Fax machine knocked out by clown

[PATAX]

Needed some data for a client from a brokerage firm. Told them to email to me but they said they couldn't as it is not "secure line". Other Brokers have emailed data to me but I had to set up the password and the other nonsense. So this one faxed it to me. I told them to fax me ONLY the 1099 forms and NOT all of the other nonsense that comes with it. You can guess what they did. Right at the end my fax ribbon/ink gave out. Now the fax machine is in limbo until I get a new ribbon/ink which I've ordered three since the local store didn't have it. Another Client just tried to fax me 1099ssa and of course it won't go through. I am so sick and tired of this privacy confidentiality nonsense.🤡👎

[IRonMaN · Accepted solution]

What brokerage firm would prefer to fax than e-mail?   Everybody e-mails that stuff these days with their own little security systems to keep the info safe.  But out of curiosity, how old is your fax that it uses ribbon?  We've had ours since about 1963 and it uses a toner cartridge so I'm guessing yours must be from the 1920s. 😜

[PATAX]

Iron Man, it is not that old. It is a brother fax telephone combination. (The one I had before this was a little  old and it was super great, I think it was a Panasonic or something, high quality.) They still sell the ribbons for this machine so it can't be that old. Yes I can use the fax on my copier/scanner/printer (if I set it up) since I'm sure Bob is going to bring that up. But when you use one thing for everything, when one of those bells or whistles goes down, then you can't use anything. If you can understand my Cajun gibberish there.

[IRonMaN]

Yeah, I don't use the "all in one" fax machine/printer/copier/scanner/air fryer" either.  My fax gets used very rarely so I just scrape off the dust every so often to keep it ready for the next big fax mission.

[PATAX]

Oh by the way speaking of Cajuns. Take a look at my new Avatar. That's me and Heidi running through the Pennsylvania bayous. We thought we saw a Bigfoot so we took off. But it turned out to be Jim Carville.😉😁

[BobKamman]

Fax is obsolete technology, but you know that.  And how is it more secure than the Internet?  If you think your phone line can't be hacked, just ask the FBI and CIA.

My fax number is through eFax.  Faxes come by email attachment, so I can preview and print only the pages I need.  I use it so rarely that I decided to cancel it a couple months ago, to save something like $15 a month.  But they talked me into a "limited" service that is more than sufficient for what I receive, and after reading your story I'm glad I stayed with it for $5 a month. 

I occasionally send a fax with an old 4-in-1 machine in the closet, where the phone line comes in and I have to disconnect one cord and connect another.  The hard part is remembering to plug the phone cord back in.  

Many of my clients are better at scanning documents and emailing them to me, than I am at scanning and emailing to them.  I have to stop and relearn how to combine ten pages into a single pdf, rather than sending ten separate documents.  

[PATAX]

Yeah I agree with you Bob. I don't know why they didn't do the email thing, but maybe she was too lazy. If you remember the days before cost basis was reported,  we had to call the broker sometimes to get the cost basis. Remember how sometimes that was like pulling teeth. Just what do they do all day in their offices? That's what I'd like to know.

[BobKamman]

@PATAX Brokers in my time zone have to be at work at 6am.  So I have nothing but sympathy for them.  I think they go home at 2pm and take a nap.  Also, they have to follow company rules, which were written decades ago when Internet meant using dial-up and there was no https.  Management doesn't care, where else are people going to go to work, or invest?  

[PATAX]

Speaking of naps, that's what I'm going to do right now. These clowns have worn me down.

[qbteachmt]

"and NOT all of the other nonsense that comes with it."

But, without those instructions and details, how would you know what needs to be done with that info? Really, they were only trying to be helpful.

Ha ha ha...

[Just-Lisa-Now-]

thank goodness its not the thermal rolls of paper anymore, right?  Although, you didnt need ink with those, did you?  It just embossed the print right into the special paper?

[sjrcpa]

And you had to make copies if you wanted to keep it, because that ink would fade.

[ajp]

This seems to be a new protocol.  All summer, investment firms will only fax or mail items to me.  We actually got rid of our fax line several years ago.  When I need to fax out, which is rare, I use one of the online fax services. 

I also don't understand how fax is more secure than email. 

[PATAX]

@ajp thanks for that information. I appreciate it. You can get a fax/telephone combo machine with only one line. You run the line to the machine and you can set the machine to the mode that you want to. For example you can set it to "telephone only" if you're not expecting a fax. If you are expecting a fax then you can set it at "fax only" and it'll go right to the fax machine. Or you can set it to the "telephone/fax" mode and then after a certain amount of rings, If you don't answer the phone, then it will go to the fax machine.