I hate my fax machine. Don't get me wrong -- it's a nice one that has all sorts of functions that I don't know how to use. But I have to keep it unplugged all the time because of FAX SPAM.
It's funny -- e-mail spam doesn't bother me, even though I get tons of it. I just press the delete key and it's gone. But fax spam, that's another story. Every day when I get up and periodically throughout the day, I find new faxes in the machine. They seem to fall into three categories: (1) fabulously low mortgage rates that I can get just by picking up the phone; (2) penny and over-the-counter stocks that will make me a millionaire in just a few days; and (3) incredibly low prices for week-long trips to Disneyworld, Mexico and other exotic places.
Many of the faxes provide a number you can call if you want to get off the fax list. I used to call these numbers until I realized that this is the way that the fax-sending companies can verify your fax number. You can also try to sue them for sending unsolicited faxes. But who has time to deal with that?
The only thing that I really use the fax machine for is to send and receive business-related documents that require an actual signature. I have an electronic signature, but some of my clients will not accept it for invoices and such. I e-mail my electronically signed contracts to clients, but most of them want to fax them back to me because they have signed them manually. So I am stuck with the fax machine until my clients enter the age of technology.
I'm paying about $15 a month for a dedicated line for this machine which I no longer keep connected to the phone line. When someone wants to send me a fax, I ask them to let me know beforehand so I can reconnect it. To me, this seems like an unprofessional way of doing business, but I can't figure out how to stop the fax spam from coming all day long. It drives me nuts and uses up my paper.
Enjoyed reading your comments about your fax machine. I don't think that I could do without mine though. I will say that I have one line for communications but I'm looking into getting one of those "fax by email" thingies.