Fax Lately? Here is the permanent solution

Alright, who still owns a fax machine? Better yet, who still USES one? Have they become a thing of the past? Or are there some companies out there that still use them? Chances are, if faxes are still being sent, they’re more than likely being sent a tad differently now days.

When I’m out in the field speaking with various business owners about their telecommunication avenues, one area and question I always bring up is – are you still tied to a fax machine and if so, why? I am constantly surprised with how many companies still have a machine but rarely put it to use.

Fax machines tend to only suck money out of business than are put to good use. For instance, if you’re not sending out relevant fax documents to other companies, you are probably receiving junk through them. This will inevitably cost you money. You’re paying for the service by using paper and ink! My first “big girl job” out of college was in the music industry.

We had a fax machine…and I never understood why because we never sent one single fax through it. We mainly used the big hunk of junk to print. However, every morning I’d open up the office, turn the fax machine on and BOOM. There were 5 to 10 faxes that came through and every single one was junk.  Advertisements for cruises, vacation rentals, restaurant’s, the list goes on for entertainment junk…the promos were endless! Endless waste of paper, ink and time spent reading them; basically – a huge waste of money! Have you bought printer/fax machine ink lately? It is an expensive purchase!

Thankfully, as time passed and technology evolved, the wave of the future took over fax machines, too. Just as phones became cellular, Internet expanded and technology grew, faxing started to become insignificant. Emails took over and at the click of a button you could send just as much information through an email as you could a fax. This is essentially how e-fax was born.

There are still some companies that rely on faxing for orders, receipts and other important documents. Faxing these forms just felt more reliable. So what was the solution? Transitioning faxes into emails – better known now as EFax.

How does e-fax work you might be asking? Well its super simple, easy and cost efficient. You still have a fax number, you just now enter it into the “to” section of your email. You scan and attach what you need to fax over to the recipient, add the phone number to be faxed to follow by @…whatever the end of your fax provider uses and wah-la. A Fax is sent. You’ll still receive an email back indicating the fax was sent and received.

Most telecommunication companies offer e-fax as an option but each varies with guidelines and what they offer. I’m here to breakdown interesting facts about e-fax and important things to think about when choosing a provider.

With eFax, a well-known company, you can send and receive faxes through a web interface or directly from your email. On one hand, there is the ability to configure international and toll-free numbers. However, eFax is held back by its high cost, upfront setup fee, and problematic user experiences on the web. In addition, you actually don’t own your efax number.

When you enter into an agreement with the company, you are just signing up to “lease” an efax number from them. Meaning, if you ever decided to leave them for another provider, you won’t be able to port out your efax number or take it with you. How crummy is that? They also reserve the right to cancel your account at anytime. Even crummier!

With Bubble Communication you own your own fax number and can get up and running much easier with the guidance of our superb customer service team. When a fax is received, you will also receive it through your inbox. 
The fax itself will be received in a pdf format as an attachment in the message. You can also check your faxes in your email account and as well you can check them on our Web Portal under Messages if you leave the option active for “leave copy”.

Bottom line – the fax machine is a symbol of obsolete technology long superseded by computer networks – but e-faxing is actually growing in popularity. If you want to find out more about e-faxing, how inexpensive and user friendly it can be, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d be happy to answer all of your e-fax questions and welcome you to the e-fax world!