Do you still use a fax machine?

In today’s world, a fax seems positively archaic, and so when I left the shared office building where one was provided, I decided I wouldn’t get one to replace it.

And it’s worked quite well, except for one business relationship: HostEurope. They’re a fine hosting company, offering excellent service and exceptional bandwidth at reasonable prices. Their only drawback is that they insist on using faxes.

When my bank changed my credit card and I needed to give them the new number, they refused to take the number over the phone, though they did accept to have it sent in cleartext over email, which I refused. So now I’m paying them the occassional overage, typically at 1-2 euros a month, with bank wire transfers.

Now I need them to add some RAM, and they insist on getting the order by fax. This time, I’m afraid I’m going to have to buckle.

What’s up with that policy? Isn’t it just a bit odd, archaic, even, for an internet business, a hosting company, no less, to have a fax-only policy?

I believe there are some legal implications, such as signatures transmitted by fax being legally binding, but given the services such as efax lets you transmit a scanned page as a fax, anyway, what’s the difference between delivering that scanned page by email and by fax?

What do you think? Do you still use a fax, and why?