I was going to post this on Jodih’s thread about the phone message that was never going to be answered, but Jodih is not a poster to piss off. So rather than hijack (the subject is similar) –
Does anyone think that something sent via fax is somehow more “special” than something sent by mail?
Does the fact that it arrived at its destination “instantly” mean that it deserves an “instant” response?
Every day I get phone calls from people who say “Did you get my fax?” and “I need an answer ASAP.”
But the calls aren’t from our customers or suppliers – they’re from vendors who we’ve never done business with, job seekers (unsolicited), companies doing reference checks, and worst of all – bill collectors trying to get to employees.
And they not only expect attention, they want it now!
It just ticks me off. They use our paper, fill up the in-baskets so we have to weed through reams of their crap to get to what we need.
I don’t know what makes me angrier – the fact that they want immediate attention, or that they expect a response at all.
I think faxes should be like vampires – they can’t come in unless they’re invited.
Yowsa. When did I get this reputation? I am sweetness and light, Pam, sweetness and light.
I read once in a book about how to maximize time-wasting in the office the following recommended method: Call recipient to alert them to the fact that you are going to fax them something. Fax the item. Call the recipient to make sure they received the iterm.
I think people in the groups you’re talking about take advantage of the fact that faxes still get immediate attention. People will fail to answer the phone and throw away junk mail, but they’ll take the time to look at a fax to make sure it’s not important. If I were you, I’d alert salespeople to the fact that tying up your fax machine is not going to get them any business. Oh, and adding to what Lynn said: It is also illegal for collection agencies to contact your employees at work if either you or the employee tell them not to.
I dunno if this has already been implemented, but at many workplaces fax machines are NOT on toll-free lines. Boom. Less incentive to flood you with crap.
I’m an epidemiologist and I’ll tell you what I hate. I happen to run into somebody in a hallway somewhere and they give me a list of statistics and data analysis they need, overheads, etc. They didn’t call me ahead of time and ask for them. They didn’t think of it before they saw me in the hall. But they need them right away.
I’m going to go out on a limb and claim that I’m the only memberwith the authority to speak on this subject. Why? Because I work for a FaxBroadcast company, or as we like to be called an e-document delivery company. You recieving those faxes keeps me in a job. You may not like it, but think of how I feel having to do it daily for a living. Did you ever think about that? Do you think I’m not ashamed of what I do? When people ask you what you do, and you tell them “I send faxes”. They always say, “No really, what do you do.” And people always get so upset when they have problems getting the faxes out. IT’S ONLY A FAX. GET THE FUCK OVER IT!
Also the junkfaxes site is good, but clever companies can easily get arround it. We have one cutomer who does business from the Bahamas, so they don’t have to worry about the Attorney Generals.
Sorry for a semi-unrealated rant. I just had to get it out there. And if you want to give me your fax number I will make sure that you never get a fax from my company again. Really I will. Post it.
p.s. You will still get reams of faxes, just no faxes from our customers.
history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce - Karl Marx
I have an efax plus account, so I can send and receive faxes via email (I can also get faxes OCR processed and sent back to me in rich text format :D) and so far I haven’t gotten junk faxes, but if/when I do, I’d be pretty pissed off too.
Do what my mom does: she sends them a bill for $5for the use of her phone line and paper and her time. She says either pay the bill or she will sue you for $500. If you don’t pay the bill, she sues you. She’s a lawyer, btw. This has worked very well for her.
My experience with faxes is that unless you know the recipient has a machine in their personal office, half of them are never received by the right person.
You have to call so they can hunt for whoever got them stuck at the end of something else.(Them meaning faxes, not stuck)
If someone thinks it’s going to be perceived as more special than regular mail, it ain’t.
What Lynn said, basically. Now why isn’t junk mail illegal too? Sheesh. One alternative is to block their number. Also, just toss the junk faxes. Please, the paper is not expensive!
I actually like(d) faxes when I was working. As a travel agent, when a client would fax his information,it was hard to get the information wrong. When we would fax over the itinerary for approval, if it came back as " I said I had to go to Los Angeles, not Des Moines." We just fax back the sheet sent to us. It covered our asses every time.
