eFax Works Like A Dream, But Has Uncertain Future
Written: Nov 26 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Always works, extremely convenient, local numbers
Cons: Company is in serious financial trouble
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| Joubert's Full Review: eFax |
I finally found a great fax solution for the majority of my needs, and they’re about to disappear from the face of the Earth.
eFax is a service that converts faxed documents to browser-viewable .tiff files and sends them to an email address. The service is also available on web-enabled cell phones and PDAs.
Imagine this – you’re reading a great Epinion and want to send it to someone who does not yet have Internet access. The information is perfect for them, highlighting exactly what they need to do for this big upcoming purchase. What to do? If they have access to a fax machine, you can simply send the document via eFax.com. If you don’t mind having a non-local telephone number for incoming faxes, your cost is free. Sure there are some banners, and some branding on your fax, but the information gets there.
Sounds Great! How Does It Work?
Anyone can sign up at eFax.com for a free eFax number at the company’s web site. You will not get a local telephone number using the free service. Once you finish the online registration – a snap, really – you’ll be assigned a telephone number and prompted to download the client software.
Now here’s the catch. The really cool stuff, sending faxes, converting fax text to OCR (with pretty good results) and fax storage all require the paid eFax Plus account. The rates are extremely reasonable. There’s a $10 activation fee and a $4.95 monthly fee. Here’s the great part. With the Plus service, you can pick a local telephone number provided you are in a major metropolitan area. That’s included in the $4.95 fee. The only ongoing cost is a 10 cents per page fee for sending and receiving.
So you’re at $15 for the first month and $5 per month thereafter for a private fax number. I printed mine on my business cards and don’t even use the company’s faxes anymore. ”It’s private”, I assure my attorney or others send classified data, ”and I get it on the road too.”.
You Sound Like You’re Writing Copy For Them. Why?
I find very few things on the web that fundamentally change the way I work. This is one of them. The ease of use, coupled with the ability to reach people by fax rather than email, makes this one of my favorite new product offerings.
Do We Really Need This? It Seems Redundant.
Yes!
Take another imaginary trip with me. You’re traveling for business. You log on to your email in the hotel. Up pop two faxes that ordinarily would have gone to your office, right on your screen. Or you’re in that same hotel room and need to print out something for a meeting tomorrow. You don’t need to lug a printer around with you or go search for the business services office at the hotel. Simply fax the document to yourself at the hotel’s fax number and pick it up on your way out the door the next morning. I know – I’ve done it.
Many of our traveling executives now make use of an eFax number. Conveniently billed to their credit card quarterly, it’s simply added to the most convenient expense report and reimbursed.
This Client Software – How Bad Is It?
Actually, it’s the only thing that hasn’t crashed on me yet. You can run the client in your system tray on a Windows system like I do, or execute it as needed. Even typing this in Microsoft Word now, I have an eFax Send option as part of the Word toolbar. I can choose to send this document as a fax, as an email or simply write it to disk in eFax’s proprietary format.
My fellow geeks will be horrified to learn that I let eFax install its client all over my system, giving it a valued spot in the system tray as well as writing a bunch of code to the registry and attaching itself throughout Microsoft Office. Never fear. I’ve found that the uninstall program works exceptionally well and does a good job eradicating the program.
Once you become an eFax subscriber, you can also sign up for voice mail services, free OCR conversion or broadcast services. One feature I really adore is the ability to send one fax to five different numbers with the click of a button.
So What’s This About Them Going Away?
Proving once again that I’m a Wall Street contrarian, the investment community has crippled eFax. From a 52 week high of more than $13, the stock tumbled to less than 25 cents per share and has been delisted. Know that Happy Meal you were going to buy for $1.99? Well, you get 10 shares of eFax stock for that now.
The company is merging with the company that used to be known as Jfax and is now called j2 Global Communications. Since Jfax offered a similar service to eFax, I suspect that the merger will be virtually transparent to end users. The merger was to have been voted on before Thanksgiving, but a quorum of eFax shareholders was not convened, and the meeting was adjourned.
All This and You Still Recommend It?
Absolutely. For the cost, it’s silly for any businessperson not to try this service. Just don’t go printing your new eFax number on your business cards until the merger shakeout occurs.
Recommended:
Yes
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