Hi, I posted this thread in the PC Help forum, but thought maybe I could get some advice over here, since it's more active in this forum. I have a small (one employee) business. Right now, I have one main phone line, one fax only phone line, and internet service in the 40/42 area. The fax line and internet are through AT&T. A few months ago, I ported the main phone line over to Sprint and have just a basic $19.99/month rate for that line. It's working out well, and other than so-so reception, it's saving me money. I need some advice about what to do with the AT&T stuff. Right now, it's crucial that I have a fax line to send and receive barcoded invoices to a billing agency for services. So I email a document to a supervisor, he signs it and faxes back the signed report, and then I fax the report, his signature page, and the barcoded sheet to an 866 number. The Sprint line I have will not allow me to send or receive faxes. What are my other options besides an AT&T phone line. I'm paying $185 a month now for the fax line and basic internet service, and I have talked with AT&T (and various supervisors there) since 5/14/12 about the rates. They keep saying they're going to give me a special "package deal" but they never adjust it. At this point, I don't want to use them for anything... at all. I want to be able to call them and disconnect service. I loathe AT&T. So, where could I get basic internet service for a reasonable fee and what are my faxing options? Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated, since I have no clue about anything tech. Thanks in advance.
As far as faxing options, I might suggest one of the many online faxing services, some of them free (as long as they can put an ad on the cover sheet). You get a number that your customers can fax to (usually an 800 number) and, depending on the plan, can get anywhere from a couple dozen to hundreds of pages. Check out http://faxzero.com/ or http://www.fax.com/ or http://www.efax.com/ As far as an Internet plan, depending on what your needs are, you can start at $19.99/mo and go up from there. Personally I use RoadRunner ($49.99/mo for my speed needs)
We use efax here at work and all of the customer service people have their own dedicated fax line. The great thing about that is that when a fax is sent in it pops straight into my e-mail as a pdf attachment
+1 for efax. We dropped lines years ago and went to cellular for voice and text, efax for fax. Haven't missed a thing other than costly bills.
Thanks so much for the suggestions. I'm going to look up the efax option. So if I use that, I receive faxes on my computer much like an email, right? And if that's the case, to send faxes, do I scan the document into the scanner and then it sends it by fax transmission, or by email? I have to send the report with the barcoded sheet on top by fax, since that serves as the bill for the service. I feel pretty sure that it can't be sent in email format, since the barcode wouldn't be scanned in by the receiving party... Or am I just talking complete nonsense?
I don't know about efax, but it seems to me it would be ALOT easier to just scan the forms and email them to the recipient, they could then print them and scan the barcode if necessary, just as if you had faxed the same thing to them and it printed out on their fax machine. Scanners are cheap, even most of the cheap "all-in-one" printers have print/scan/fax capabilities.
