 Best phone call ever
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Aug. 19th, 2008 @ 12:46 pm 
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Desk phone: Ring Ring!
Cell phone: (playing Captain Hammer ringtone).
This is a signal to me that someone is calling me with my "public" number that I publish on my web site and resume and such things. That number hides my real number and rings all of my phones at the same time.
I pick up the desk phone.
Automated voice: You have a call from an unknown number, hit one to accept the call, hit two to shoot flames into the caller's ear.
I hit one this time.
Me: Hello, this is me.
Woman who doesn't sound like she speaks English too well: Hello?
Me: Yes, start talking, what do you want?
Woman: Do you own the domain vee-eh-lis-cafe-dot-com? Valiscafe.com?
Me: Yes.
Woman: Do you have a number I can send a fax to you.
Me: No.
Woman: (incredulous voice) You don't have a number I can send a one page fax to?
Me: No, who uses a fax machine anymore, just send me email.
Woman: (confused) Ohokgoodbye.
Click.
The fax machine was this thing that was only useful for a few years until the internet provided a better way of sending documents and images. I have no fucking clue how the fax machine manages to still hang around twenty years after it's obsolescence.
I also don't own the following obsolete things: bag phone, car phone, walkman, calculator watch, pager, wall phone, cordless phone, whiteout, typewriter, vcr, video tapes.
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I worked at a vet office for about 6 months, and learned the annoyingly-still-valid reasons to have a fax machine. Front office personnel at my employer and most offices we worked with did not have their own email, and certainly could not necessarily have checked it constantly with customers lined up, holding hyperactive dogs under control.
What do you do if you need medical records, or a visit report from another office? (Even if they have electronic medical files, which contrary to popular belief, don't always have the capability to be exported into email attachments, though they should.) What if you need any record of any kind that's on a piece of paper that is not in your office? The fax machine is the best answer I have ever seen. It takes less effort than making a telephone call to send, and receiving just requires watching the paper tray and clearing paper jams, and sometimes calling to get a page resent.
Now, today's situation? She almost certainly wanted to spam you with some stupid fax ad. (Yes, they do exist! They're lamer than email spam because they steal paper.)
You kept medical records on paper? Boggles the mind. How did you find anything and what would have happened if you had a fire?
BTW, there are fax->email and email->fax services.
Doesn't your email program go "Ding!" when you get email? If it makes you feel better, you can change the "Ding!" to a "ring ring beep boop whirr whirr paper coming out of the fax machine" sound.
I believe that most people who think they need a fax machine really just need a sheet fed scanner for those odd random things on paper that aren't already on the computer. In fact, standard practice when encountering a piece of paper should be to feed it into the scanner and then recycle the paper.
Did you guys do stuff like print things off the computer, then feed it into the fax, and then throw away the paper originals? I see people do silly things like that sometimes.
While I have your ear, do you still do the Spirit of Iron booth?
Oh, I have no doubt at all that there are numerous improvements that could have been made but there's no way in hell a front desk girl working for a veterinary corporation can put any of them into practice. Sure, they could have given us all email, but probably would not for the reason I mentioned (impractical for the front desk to be using all day). A fax machine can be checked by the whole office if necessary. Our records were primarily electronic, though lab results were also kept in their paper originals (once copied into the medical notes). Those of many office, however, are not.
And yes, we were reduced to printing, then faxing, then recycling/reusing. It was a great source of pain in our office, something that we had no good way to work around because of the tools we were given.
And yes, we still do Spirit of Iron, though on a reduced schedule. Mike's gotten an awesome job with Cryptic Studios, and doesn't have all that much time for chain mail.
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| From: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lokiz_mom |
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August 19th, 2008 - 08:43 pm |
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old timers
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When you work with people who were in their 30's during the 1950's and still retain paperwork from 50 years ago, fax machines are a necessity. Yes we have the ability to scan and fax from our machines, but they just don't understand it. Not to mention most, if not all, of the paperwork they're looking for is, in fact, scanned into an online "file cabinet" if you will, yet they still ask for the paper file anyway...its just futile to attempt to force them into the 21st century.
Should I mention that *i* personally still own vinyl, betamax, and 8tracks *and* the machines with which to play them?
~_O
edit: typing on a crackberry often leads to misspellings.
Fax machines are not obsolete; my fellow respondent explained this nicely. We're just not all as wired up and connectified as you yet. Sorry.
(Wite-Out isn't dead yet either. We only have one bottle in the office, but there is no substitute for it when it comes to errors made In Blue Or Black Ink Only On Federal Form #1-ARGH.)
/$0.02
![[User Picture Icon]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/19794852/1707672) |
| From: | kadyg |
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August 19th, 2008 - 10:04 pm |
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>cordless phone, whiteout, typewriter, vcr, video tapes
I have all these although the VCR should be Freecycled and all the tapes have DVD counterparts I should just purchase.
Regarding faxes: when I was going through Financial Aid hell prior to getting into culinary school (all dutifully recorded right here on these LJs), faxes were the ONLY thing they would accept. Which would have been fine, except I got the impression from the minions that the fax machine was shared with the IRS, checked only on odd numbered days and the document was then scanned - but I couldn't email it to them because no one had that. I used the good people at Staples for all my fax needs and they were very congratulatory when I got into school, having been an important part of the application process.
So, government morass=fax.
Email->fax service = win.
Next time I see a fax machine, I'm going to go all Office Space on it for the good of humanity.
haha, did you really say, "start talking, what do you want?" that's great.
i dunno, i can kind of see why some people still use faxes... but mostly for business purposes. i myself have only ever sent a personal fax a few times, but it was to a business. i guess if they want something to file right then, it works.
i'm old-minded, though. lol
The only people who call that number are strangers, spammers, and recruiters. Basically, I don't mind being gruff with them. When I know it's through the magic number, I have no problem just ignoring the call, deleting the voicemail, or just hitting 2. That'll teach 'em.
i just thought it was hilarious.
For some reason I actually miss those giant, clunky, cordless phones. ;_;
Hi there. Got linked to you thanks to ladypoetess. Did you know some people for quasi-"legal" documents, will accept a FAXed signature, but won't accept my signature in a PDF document that they have to print? Happens to me all the time. And I never get a valid answer to reasoning why.
Yes, it's totally dumb. It's like the legal and health industry just stopped accepting new technology after the FAX was invented.
What really breaks their brains is when I explain that there's really not much technical difference between the two, excepting the method of data transport. I've almost got them to swear off faxes. *laugh*
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