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I used to be a prolific webmaster who ran many forums. I always had a rule (on commercial forums) that competing services were not to be discussed. IE you cannot discuss competing hosting offers on my hosting forum.

Ooma has been very good in this regard mostly because they know they have a winning product; you can talk about competing products all you want but at the end of the day, Ooma still stands out as the best. Best quality, best value period. The companies that practice censorship are generally not confident they have the best product, quality, value.

I think the problem is that a lot of people consider faxing service as outdated and therefore dismiss it. I witnessed an event just yesterday that would prove them completely wrong. I was visiting my sister-in-law in the hospital just before she went into emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder. She was due in court today at 9 a.m. The nurse called the Glendale court upon her request to advise them that she wouldn't be able to make it. The court said they needed written proof of hospital admittance "faxed" to them or hand delivered that day or they would issue a bench warrant for her arrest if she didn't show. Faxing documents to companies and government agencies has saved me from having to drive many miles to those entities which had no other means to receive documents other than postal mail or hand delivery.
I cringe whenever I hear someone ridiculing faxing in a flippant tone and dismissing it as a bygone era. I consider them naive and not living in the real world.

I think the problem is that a lot of people consider faxing service as outdated and therefore dismiss it. I witnessed an event just yesterday that would prove them completely wrong. I was visiting my sister-in-law in the hospital just before she went into emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder. She was due in court today at 9 a.m. The nurse called the Glendale court upon her request to advise them that she wouldn't be able to make it. The court said they needed written proof of hospital admittance "faxed" to them or hand delivered that day or they would issue a bench warrant for her arrest if she didn't show. Faxing documents to companies and government agencies has saved me from having to drive many miles to those entities which had no other means to receive documents other than postal mail or hand delivery.
I cringe whenever I hear someone ridiculing faxing in a flippant tone and dismissing it as a bygone era. I consider them naive and not living in the real world.

I have a Brother multi unit which is capable of faxing but I tend to scan the document and attach it to email. In fact my system can attach it to email directly. Same way I mostly ask people to email PDF's instead of faxing. I prefer to have a copy of the document on my hard drive.

If I were to predict I would say that faxing is probably on the way out and it will be incorporated into email. It only seems like the natural evolution. So probably companies are not willing to spend a lot of money investing into the fax system structure.

Even my lawyer asked me to stop faxing him because he wanted a copy of the documents on his hard drive.

So basically there is a workaround for faxing and I know that does not help you but it might do if you find yourself in a pinch where you need to send a signed document.

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Even my lawyer asked me to stop faxing him because he wanted a copy of the documents on his hard drive.
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I don't have a fax machine, instead I send and receive faxes on my computer, using Hylafax, so an incoming fax is perforce on my hard drive.

I checked it out, it's nice but still requires one computer to have a modem. Most new laptops and computers no longer have a modem and I can see modems going the same way as fax machines.

Faxing directly to email seems to me to be the natural progression.
Basically you would own a scanner to send attach the document wireless right to your email and you send it out from there.

Most office fax machines can already scan. Email is a much better system because it gets the fax directly to the intended recipient instead of to the reception desk of the business.

Sorry... did not mean to hijack this topic from the original poster

Basically you would own a scanner to send attach the document wireless right to your email and you send it out from there.

Too many steps involved. Faxing just requires you to dial the number and hit the send button. I often use my smartphone to snap a picture of a document with extremely fine print. Then I can enlarge it enough to read. I just wish every business and government entity would allow me to send documents through my email after scanning it to phone. Then every one would be on the same page and it would be a perfect world. Until then, I'll hold onto my fax machine. I refuse to pay for an online fax service to replace something that I've been utilizing for years at no cost.
Don't worry about hijacking the thread. You're getting to the heart of the matter so no worries.

I just wish every business and government entity would allow me to send documents through my email after scanning it to phone. Then every one would be on the same page and it would be a perfect world. Until then, I'll hold onto my fax machine. I refuse to pay for an online fax service to replace something that I've been utilizing for years at no cost.

I tend to agree that faxing is almost obsolete, but also agree that in our current world there are times that having the ability to send or receive a fax is essential. For the past three years, I have been using an eFax service offered by OneSuite who provides unlimited incoming faxes and outgoing fax service for $2.95/month plus approximately 2.5 cents/page for the outgoing fax. A dedicated fax number is included. Overall, I have been spending less than I had previously had to spend for toner alone. And junk faxes have been eliminated. With a single service account, I can send a fax from my home as well as my office, and can receive faxes anywhere I can log onto my email; even on my smartphone.

Incoming faxes can be distributed to as many as five email addresses as PDF attachments. Outgoing documents are scanned into the my computer (PDF) and attached to a cover page. Once the fax has been successfully transmitted, a complete copy is sent back to my primary email address (PDF again) verifying the successful transmission.

I don't understand

For outgoing faxes you are already scanning the document in, why not just email it to the recipient, it is the same as faxing?

Almost all fax machines can now scan and most of the multi units can automatically attach the scan to email. Why do you still need the outdated idea of a fax?

Once you set up a multi unit to scan to email it is just as fast as sending a fax. In my business I deal with 256 suppliers and I ised to fax orders, invoices, po's etc and now every single supplier is able to attach a PDF to email. It is almost inconceivable to me that a fax machine is still a necessity. My machine can fax, photo copy and scan but I swear the only thing I use is the scanner. All documents are scanned onto my hard drive and backed up. Physical paper has to be shredded after 7 years and that is another cost.

I don't understand

For outgoing faxes you are already scanning the document in, why not just email it to the recipient, it is the same as faxing?

Almost all fax machines can now scan and most of the multi units can automatically attach the scan to email. Why do you still need the outdated idea of a fax?
Once you set up a multi unit to scan to email it is just as fast as sending a fax. In my business I deal with 256 suppliers and I ised to fax orders, invoices, po's etc and now every single supplier is able to attach a PDF to email. It is almost inconceivable to me that a fax machine is still a necessity. My machine can fax, photo copy and scan but I swear the only thing I use is the scanner. All documents are scanned onto my hard drive and backed up. Physical paper has to be shredded after 7 years and that is another cost.

Unfortunately, as consumers we sometimes have limited options from which to choose when communicating with some businesses. Some businesses have invested hundreds-of-thousands of dollars into imaging systems, document-management-systems and office workflow applications which has made their office applications and document processing workflow dependent upon imaged documents which are held in specific formats. Some of these businesses have banks of receiving fax servers along with banks of document scanners (for postal-mailed documents) and the only option for electronic interaction with them is via a fax.

Many of these businesses have extended their processes to incorporate emailed documents (PDF's, MS-Word, ...) but it can be a significant investment (tens to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars) to make these process extensions. Many businesses, especially in the financial sector, still only accept faxes or postal-mailed documents.

So, whether we like it or not, the fax technology is likely to linger for many years to come.

I don't understand

For outgoing faxes you are already scanning the document in, why not just email it to the recipient, it is the same as faxing?

Almost all fax machines can now scan and most of the multi units can automatically attach the scan to email. Why do you still need the outdated idea of a fax?

Once you set up a multi unit to scan to email it is just as fast as sending a fax. In my business I deal with 256 suppliers and I ised to fax orders, invoices, po's etc and now every single supplier is able to attach a PDF to email. It is almost inconceivable to me that a fax machine is still a necessity. My machine can fax, photo copy and scan but I swear the only thing I use is the scanner. All documents are scanned onto my hard drive and backed up. Physical paper has to be shredded after 7 years and that is another cost.

Two reasons: (1) some people do not have email accounts, and (2) California law currently provides for service of certain legal documents by fax so long as the faxing device provides a proof of a completed transmission. Once the OneSuite fax has completed the transmission, it will send a complete copy indicating a successful transmission to one of the designated email address. Likewise, if the transmission fails, it will send an email indicated such failure.