Email versus Fax = FaxMi

I was browsing my calling card / contacts booklet (how 1992 of me) and I observed that almost every person has a fax number under his / her phone number and mobile number. It seems, that despite the Internet Age, the fax remained resilient and significant in the business world. It’s like a status symbol or something. More than the ability to receive pages of information, it also tells your market and competitors that you can be easily contacted and you provide more avenues of communication. There are times when I am tempted to get a fax line and fax machine myself. Talk about peer pressure. Haha. 

 Truth be told, this whole fax phenomenon really puzzles me to the bone since the email can practically do everything a fax can (and more) and yet, everybody still opted to maintain their fax numbers. Prior to the Internet Age, it was quite understandable why people needed a fax line. I’ve always thought that at the dawn of the Email Age, certain things like fax machines, stamps, mailmen and postal mail would one day cease to exist. But no.. especially here in the country. People are still crazy about fax numbers. Everybody still has to have a fax number. Personally, I find fax machines inconvenient. Sure it looks cool. But it’s bulky and the fact alone that I have to look for a nook to cramp that big contraption is enough reason to discourage me into getting one. The email on the other hand, can be accessed anywhere via any computer, wherever you are in the world, anytime, without worrying about the telephone and electric bill trying to give you the chokeslam in the next month’s utility bills.

Nevertheless, it seems the fax has not yet run “out of style”. There’s still some credibility element attached to the whole having a fax number thing. Maintaining one is already a hassle : you need to check and change it’s toner every now and then, it needs constant power supply (hence additional electricity costs) and since I travel a lot, the fax machine would be useless if I cannot receive the incoming messages when I need them. That’s why probably the mentality that “if you can afford to have one, maintain it, and keep it working tells you that you have to be some bigshot company”. It’s almost similar to having a free email and a paid domain email. Methinks it’s really an image thing more than anything else.

Then I stumbled upon this site. www.faxmi.ph. It allows you to receive fax mail via your email inbox. Seriously, this is a genius combo. And a testament to the evolution of technology. The service gives you a fax number where people can send their faxes but there’s no more need to have a fax machine. You can simply access your mail client and open the fax mail-turned-email. Plus, I save on printing costs since I can choose which messages to print and which messages can simply be archived. The best part about it is, people can send me fax messages 24/7. The line never goes busy and I can receive fax mails wherever I am in the world. How effing cool is that?! Now I can “brag” about having a fax number. Bwahahaha! (Really, this is something to brag about.) The costs are waaaaaay cheaper, hence, a good plus for me. (No more added electricity costs, the fax line is two times cheaper than the regular fax line, and they give you a Metro Manila fax number which means my local clients do not have to incur or pay for long distance rates just by sending fax messages. Talk about presence eh? Huzzah!

Sigh. Now I have a this really terrible cough… 

* ehem * * cough * * ehem * * ubo * * ehem * free * ehem * fax * ubo * line * ehem * from * cough * FaxMi * cough * please * ehem * * cough * * ehem * * ubo * * ehem * * cough * * ehem * * ubo *