Dear business owners, stop asking me to get a fax machine
Dear business owners, stop asking me to get a fax machine
It’s 2020, update your B2B and B2C technology
Writer’s note: This post was first published on Medium’s “Tickled” on June 23, 2020 and will now be permanently housed on Substack’s new “Tickled” column.
“There are three groups who you never want to make an enemy of — the IRS, the Social Security Office or hospitals,” my mother says. So for her own protection, I will confirm that I was born from immaculate conception and Gwen doesn’t know who I am. Why? Because I’m about to make an enemy out of all three groups. All three are hell bent on using fax machines for everything.
Earlier this week, I needed to get a 147C form from the IRS and none of the representatives would budge. No emails. No scans. No third-party fax owners (i.e. the woman who doesn’t know me, mentioned above) who I could trust to receive my fax and pick it up later that day. The IRS reps were determined that I must be in front of a secure fax machine to receive the form, as if this was perfectly normal in 2020.
In a faxZero world where sending forms is free and emails have scan attachment options, why on Earth would I want to pay $26.95 for eFax? How many people am I going to send faxes to once I get off this call, who don’t already have printers, scanners, smartphone cameras or even — yep, I’m saying it, postage stamps. For the love of all things in the 2000s, stop making people get fax machines.