The Disadvantages of Using a Fax Machine and How to Solve Them

​Right at this very moment, there are thousands of fax machines all over the World transmitting documents.  That’s because faxing is still the go-to method to share documents professionally, like in for example the government sector or the healthcare and law industries

Fax machines however, are old, and have a series of disadvantages that have become evident in a World in which we can send a voice message to a person on another continent in just a matter of seconds.  Here we will take a look at these drawbacks, and at the same time will give you the best solution for faxing in the digital age.

Maintenance.  One of the biggest disadvantages of using a machine to fax is that it needs constant maintenance and a steady supply of paper, toner or ink.  It’s extremely frustrating to run out of supplies in the middle of a transmission.

Cost.  Right from the start you’ll need to buy a fax machine or at least a multi-function printer with fax capabilities, then you need to buy all the supplies and invest in a phone line to plug the fax machine.  This can cost more than $200 in total, and you haven’t sent a single fax yet.

Needs a landline.  All fax machines need to be hooked to the phone line 24/7 to avoid missing faxes.   For offices this means installing a new dedicated fax line, which takes a few days until it is ready to receive faxes. You could use a phone line but then you are open to interruptions and can’t receive any calls while the fax is being sent/received.

Isn’t Portable.  Have you seen someone carrying their fax machines everywhere?  No? Well that’s because it is impossible.  As we have said before these are stationary machines that only work through a specific phone line.  If you are away from the office and need to send a fax you’ll have to return or have someone take care of the fax for you.

Cannot be reached at all times.  Dedicated fax lines are used exclusively for faxing, but they can only take care of one call at a time.  If another person wants to send you a fax while you are transmitting one, he or she will have to wait until your line is free.

They don’t exactly help the environment. Did you know that fax machines consume electricity at all times?  You have to keep it turned on just to avoid missing faxes.  On top of that using this old method mans you’ll waste a lot of paper, not only in successfully ​received ​papers, but also on all those times the result wasn’t printed properly.

May not be secure for sensitive documents.  It’s common to find that there’s only a single fax machine in the office, this means that any fax coming your way can be potentially be read by someone that is not supposed to.  This poses a big problem in places like law firms and doctor’s offices where client information must be handled with the utmost care.

A Solution to Traditional Faxing Problems?

To say good bye to all these problems many businesses have made the jump to online fax technology.  This way of faxing is secure, fast and is free from al the disadvantages we have talked  about earlier.

By using an online fax service you can start faxing minutes from now without needing anything but a computer (laptop, desktop or cell phone) and a connection to the Internet.  They allow you to send and receive fax online either by using your email or a simple web form.  Incoming faxes will arrive automatically on your email converted to a digital document, so there’s no need to waste paper if you don’t have to.