Disclaimer: This is the full-post, describing in detail not only how to use virtual faxing solutions, but also the reasons behind why someone may want to do so.
If you just want a quick summary of using the services, you can check of my truncated post
here.
As a supergeek, there are six words I absolutely dread. Hearing these words leads to immediate spikes in blood pressure, curse words, and sometimes even dizziness.
"Please send us a fax at..."
The fax machine is the contradiction of the information age. Sure, it may be sold in the technology section of your nearest office supply superstore, but the more tech inclined someone is, the LESS they want to ever interact with one.
Thankfully the importance of the device has dwindled in the age of e-mail, instant messenger, and attachments, but some businesses still insist on using these relics from another time.
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Fact: The Pterodactyl evolved wings so the species would
no longer have to use the fax machine.
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My geek level is fairly advanced. I'm the type of guy who will occasionally
build his own Linux kernel "just for fun." That being said, I've never used a fax machine. I have to sheepishly admit that if someone asked me to, I wouldn't know how without someone walking me through it.
Up until now there have only been a handful of times I had to fax anything. I halfheartedly looked up ways of faxing documents online, but quick searches only turned up many paid services. Most have monthly fees and aren't worth it for someone who sends only a couple documents a year. In the past sending a fax has meant a trip down to Kinkos.
I work in Healthcare and am in the process of a change in employment. The new job needed my immunizations records. This meant calling all sorts of former Healthcare providers- former employees, my High School school nurse, heck even my old Pediatrician- trying to locate the information.
Hospitals are notorious for still relying on the fax machine. Part of that has to do with the one advantage the Fax Machine has over its all digital counterparts- signatures. Health information is protected by Federal
HIPPA privacy laws. This means many hospitals will not even confirm they HAVE you records until you send a release of information. Every healthcare provider has there own release form, and each provider wants it faxed with a signature.
All in all I had to go through 5 providers to get all the necessary documentation, A single provider accepted E-Mail verification. The other four all required multiple faxes. Each day required more and more paperwork. I needed a better solution.
SENDING FAXES
What you'll need:
A Printer
A Scanner or a Smart Phone with the
right app.
For this process, I was using a scanner, but in the past I had particularly good results with
this Android app.
For iOS users,
this has been recommended to me.
I started with this
website, which was extremely helpful in pointing out the best options on the market.
By far the best service I found was
Got Fax Free (GFF) (2nd on that list). There were 2 major benefits compared to its competitors.
Sending faxes took less than three minutes, which wasn't always the case with the competition. More importantly, GFF places NO ads on your fax. Almost every other competitor places an ad for their service on your cover page. With GFF your receiver has no idea you used an online fax system.
The interface, while not exactly pretty, is still easy to follow along. Nonetheless, I have created an image to guide you.
GFF does, however, have one very important limitation. You can only send 2 faxes a day using the free service, If you happen to hit that wall, as I did one day, just move on to another service. In my case I used
FaxZero.
Sending Faxes with FaxZero took longer. FaxZero itself gives a window of between 5 and 30 minutes. In my experience it tended to take about 10 minutes from fax to confirmation. Also, FaxZero will put ads on your cover page. Both these caveats, however, beat a trip to Kinkos any day.
On the positive size, the interface for NetZero was much nicer than GFF's,
especially on mobile browsers.
RECEIVING FAXES
By a week into the experience I was a fax sending machine. Need a release of information?
"No problem." Done.
One issue that popped up repeatedly, however, was paperwork going missing. This could mean the fax was never sent, the sender dialed the fax number wrong, or even the receiver just plain lost the fax.
When this occurred I found myself once again playing middle man between two providers. Trying to troubleshoot an issue between two separate companies can be maddening. Each side assumes they did things right, and you, as the "client" have no way of determining the source of the issue.
In fact most of time both sides will assume its your fault. You, after all, don't have a fax machine, and clearly you have no idea what you're doing.
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| "Me Good Electronics. This No Me Fault!" |
Keep in mind that for most of these people the fax is their life. Your embracing of newer technology, ironically enough, makes you look appear technically incompetent as soon as you add a landline based machine into the equation.
"If only I had my own fax number," I thought, "I could maintain copies of these documents myself and cut out half the equation."
I looked up several services. While many offered approximately 30 pages a month, most came with the caveat that if you didn't receive at least one fax a month your service was canceled.
I was looking for a more permanent number. Something I could put on a business card or in an email and it would be
my Fax number.
I found the solution with
eFax free. While eFax free only allows 10 pages a month there's no monthly minimum. What that means is your Fax number is
yours.
eFax will send you a confirmation e-mail to sign up for the service, along with your assigned fax number. After that simply give someone said number for your faxing needs. eFax will send you an e-mail when you have received a fax, complete with PDF attachment.
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A simple email alerts you to a fax. A PDF is attached
at the bottom of the email. |
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
One of the great benefits of using virtual fax services is you can literally send and receive faxes from anywhere, Shortly after signing up for both services I arrived to an Occupational Health appointment and was informed they did not have possession of the many documents I had sent them. This could have meant an appointment reschedule, but with my smartphone in hand I simply took a seat, downloaded the PDF from my eFax email, and then resent the documents using GetFaxFree.
As it turned out, there had been a mixup in the office, and they had my paperwork all along. All the same, it's likely without the services at my disposal I would have already left the building. Using virtual fax I didn't have to worry about what happened or where the documents were. I simply faxed them- all from my phone. In less than five minutes the problem was solved!
In fact, the automatic archiving feature of these services has actually made me LIKE faxing. At the end of the appointment a nurse asked me if I wanted copies of my paperwork. To prevent issues like this in the future, I've been scanning my paperwork into Google Drive for archival purposes. Suddenly, it occurred to me there was a faster way.
"Can you fax them to me?"
