The 1990s called, and said "If you would stop using our technology, yeah...that'd be great."
The company, that at the moment shall remain nameless but has two faces, requiring a fucking FAX is really something. If you’re a financial company, dealing with billions of dollars, I would think you would embrace the last, oh, I don’t know, 25 years of technology and not require people to FAX or snail-mail correspondence.
- Can I send a scanned document via email? “I’m sorry, what is this ‘scan’ you speak of?”
- How about using Verisign and a complete online capability? “Hahahaha! Are you kidding? Our tech team can’t convince us to leave our rotary phones behind! ‘Online Never’ is our motto!”
As a result, I spent a not inconsiderable amount of time tracking down a place where I can print, sign, and scan a document. There is a Mailboxes Etc. about two miles or so from here, that I have reliably heard can do this for me. If not, it’s a couple hour bus ride to The Big City, or try to find a local that has the hardware necessary. Regarding the fax part, my brother will take care of that in the states; he has a fax at his office. I can email the scan to him, he can then print and fax it for me.
I remember installing and maintaining software in the early 00s that would allow sending a fax from my computer. Our office abandoned it after about 10 years as being obsolete, since scan and email was the current tech, and many offices no longer even had fax machines. So these clowns are trying to claw me back 25 years. Now, I wouldn't mind that so much, if I could also reverse 25 years of aging to go along with it. No? Then fuck off. You can rest assured this will be my only business with you going forward.
I was considering heading back to the states in March, but, after sleeping on it, I think I can stick it out and keep to my original fly by the seat of my pants plan.
It's 9:00 am on Friday the 4th. I've finished my run (a new PR on the route, TYVM), and have successfully printed, signed, scanned, and emailed the document so it can be faxed. I also scored awesome produce, including some stellar aguacate. So, yeah, now's the time to manifest my inner Hunter or Ernest, crack open a beer and generate some written imagery.