I was talking with a company the other day about setting up online payment processing for a couple of web sites I’m working on. Besides the fact that their pricing is ridiculous (I’m really not willing to share a quarter of my profits with them), they insisted on handling the setup by fax.
I told them that I didn’t have access to a fax machine. They asked if I could get access. I said no. They said that they could fax the documents to my bank. I told them that it takes me 20 minutes to drive to my bank — couldn’t they just e-mail them? They said no.
I replied that I’d get back to them. I haven’t. I have no intention of doing so.
What the heck is the hang up on fax machines? It’s a slow, expensive and very poor quality technology. I can understand the necessity when the only option was sending a document by mail, but these days — let’s get rid of our fax machines!
Hmmm… there’s a new idea….
Update: I registered www.nomorefaxes.com. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it 
2 Comments
I agree with your frustration around faxes, Jonathan. I can understand when some business processes require a signature, I’ve recently just bought a fax after 5 years without - simply because I can no longer stand dealing with dinosaurs.
I deal with 1&1 (hosting company) for a few of my customer accounts. Online signup and administration is a breeze, they’ve really made it easy to get in and going with a new account.
You want to cancel or modify something account relate? Just the fax, man, just the fax. They make it so slow and cumbersome (telephone calls only, through three tiers of customer service people) to cancel any of their services -t hat I still have Microsoft Exchange accounts hosted with them that have been dormant for a year. Simply because I have more effective uses of my time than spending two hours ($180 billable) on the phone waiting to speak to a customer service rep.
Hey, that’s just my 2 cents.
agreed …
faxing is just a pain in the ass …
i wish it would go away …