Faxes without a fax machine

johnfthetraveller

1) If you just need to send faxes, you don't need to pay for a service. Built in with Windows is free software to send faxes over your telephone line. You need a connection to your telephone line and a modem (which may already be built into your computer), and to enable the fax software. Of course you pay for the telephone calls as normal. People can fax you, but the computer needs to be switched on, otherwise your phone rings, and you don't have time to switch the computer on before the incoming fax gives up.

2) I have been using efax, which allows people to fax to me at any time, and I receive a copy of the fax as an email attachment. Due to changes in the legislation about using 087 numbers, they've been threatening to withdraw the service, and are pushing people to upgrade to their paid service. I suspect this is just a marketing ploy. Their last email to me says:
"This is the second email to let you know your fax number may be deactivated, if you do not act quickly"
Note the word I've put in bold. Although there is new legislation, I think there will still be the option to charge premium rates for people making the fax call, so the business model should still be viable for them. However, they may be forced to change their numbers, so they may not think this worthwhile. Would be interesting if Martin could get to the bottom of this one for us.

ged_holbrook

In response to OFCOM Efax have stopped using the 0870 numbers and have move to 070 numbers.

What a shame that they played that game of upgrade now or else. I've moved to www. freefaxtoemail. net it does exactly what it says on the tin... Fax to Email

Mancunian

I received this and got a free 070 number:-


Receive your faxes by email
Tuesday, 9 March, 2010 11:24:45From: Every Investor with eFax <Everyinvestor@emreact.com>

Partner Offer


RECEIVE YOUR FAXES BY EMAIL!

In 1 minute, you will be able to fax online-for free. Receive your free eFax number. Start receiving faxes directly in your email-at no cost!
eFax is as easy as 1-2-3

1. Someone sends a fax to your free eFax number
2. The fax arrives in your email inbox as an attachment.
3. Click to open the email, save it or forward it!


No commitment. No set up fee. Receive faxes for free.

http://partners.efax.com/en/GB/50859/mailing.do?XXX@XXX.com

replace XXX@XXX.com with your email address


Over 11 million customers are already using eFax worldwide.
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© 2010 j2 Global Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
eFax is a registered trademark of j2 Global Communications, Inc.




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alanclarke

LincsLad wrote: »

It might be worth mentioningthis link, for those who want to just send the occasional fax, but have no need to receive them: http://www.tpc.int/

TCP used to be very good but it has been down for months, I assume they are no longer in business.

A free fax I use to send faxes is www.freepopfax.com - the fax goes out with a few adverts but the last time I used it they were not too intrusive.

Mr_Thrifty

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Free Fax Receiving For Web Users

For those people who want to receive faxes, it is possible to do so without a fax machine. !

How? Download the software from http://home.efax.com/s/r/FreeUK this should take you directly to Efax Free, but do ensure it is that and not Efax Plus. !You will then be allocated your own number for peopel to fax to. !

How do they make money? The system is completely free for you to use. !The key to the company's revenue raising is the phone number. !The number you are allocated is a 0870 national rate number.

This means whomever is faxing you pays roughly 8p/min during the day, and less at evenings and weekends.

It's therefore a more expensive call than normal, and efax gets a cut of this revenue. !However as a cheap system for those who need to receive faxes on occassion, its a useful tool.

Hmm. I recently looked into this and ended up deciding simply not to have a fax number any more.

There were two reasons for this:

1. Virtually nobody uses faxes any more. It's an obsolete technology. If push comes to shove, they'll just scan and e-mail you the document (possibly in full colour rather than a grainy 200dpi B&W scan).

2. I'm fairly sure that e-fax and the like have a policy whereby, if you don't use your free fax service at least once every few months to receive a fax, they reserve the right to reassign your number to somebody else. Something to do with Ofcom rules and not being able to "squat" on 0870/0845 numbers I think. You can pay to keep the number, but can't hog it indefinitely for free. Alternatively, I think you can opt for one of those 070 type numbers (not to be confused with a mobile phone number) that cost some horrendous amount to call. If somebody has the time, perhaps they'd care to review the Customer Agreement (all 9,173 words of it) and let us know?


Given the combination of 1 and 2, I felt that it was just a waste of time even trying to keep the number "alive". I decided I'd rather not have a fax number than have one that goes "dead" after a few months unless I constantly jump through hoops (and get spammed galore with messages about "upgrade options" and the like, no doubt).

I may well be wrong about some of the detail in the above; I just don't have time to check it right now. One thing I do know for sure, however, was when I looked into it in detail a few months ago, I decided it was all just more hassle than it's worth.

Ten years ago, this would have been a great money saving tip. But now? Not so sure.

Mr_Thrifty

johnfrith wrote: »

1)
2) I have been using efax, which allows people to fax to me at any time, and I receive a copy of the fax as an email attachment. Due to changes in the legislation about using 087 numbers, they've been threatening to withdraw the service, and are pushing people to upgrade to their paid service. I suspect this is just a marketing ploy. Their last email to me says:
"This is the second email to let you know your fax number may be deactivated, if you do not act quickly"

Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. Put simply, it's more hassle than it's worth. And absolutely dreadful news if you put the number on business stationery without realising what (I think) happens a few months later.

JohhnyS

In deiner Situation finde ich Fax Online die beste Moglichkeit. Ich benutze Popfax.com. Es ist sehr leicht zu benutzen und ich hatte noch keine Probleme.

MammothKe6a

Does it really have free services? I always thought it's kind of cheating as when I was choosing a provider for mhyself, I read so much bad stuff on it than eventually decided to get a Popfax account...

Tedious

This has gone quiet, but I'm surprised there's not an update with warnings about efax ... :mad:
Once you've signed up for their thirty day free trial, they don't warn you or at any point mention to you that you're now having to pay. I signed up in June last year - thought I'd set it to auto cancel, but this seems not to have happened and they've been charging me £10/month or so since without ever sending me an email to tell me. I sent one fax in June and wish they HAD cancelled my account!!!
Now I'm also seeing stories on the web about how hard it is to cancel them ... Won't experience that until tomorrow, but I'm not looking forward to it.
Tim

ScoobyZ

Tedious wrote: »

This has gone quiet, but I'm surprised there's not an update with warnings about efax ... :mad:
Once you've signed up for their thirty day free trial, they don't warn you or at any point mention to you that you're now having to pay. I signed up in June last year - thought I'd set it to auto cancel, but this seems not to have happened and they've been charging me £10/month or so since without ever sending me an email to tell me. I sent one fax in June and wish they HAD cancelled my account!!!
Now I'm also seeing stories on the web about how hard it is to cancel them ... Won't experience that until tomorrow, but I'm not looking forward to it.
Tim

Thanks, I'm looking to send one fax for free. I will look around!