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Effective January 1, 2008 …

I have decided to give up my Toll-Free Fax Line and use my local phone number as my fax number, as well

Since I went out on my own, I have been using TELUS FAX .. which is a fax to email service. I actually do have a 5-in-1 multi function fax machine/scanner/copier/printer/and something else/ .. but I only use it for sending faxes out on my regular home “lan” line.

It’s great to get fax to email .. it comes in a .tiff format, and I don’t have to print everything. I get to view on screen and print as often as I would like or need, or not at all. I don’t have to worry about being out of paper, and while I am always checking email .. it’s nice to know immediately if something needs my attention.

Well .. there is a small fee for this service, and it is quite reasonable. The only thing was .. TELUS is not big in Manitoba and at the time (back in 2002 when I got this service) .. they could only offer me a Fax Line in …. Ottawa, Ontario. That’s not good in Winnipeg, if your local clients have to pay long distance.

So, I opted for a TOLL-FREE service and my Ottawa Fax Number was masked as a Toll-Free Fax Line … 1-800-613-2087.

Theoretically .. this was good because I wanted to expand my business into doing monthly accounting and bookkeeping from all around the world (or, canada and USA perhaps) where people fax me their information, and I prepare computerized financial statements and other reports, and fax it back. For about 2-1/2 years .. I actually had two clients that I had been doing this and have never seen one of them face to face. But, they wanted more service that I could afford to offer .. and I left that one client. The second client rented space to a person who wanted to do their books and I pushed them to take the local perspective and set them up on a good system.

So - here I am telling my clients - mostly all from Winnipeg …. to send me faxes to a 1-800- fax number. And, I get periodically charged $50.00 every second month to my credit card for the service … $19.95 plus usage.

I just don’t see the point anymore of having that. People can email me if they are not local - or spend the long-distance cost to fax me.

BUT I NEED YOUR HELP NOW!

What would you recommend for a cheap Fax machine? Is there a nice laser fax machine out there under $100? or so? I suppose I could upgrade to a NEWER all-in-one multi-functional fax .. but I’d rather spend the money upgrading to a hi-speed color laser printer machine next season, if I am able to - then feel I have to NOT get one - because I just bought another stupid fax/printer machine.

Ideally … I need to have a fax machine that can receive 30 pages at a time … and not run out of paper, and be able to send at least 20 pages or so in one sitting, unattended … (including legal size paper options).

Suggestions?

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