Search:

Home | Computer


Detailed Review of eFax Internet Faxing Solution

By: Stephen McGovern

Company background
eFax is run by J2 Global Communications who additionaly own Fax.com, Send2Fax, DataOnCall, jConnect, RapidFAX and SmartFax amongst others. eFax is - at the time of writing - the largest player in the internet faxing world with in excess of 11 million clients. eFax is available in 42 countries around the world with toll-free and local numbers in more than 3 thousand cities and handles BILLIONS of faxes per annum.

eFax offers a excellent pack of features via their web portal and very good application integration via their desktop application called eFax Messanger.

Their standard package - eFax Plus - allows you to receive 130 and send 30 faxes a month. You are permitted up to 5 email addresses associated with each fax number for sending and receiveing and an unlimited number of fax numbers (for example, one in each country / city you do business in) can be attached to an individual account. There are also free, pro and corporate packages available.

On the downside, overage is expensive and customer support is really bad in some places. Some people also report occasional slow send times.

Overall eFax is a great product backed by a company that has been in the internet faxing industry for many years.

Features
Both the desktop program and the web portal are easy to navigate and use. The desktop software installs a 'fax printer' which permits sending of faxes from any program that has a print function. There is also an option to 'Scan and Fax' if you have a scanner attached to your PC.
Faxes are sent in monochrome and there are 2 grades: standard and fine. Fax receipts can be sent to any of the email addresses registered with the account. Cover pages can be included and this can be altered and customized in the preferences. Up to 5 documents can also be attached to each fax. Inbound faxes can be viewed online, via the eFax Messenger software or via email. Faxes with the .EFX extension can only be read via eFax Messenger. Most faxes arrive in either PDF or TIFF format. The quality is first rate. Inbound faxes can also be password protected.
Fax activity can be tracked online and faxes can be resent from the sent faxes log.
Multiple fax numbers and email addresses can be associated with each account which makes management of multiple fax numbers simple.

Pricing
- Plans: eFax Pro, eFax Plus, eFax Free

- Cost per Month:
eFax Pro: $19.95/mth
eFax Plus: $16.95/mth
eFax Free: free

- Faxes Stored For:
eFax Pro: 2 years
eFax Plus: 1 year
eFax Free: 30 days

- Pages Included in Plan:
eFax Pro: 200/mth
eFax Plus: 130 / mth (30 outbound)
eFax Free: 20 / mth (none outbound)

- Cost to Send Faxes:
eFax Pro and Plus: $0.10 / page
eFax Free: cannot send

- Fax File Formats:
eFax Pro and Plus: PDF, TIFF, EFX
eFax Free: EFX

- Overage Cost for Receiving Faxes:
eFax Pro and Plus: $0.10 / page

- Overage Cost for Sending Faxes:
eFax Pro and Plus: $0.15 / page

- Hidden Costs: If you choose a toll-free fax number then the cost to receive faxes is $0.20 per page.

- Corporate Plans: Yes

Ease Of Use
You can be up and running in less than 5 minutes via the web portal and nearly as fast if you download and install the desktop software called eFax Messenger.
Both are very easy to setup and use. Customizing a cover page is slightly trickier and required a good rummage through the online help nevertheless there are loads of pre-prepared cover pages already available which can be used as templates. Fax traffic tracking is simply handled via the online logs and faxes can even be resent from the sent log.

Customer Support
There have been reports of bad customer service from eFax. However, our experience of them has been very good. The live chat was helpful and the telephone support was good. In both cases they answered all our questions. . The online documentation and FAQ sections are informative and reasonably expansive. It would be good to see some tutorials or webinars but that is more a 'nice to have' rather than a major omission.
Even the cancellation process - via a toll-free call - was pleasant and the operator offered us an additional 2 months free service if we stayed with them.

Conclusion
eFax offers an excellent service. The coverage is the best there is with more locations covered than any other product currently reviewed. The interface is clean and easy to use from the word go. The ability to have multiple fax numbers and emails on a single account is also great. However, eFax has the most expensive packages we have reviewed and offers the fewest included pages. It is a shame that the largest player in the internet faxing field could not provide more attractive pricing for their users. That being said, if you want to use the best service that has the greatest coverage and largest customer base then eFax is for you.

Article Source: http://www.casinoarticlessite.com

Need More Information? Visit the author's website for the best internet faxing solutions and internet faxing comparisons.

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Computer Articles Via RSS!

Powered by Article Dashboard