MetroFax.com is an online fax service from Metrohighspeed.com. Internet
fax services are exactly what they sound like -- a way of sending and
receiving fax messages without the expense and hassle of owning a fax
machine. MetroFax is a 10 year old privately held company that offers fax
from Internet services. The process of signing up for MetroFax is really
straight forward -- metrofax accepts payment using your Visa, Mastercard or
American Express card. MetroFax is a great online faxing buy at just $12.95
a month. The best part -- metrofax.com uses an easy online interface for all
your internet fax needs.
Joining a fax from email service is ideal for people who fax more than a few hundred pages a month -- that includes both incoming and outgoing faxes. Metrofax is especially good for people with high traffic fax numbers, as your $12.95 monthly fee is good for up to 1,000 faxes in and out. Any faxes above that number will cost you just $0.03.
Metro Hi Speed has set up their fax email service for either PCs or Macs, so there's no need to worry about compatibility with your office or home computer. Having said that, using a Max to send or receive an online fax is not as convenient as using a PC -- the Mac interface is severely lacking, and requires special instructions from metrofax.com in order to use the Mac email fax functionality.
Once you've signed up for fax service at metrohispeed.com, you will get an email from Metrofax that instructs you in how to activate your account. Simply click on their "activation" link in the email and you'll be brought to a screen that allows you to set your Metrofax password. At the MetroFax login screen, enter your ID and password. Quick note -- your ID is your email address. Some customers have expressed frustration because MetroFax didn't tell them their login ID -- just enter the email address you signed up with and you're on your way.
After you successfully log in, look around at the easy to use Metrofax dashboard. The Internet Fax Service dashboard is no-nonsense, easy for even the most computer illiterate to use. Theer are plenty of online fax service programs that use cluttered dashboards or clunky old interfaces -- not metrofax.
Sending an email fax is easy -- you can select up to fifty recipients at a time for your online faxes. Just enter the fax number or numbers, the name and company name for each number, and add any of the recipients that you choose to your personal address book. If you'd like, you can add fax recipients from your contact list.
Adding fax attachments with Metrofax is also a simple matter of browsing and clicking. There are also five styles of cover pages to choose from -- yes, some fax to email services offer "custom cover pages", but Metrofax is a really no nonsense, no frills service, so you can only choose from the five cover letters provided. As for attachments, you are limited to a total of 10MB.
Continuing on -- you can add a custom message to your cover page. This gives you the option of simply faxing a cover page and message, rather than sending a cover page and your necessary fax information on a separate fax page. In fact, metrofax won't allow you to send the fax unless you either (a) attach a file to the fax or (b) put a message on the cover page. This is to prevent you from accidentally sending a meaningless or blank fax.
MetroFax even lets their customers send faxes directly from Microsoft Office. For people who create a ton of documents in Office, this makes sending and receiving online faxes one step quicker.
Once your fax is built, you simply press the "send now" button. Your online fax is sent. As you send and receive faxes, a number on the left column of the send page shows you clearly how many fax pages you have left, counting down from 1,000 each month.
Unfortunately, faxes sent and received by Metrofax are only stored for thirty days -- if you're looking for a fax archive service, Metrofax is not the fax to email service for your needs.
Since online fax service is fairly simple, you should not need to contact Metrofax after the first couple of days of using and getting used to the service. The only "problem" you may have would be a technical issue caused by a problem with Metrofax. In these cases, there's a very obvious button on the metrofax interface labeled "Support". Clicking this button calls up a Support Request page, and using a simple email form you can communicate with the support team. There are also three customer service phone numbers to call (for free) to talk to a human being. The Metrofax offices are closed on the weekends, and usually in the evenings during the week, but they respond quickly to support emails. If you have a basic question, Metrofax.com provides a bare bones FAQ and support section, but these are really basic details that only new users would ever need.
Metrofax.com is ideal for smaller businesses that send and receive about 1,000 faxes each month. Overages aren't a good deal with metrofax -- three cents per fax really adds up. That's why Metrofax is not good for businesses that need a lot of fax traffic, or people who want multiple fax accounts controlled by a single master account.
Rule of thumb -- if your business uses a few hundred in or outbound faxes a month, MetroFax is a great deal. The metrfoax online interface is easy to use and pays for itself in just a couple of months.