Internet Fax Problems – Questions and Answers

Internet Fax lets you send and receive faxes just by attaching documents to your email or using an online form. The benefits include

– No hardware to purchase.

– No Ink or paper cost

– Privacy since no one sees you faxing

For the most part using an online fax service is easy and you’ll never have a problem. Below I’ve listed some answers to common problems usually experienced by first time users along with some answers.

Problem: I was billed by my Internet fax provider even though it is a flat fee service and I’m under the minimum number of faxes my plan includes.

Answer: 9 out of 10 times you forgot to put a “1” or the country code in your outgoing fax number. If you type 3055559896 as the fax number, the Internet fax service interprets this as a county code of 30 and tries to place an international call. Since most flat rate fax plans do not include international calls the user is billed for the call. Not to fret though, a simple call to their customer care group will likely get your account refunded. Next time just remember to put in the “1” for all US bound faxes. See your provider for international rates.

Problem: It’s been over 20 minutes and my fax did not make it to the recipient yet, how come?

Answer: Sending your fax over the Internet is fast because you don’t have to print the document, walk to the fax machine and wait for the pages to get scanned. However the document does have to be sent to the provider, who has to render it (change it into a fax), and send it to the recipient. This could take from 2 to 15 minutes and in rare cases longer. Depending on how many customers and “ports” (phone lines) your Internet fax provider has and what time of day it is (how many others are trying to send faxes) can add time to how long the fax takes to get through. This is why if your faxes are time critical it is best to pick a large Internet fax provider that has lots of ports and processing power.

Problem I see my fax in the online interface but it’s not in my email yet, why is that?:

Answer: Emails appear to be instantaneous. This is not always the case since they travel around the Internet to get to their destination. Since getting faxes in your email is really email with an attachment it can sometimes take a while to arrive. Not to worry, it will. If you’re in a hurry use the online interface most fax providers supply for speediest delivery.

Problem: I’m getting junk faxes and I just signed up, how is that happening?

Answer: Most providers recycle numbers from old users every 30 -90 days. When you get one of these numbers it may have already been in the fax market and collected by fax spammers. This is not uncommon. Although there is no real way to stop fax spam, Internet fax at least lets you easily delete the message without wasting paper and ink and tying up your fax machine.

To be sure there are other problems you might run into while starting up with Internet fax but few problems are serious, and a call to customer care usually easily resolves the issue. Just be sure to sign up with a reliable provider and Internet fax will save you save you money and time.