Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

[bstramer]

are any other dealers having problems with fax communication issues on new MFPs, especially with more modern phone systems?

What are other dealers doing? Myself personally, I would like to see faxing completely disappear, as it is a service nightmare, but you cant reasonably expect a customer to just not fax.

[rthonpm]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

Faxing as we know it will be dead within the next five years as VOIP becomes the standard over analogue telephone lines. It's a technology in transition: the idea of sending a document to a remote device and getting a hard copy on the other side will still be in play for some time, just because people are used to it, but the means of transmission will be different. In the meantime, as the technology advances, we're stuck with fax machines straddling the analogue and digital worlds.

Overall, fax machines are a pain to troubleshoot because of the sheer number of variables from modem speeds to bad phone lines. I've tried when possible to move as many customers as possible to using scanning for their needs, or failing that, I'll make sure to get their phone support people involved before deploying new equipment or before connecting existing equipment into a new system to make sure that any settings which need to be changed are done beforehand.

[jmaister]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

are any other dealers having problems with fax communication issues on new MFPs, especially with more modern phone systems?

What are other dealers doing? Myself personally, I would like to see faxing completely disappear, as it is a service nightmare, but you cant reasonably expect a customer to just not fax.

yes sir, sick of them fax issues.

if its raining, has construction nearby, age old telephone line, telco upgrading, somebody sneezed(j/k)...

and if you came from teleco like me, its like "ahhh damn it, not again."

[Gift]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

I don't have much fax problems and fax seems still popular in the field. Of course it's a problem if the customer thinks he can swap his fax from his old line to a fancy-new VoIP line without the need to configure it on service menu level. I don't have much problems to get it working with the right settings. We do get some other fax-related calls as well (every now and then) and usually it's not the fax but some line issues I can hear with a cheap telephone I have in my car for this purpose. It's also a good instrument to help explaining the issue and make it understandable for the customer. The most important thing is the the customer trusts you and these things can lead to unwanted discussions (like a classic talk about paper-issues^^). But if the customer can hear a humming on his line with an external telephone he will believe that it is 1.) not just a saying of the tech and 2.) the noise is not generated by the Fax since a test telephone is like some neutral device that is unlikely broken.

We usually charge these calls no matter if the customer has a service contract or not since out contracts doesn't include determine/fixing bad telephone lines or non-G3 compliant line situations (like VoIP) - but before moving out we try to suggest that it makes sense to get the line checked to avoid these costs.

[mojorolla]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

- Slow your TX and RX baud rates to 9600
- Turn of ECM
- Change coding to MMR if set to JBIG. JBIG works with ECM.
- Set ring detect to 1
With these settings, we have very few problem.

[Eric1968]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

I think we should inform customers that most faxes do not support VOIP-lines. There are workarounds and they may work but you can't guarantee that it will work permanently. I've set up a Ricoh FAX 3320L on a VOIP-line and every now and then they have a problem with sending faxes.

[nmfaxman]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

I am sick of VOIP carriers saying that any fax will work with their system.
If you check their websites it states you have to adjust the fax to work, but not all faxes are supported.
No listing of faxes that will work.
I always ask them what has changed and when did they change it.
"But they said it would work".
Then let them fix the fax, because I can't fix their lines.
Can you say Billable no warranty or buy a new fax?
I will in a heartbeat.

"But the salesman said..." The salesman lied.
Not my problem, I told the truth.

[Gift]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

I think we should inform customers that most faxes do not support VOIP-lines. There are workarounds and they may work but you can't guarantee that it will work permanently. I've set up a Ricoh FAX 3320L on a VOIP-line and every now and then they have a problem with sending faxes.

I tell my customers that no G3 fax supports VoIP officially because the G3 standard was never designed for this. All we can try is to adjust these well known parameters to make the fax way less demanding to the line specifications (at the costs of a more or less radically reduced performance). As you said it's still a workaround and no official solution with 100% reliability insurance

[mojorolla]

Re: Anybody else SICK OF FAX PROBLEMS?

Get a machine made to the T38 standard. T38 is designed to deal with the packet loss and jitter of VOIP lines. I know Okidata has a few of these models.