Are Fax Machines outdated now?

[Mr Celine]

The DWP will not accept email queries but do still accept faxes, so our office still has a fax machine purely for this.

That's the same DWP who wont't take a claim to universal credit without a unique email address.

 

[Speicher]

I remember back in the 80's. The company I was working with at the time Telexed all the customers to ask if any of them would be buying one of the new Fascimile machines as they were thinking of it.

I remember when it turned up. We all gathered round to watch a fax come in on the thermal paper.

Can you remember when a telex had to be "typed" onto a machine which punched holes in a roll of paper, about 12mm (or half inch) wide?

 

[ianrauk]

Can you remember when a telex had to be "typed" onto a machine which punched holes in a roll of paper, about 12mm (or half inch) wide?

I do.
I have a friend who was a 'Telex operator'. She still has it as her job status on her Facebook page.

 

[Dave7]

I remember back in the 80's. The company I was working with at the time Telexed all the customers to ask if any of them would be buying one of the new Fascimile machines as they were thinking of it.

I remember when it turned up. We all gathered round to watch a fax come in on the thermal paper.

Haha.....I was just about to post a very similar comment. I used to think the telex was amazing. Then the company got a fax WOW......

 

[Dirk]

Can you remember when a telex had to be "typed" onto a machine which punched holes in a roll of paper, about 12mm (or half inch) wide?

Remember them?
I went on a GPO course on how to strip and rebuild them!

 

[Andy in Germany]

Still used every day over here: a fax can be signed, making the document 'legal': an Email can't.

 

[Cycleops]

Still used every day over here: a fax can be signed, making the document 'legal': an Email can't.

That's very interesting. I've just signed a rental agreement via Docusign by email from the UK and i understand it is a legal document.
https://www.docusign.com

 

[Cycleops]

Here is a practical example from a high-industry country:

Yamaha Motorcycle Sales Japan Co., Ltd.
ヤマハ発動機販売本社／関東営業所
〒144-0035
東京都大田区南蒲田2丁目16-2
テクノポート三井生命ビル3F
TEL 03-5713-3820　FAX 03-5713-3932​

Why do these companies have fax machines? Certainly not just for fun!

I'm sure they do a lot of business in developing countries especially in Africa where the fax is still in use.

 

[Threevok]

That's very interesting. I've just signed a rental agreement via Docusign by email from the UK and i understand it is a legal document.
https://www.docusign.com

We use DocuSign here now - in conjunction with Salesforce

 

[Globalti]

I'm sure they do a lot of business in developing countries especially in Africa where the fax is still in use.

Ha he ha.... Most African countries with the possible exception of South Africa have almost no landlines. Their systems were shambolic with rat's nests of wires festooned around poles and then along came the likes of MTM with high-tech solutions meaning you could make calls from almost anywhere, even your village, without the need for copper wires. I remember in Nigeria up to the mid 90s when you arrived at a customer's office you would ask if the phone was working and make a couple of quick calls, everybody did it. So no, fax has disappeared in Africa. OTOH smartphones are used to photograph and transmit documents and to send cash and even occasionally to make calls. Africa is where all the phones stolen by scooter gangs end up being sold as everybody will have one, even the poorest driver or maid or labourer.

 

[Andy in Germany]

That's very interesting. I've just signed a rental agreement via Docusign by email from the UK and i understand it is a legal document.
https://www.docusign.com

It's a German thing, apparently. I've been caught that way myself when a company replied to an email saying I had to fax or write. I don't think even a scan counts. @Unkraut may know more than me as I'm a tree hugging hippy and don't generally treat such matters with the gravity they deserve.

 

[Levo-Lon]

We still receive faxed prescriptions through because despite being told not to do so GP practices either don’t have the equipment or trained staff to scan and email.

We also have to fax anonymised prescriptions to certain suppliers to order stock.

We probably send or receive a fax most days.

We still need one for the same reasons.

 

[jefmcg]

Still used every day over here: a fax can be signed, making the document 'legal': an Email can't.

I've heard that crap in the UK, albeit probably 10 years ago. When they explained this was the reason I couldn't email the doc to them, I took the file and pasted my signature from another document into the sig box, printed it out and faxed it to them. While a forensic examination of the jpg/gif/png attached to an email might have shown that I hadn't signed it, once it was printed off and faxed, it would be impossible to tell.

But I ticked their ridiculous "make it legal" box.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Touting email as a modern replacement is funny when email itself is a 40 year old technology.

 

[tom73]

High time they went. Have asked Mrs 73 about this and yes the NHS use them all the time. She tells be mostly for internal stuff. I mean the mind boggles time to get a grip.

If back in the early day's of computers if the land registry was able to go over to electronic deeds then it's not rocket science to move away from fax machines. Saying that the NHS think it's gone modern to have a PC on a trolley that the poor old nurse has to drag round along with the drugs trolley and all in double quick time before the battery dies. That's if it's even been on charge in the 1st place. As for legal stuff again the land registry has shown the way and now has started having buyer and seller paper work being all electronic inc signatures.