Friday, April 04, 2014

How To Make Sure A Business Receives A Fax

Faxes Are The Most Secure Way To Transmit Information...

I do NOT believe that at all. But I've been told it. In this day and age when you can sign a document on an iPad or Android phone the same way you'd sign it on paper, a lot of businesses still insist that sending a fax is the "most secure" way to do it, and won't accept a digisign.

Did you know the first fax was sent in 1848? That's right. The "most secure method of transmission" your bank or insurance company insists on is technology that predates the Civil War. That's almost as old as the Baby Boomers and Silent Generation people who run these businesses, and almost as useless (yes, a fax machine is slightly more useful than a Baby Boomer or member of the Silent Generation working in a large corporation and not retiring, but not by much).

I've gotten into a lot or arguments with customer service reps about this. Do you know how many faxes I've sent with personal information on them (like SSN) that were never received through this "most secure method of transmission"? A fax machine spits out paper, which can easily be lost, or somehow never makes it to the person it's intended for.

And in almost every case, a business that insists on fax is too freaking lazy or useless to confirm they received it in the first place. It can take them DAYS to have somebody walk by the fax machine to sort out the faxes that came in. They're so process oriented, they can't take a simple action of letting you know they got the fax in the first place.

A friend of mine is having trouble at the same time with both a financial institution and a health insurance company. My friend sent faxes to both, and both claim they never received the faxes. And they won't accept the confirmation the fax machine spits out as proof it was sent in the first place. And in one case, my friend has several hundreds of dollars in claims that should be covered denied because they claim they never got the fax of a $10 receipt.

That's why I came up with my "Master Plan" for dealing with businesses that are still using pre-Civil War technology.

Send the fax a lot. Seriously. Don't just fax it once and take the "confirmation" your fax spits out as an assumption that they received it. If you're dealing with an archaic business, sent the fax 100 times. Or 200 times. Just keep sending the fax until they ultimately call you and ask you to stop. That's your proof the fuckers got it. In fact, put it on your cover sheet that "You bastards keep telling me you didn't receive my fax. I'm going to keep sending it until you finally tell me you got it and have processed it. You can inform me of receipt of any one of these 1000 faxes at xxx-xxx-xxxx".

Until they call you, run their fax machine out of both toner and paper. Repeatedly. In fact, make it your goal to cut into their profits with the amount of toner and paper you'll cost them. If you're dealing with a health insurance company, eat up more than the amount of denied claims in toner and paper.

That should get their attention.

If we work together, we can create a fax free future.

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