little critters.

[ucfgrad93]

I have an all in one printer/copier/fax in my house. Don't use the fax very often.

[DiamondGCoupe]

You still need a phone line to fax from a PC.

[Unspoken Demise]

I hate 'em, but they are great for signed documents.

[Rt&Dzine]

I'd love to ditch my old fax machine, but I still have a few clients who send me faxes.

[barkomatic]

Unfortunately, the government will not allow me to accept a signed scanned email attachment as its not a legal document according to them -- for our purposes anyway. They will allow us to accept a fax. It's terribly inconvenient for our clients, but there's nothing I can do about it. I've found government regulations lag technology by about 10 years.

[ctt1wbw]

Unfortunately, the government will not allow me to accept a signed scanned email attachment as its not a legal document according to them -- for our purposes anyway. They will allow us to accept a fax. It's terribly inconvenient for our clients, but there's nothing I can do about it. I've found government regulations lag technology by about 10 years.

They won't even accept an E-Signed doc?

[barkomatic]

They won't even accept an E-Signed doc?

Sadly no. It doesn't make sense but we're talking about the government.

[mscriv]

You still need a phone line to fax from a PC.

Not always true. There are online fax services that will do everything over the internet for you just like VOIP or something similar. I used to use efax a long time ago, but haven't had any need for fax services at home in a long time. At work we use an all computerized system called RightFax. Just do a search for online fax transmission and you will get numerous options. From what i know most of them charge a monthly service fee. It will just depend on what your work usage will be do determine what is worth doing.

[djellison]

We might get one or two purchase orders via fax a month - but they're usually from NHS departments, so they often for quite big sums of money.

[wfoster]

They're for old people who cannot get used to computers. No offense to anyone that still uses them. That comment was mainly aimed at my parents that live off the machine because there business depends on it so much for contacting their suppliers and manufacturers.

[Melrose]

There are still uses for them.

For example, one time I took a day off work because I was sick (like four years ago). The boss wanted a note from my doctor, and the doctor sent it by fax directly to my boss, who doesn't use email.

Also, if someone in my family needs to send a form or something to the insurance company (for example), it's sent by fax. I know there are fax services out there, but why go through the trouble of signing up for something if you can just pay $0.15 and send it at the post office?

[leomac08]

I am a college student and an housing office assistant at UCI Extension.....


and i FAX!!!! STUFF!!!!!:p;):D


makes me feel old......somehow?!:eek:

[dmr727]

I use them pretty regularly. I have a form that I have to send to two different locations at the end of every work day. The government requires those locations to have the forms stored in paper form, so even if I were to scan and e-mail them on my end, they'd still have to print them on their end. Plus, the end of my work day can be pretty much anywhere, and fax machines are ubiquitous at hotels, so it usually ends up being easier to fax than scan and e-mail.

[jessica.]

A ton of people do. I however use an eFax as I'm a remote worker. I still have to scan stuff from time to time to fax.

[alphaod]

I fax. I often have to send documents overseas and in some countries, a fax is like the newest thing around. ;)

[greygray]

My office does. It's rather useful at times.

[rdowns]

I just love it how posters here think the population at large is as geeky or tech savvy as those here.

[ctt1wbw]

Sadly no. It doesn't make sense but we're talking about the government.

That is strange. I have to use E-Sign to sign my education benefits and student loan information with FAFSA.

[dingster1]

At my job we fax radiology reports back and forth all night long

[ctt1wbw]

Wow. Let's all get up to date on technology and buy a scanner/copier and start emailing pdf files. It's cheaper.

[Toppa G's]

Wow. Let's all get up to date on technology and buy a scanner/copier and start emailing pdf files. It's cheaper.

But is it a faster process? Sometimes it's nice not to have to have to load the sheets in, trek to the computer (when the scanner/fax is centrally located), hit the scan, make adjustments to the size, save, then email. Fax is sometimes just easier/faster.

[CaptMurdock]

Our law office (and pretty much all the law offices and courts we deal with) still uses a fax machine. We aren't even on the internet at the office (trust and believe, I've been banging my head against that particularly brick wall for two years. I think she's paranoid about viruses, although the paralegal thinks LawyerBoss is afraid we're going to be playing WoW on the clock. Like I have the time for that...)

We often send out docs for review and signature. We have to remind people "Just send the signature page back, please! We know what the judgment looks like -- we wrote it!"

I am going to check out those eFax and similar services, in case I need to fax something from home.

[localoid]

Wow. Let's all get up to date on technology and buy a scanner/copier and start emailing pdf files. It's cheaper.

Let's don't, but say we did.

Seriously, this isn't a burning issue that keeps me awake at night... YMMV

[sushi]

Some places do not accept e-mail and the respective attachments as official documents.

The faxed messages have the header info that they want to prove that the document is legit.

[ctt1wbw]

Some places do not accept e-mail and the respective attachments as official documents.

The faxed messages have the header info that they want to prove that the document is legit.

Emails have header info. Plus, when you print out a document attacthment from an email, it looks suspiciously identical to a printout from a fax machine...

[IBradMac]

Fax is still very crucial for international business.

[MattG]

We still use them, but we are trying to at least reduce the number of them that we have sitting around. Trying to move from the model of everyone having their own machine, to being able to do network faxing through our copy machines. Also, we've started to move some people to eFax. Just no need for so many standalone machines anymore when for the most part the documents you're sending are on the computer to begin with.

[iPhoneNYC]

For small scale faxing there are some inexpensive alternatives out there costing about 4 bucks a month. These would be cheaper than having a line just for faxing. Or perhaps you can bundle your internet or cable use to get a phone line?

The fact of the matter is while faxing is close to obsolete it is still in use. True, twenty years ago my small office would receive /send probably 100 faxes a day. Today it's one a week. But that one fax is still important. Yes, the fax collects endless spam but when I have to fax it's there. I still pay for a dedicated fax line which is probably silly but it's something a business, even a small one like mine, has to do.

[mkrishnan]

For better or worse, fax machines are still in extremely common use in every hospital I've ever worked in, and I don't think it's likely to change, for several reasons:

1) Privacy procedures in some cases draw up all kinds of problems if medical documents are transfered via unencrypted e-mail

2) There are dozens of fax machines strewn throughout the hospital, and often maybe a couple scanners altogether (which could of course be addressed easily enough).

3) In terms of simplicity, some of the people we deal with might be able to scan and send files (and we might accept them), but everyone has a fax machine in their office.

I'm not saying it's the best technology. I think it's terrible. I do like services that automatically route incoming faxes as PDF files into your e-mail inbox, and I've seen a few people use them clinically. I like this a lot better, since I am much less likely to lose a digital file than a paper one.

[RedTomato]

Deaf people used to be very heavy fax users - this was before mobile texts came out and the current crop of telephone relay services :) Pagers were useful, but you couldn't call back, and if you were deaf yourself, you couldn't page another deaf person. Hence the fax.

I know some old deaf people who still use fax machines almost daily. It works, you get a nice printout, you can write nice and large, do drawings, doodles etc, and it's simpler than maintaining a computer and internet connection.

I haven't used a fax in 5 years, but just before Xmas, I had to commission a structural survey of a building in a hurry, and the surveyors wouldn't start the survey till they had my signature on a contract. So I faxed it to them. Job done.

[carlgo]

I just love it how posters here think the population at large is as geeky or tech savvy as those here.

This is true. The Digital Life is not so alluring to many, many people. Nor is it necessarily easier. Scanning, organizing, attaching, opening is not all that easy and without drama. Then there is the printing and filing, or backing up process.

Medical and Rx insurance companies require faxed prescriptions, even though nobody in the entire world would use my drugs for anything fun. I suspect the Rx is just to keep the price up on a lot of drugs.

Auto/home insurance companies want faxed estimates. I tried for years to get them to do it email, but it was easier to get a fax out of the machine and then stick it in a folder in a file cabinet.

The idea that private insurance companies are somehow efficient and competent is an erroneous one at best.

[RedTomato]

no one needs them anymore,

There are still many people who need physical fax machines. Not everyone has internet access, or can use computer fax applications.

[ihsanfals]

i do, becoz not all have scanner and can operate computer :D

and they hate to learn :D

[snberk103]

I think the initial thinking was that faxes were better for sensitive information. Emails are routed through servers that could, potentially, be reading the contents of the emails. Emails can also be routed internationally, even if receiver and sender are in the same office. Faxes are point-to-point, and can not be intercepted except by court order (in theory at least). That's why you will see so many faxes in the medical and legal profession.

Secondly, the sending fax receives a confirmation code when the fax is successfully received. If there was every any dispute about whether a fax was sent you could use the confirmation code to prove it was received (not just sent as with email programs.)

And thirdly, it's easier to sign and fax a sheet for most people than to print, sign, scan, attach and send. Not everyone has a scanner available.

All of the above said, there are obviously ways keep your emails safe from prying eyes (but its not a default setting and requires some set up at both ends); confirm that the email was received (again, not a default setting. And I've never used the confirmation. Does it actually work as advertized?); And of course you can sign and scan emails, but its not really as convenient as signing and dialling.

Ironically the email-to-fax services have totally negated the privacy advantages of the point-to-point fax system. I have a scanned copy of my signature on file, so if I get a fax by email I can cut and paste my signature onto the document (avoiding the print, sign, scan steps) and then just send it back as a fax by an email to fax service. And somehow this is considered "legal" because it was received back as a fax, but sending the exact same PDF document by email is not. Oh well....

[FX120]

Some of the newer mid-large office document stations (also known as copiers) offer attach-to-email function right on the device, and this is probably the only thing that will ever eventually replace the fax machine.

Not everyone has room in their cubicle for a flatbed scanner, and it's a pain in the butt to use a shared scanner.

Fax machines are simple devices that do what they need to do in a simple fashion and still work for a large number of people who have paper-based document systems. Why replace what isn't broken just because it is old?

Personally we have gone mostly paperless at work since we changed over our inventory and rental system to a more modern application that allows for direct emailing of work orders, quotations, billing, ect. But there are still plenty of times when people still ask to have a WO faxed over to them, or when we need a purchase order or contract signed. Most of our clients just aren't set up for digital document signing, and a fax is just easier.