Quick answer: Yes — faxing gives you proof of delivery, unlike email. Every fax produces a confirmation page: a transmission receipt showing the sender and recipient numbers, the page count, and, most importantly, the time, date and delivery status. It’s a standard feature of both fax machines and online fax services like Municorn Fax, and it’s widely recognised as legal proof of delivery.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll hate the modern rise of read receipts. Every time I get a new phone or download a new messaging app, it’s one of the first things I turn off – why would I want people knowing exactly when I’ve received and read their message? All that does is put pressure on us to respond straight away, instead of continuing to scroll through Reddit. No thanks!
Of course, this can come back to bite us sometimes – there are occasions when we really want confirmation that our message has sent. Whether I’m at work transmitting an important document, or sending personal sensitive information to my insurance provider or doctor, it can sometimes be very important to get proof of delivery.
This is why using a fax service is still so important to me, whether I’m running my business or handling personal matters. Unlike email, faxing features built-in transmission verification reports called fax confirmation pages, allowing you to easily verify every single fax you send, giving you the confidence that comes with having proof of delivery.
What Is a Fax Confirmation Page?
In case the only reason you’re reading this article is to find out whether fax machines and online faxing offer confirmation of delivery, the short answer is yes. Unlike email, it’s a basic feature of all forms of faxing.
This is thanks to the fax confirmation page. For decades now, this confirmation page has been a standard feature of faxing. It’s basically a one-page summary document produced after a fax has been sent, and it contains all the key information about the transmission: the sender’s and recipient’s fax numbers, the number of pages sent, and most importantly – the time, date, and the delivery status.
The fax confirmation page below is from Municorn Fax – an online faxing service that includes them as a standard feature for every fax. The page lets us see who sent the fax and the fax number it was sent to. We can also see the number of pages, and a preview of those pages. Then, crucially, we can see the time and date of when the fax was sent and delivered – in this case, it only took 1 minute for the Municorn Fax iPhone app to confirm the fax was delivered.
Does Online Faxing Include Fax Confirmation Pages?
Yes. Fax machines have been providing fax confirmation pages since before most people reading this were born. But what most people don’t know is that you can also get a fax confirmation from all major digital and online faxing services, allowing you to confirm your faxes whilst also taking advantage of the quicker, cheaper, and more convenient way of faxing in the 21st Century. With Municorn Fax, every single plan includes unlimited global faxing, and instant fax confirmation reports for all faxes sent.
Can You Get a Confirmation Report From Emails?
No. Fax confirmation pages act as a transmission receipt, giving the sender complete confirmation that their fax has been delivered. You might think that emails, being a newer technology, would also offer this – but you’d be wrong.
Take Gmail as an example: Google’s email service is the world’s most popular, responsible for around 37% of email opens around the world. This isn’t a surprise – it’s a brilliant, simple service that has a great user experience on any device. But there’s no built-in transmission receipt, and no way to know for sure that your email was delivered successfully. You can request a read receipt from the recipient, but only if you have a corporate or school account – so you cannot do this if you are using your personal email address. Compare this to faxing, where it doesn’t matter if you’re using a personal or corporate fax number, or whether you’re using a fax machine or online faxing – you always get a fax confirmation receipt.
Email read receipts, of course, raise a problem: you are relying on the recipient to click ‘Yes’ to confirm them. If they select ‘No’ or ‘Not Now’, you will still have no way of knowing if the email was successfully delivered or seen. There’s also another problem: even Google themselves say you cannot rely on read receipts to certify that an email has been delivered. Check out this section of Google’s own help article:
It’s the same story with Microsoft Outlook, another hugely popular email service – Microsoft admits that there’s no way to force a recipient to confirm that your email has delivered successfully to them. In any email system, you often have to customize and in some cases, bring in outside help from companies such as Registered Email, paying extra to have a legal confirmation message for an email you’ve sent. With faxed documents, a simple fax transmission report is sufficient – and all mainstream fax machines or online fax services will offer this as standard – no extra charges.
Why Are Fax Confirmation Reports Important?
At this point you might be wondering, “So what?”. I get it, email is more convenient sometimes, despite not having any proof of delivery. So why do I prefer using a fax service for anything important, to make sure I get confirmation that my faxes have sent? Let’s break it down:
Fax Confirmation Pages Are Legal Proof of Delivery
A fax confirmation report is legally recognised as proof of transmission, whereas email read receipts are not. This can be very valuable if anything goes wrong – for example, what if your healthcare or insurance company claims that they didn’t receive your important information, and want to deny you your money or treatment? If you’ve faxed them the information, you can prove them wrong in court.
There is longstanding case law in the USA which establishes fax confirmation reports as true and legally binding – like the case of Ellefson v. Megadeth, Inc. (2005), or Stevenson v. Economy Preferred Insurance Company (1995), both of which forced defendants to uphold their responsibilities because of faxed documents. Email read receipts, on the other hand, have never been brought into case law as a recognised proof of receipt – such as in the case of Fox v. Leland Volunteer Fire/Rescue Department Inc. (2015), where a court ruled they were only “hearsay”. This is much weaker than faxing law. Faxed signatures are also recognized legally.
Long story short – if you’re sending anything important and time sensitive, and something goes wrong, a fax confirmation report will legally protect you.
You Know Exactly When Your Fax Has Sent
You’ll notice that the example above of a fax confirmation page, from Municorn Fax, gives a precise time stamp of the fax transmission. This can help you make sure your recipient has received the fax in a timely manner, and helps to reduce the possibility of a fax being delayed or lost in transit. For example, if a small business sends invoices via fax, they know exactly when their customers have received them, and so they know when to expect payment. If they simply email the invoices, they may not know for weeks if the email failed to send. This is another reason why many businesses prefer faxing.
It Helps You Notice Mistakes
I’m guilty of occasionally being in a hurry, and typing in the wrong email address or fax number when sending something — a quick test fax catches a bad number first. The difference when you make a typo is – with emails, the email will either send to the wrong address, or not send at all. Either way, it’s hard to notice. But if you make a mistake typing in a fax number, the fax number will likely not be recognised, and your fax confirmation page will instantly tell you that the fax failed to send. You can then fix the problem much sooner.
It Works With Every Method of Faxing
Most fax machines (Canon, Xerox, Brother, etc.) include a very easy way to view the confirmation report of any fax sent – you can usually access all the fax logs in the machine settings, and even print off previous transmission reports. Online fax services, which are increasingly popular due to their convenience and low cost, also include fax transmission reports for every fax. It’s very hard to find an email service that offers reliable confirmation of delivery.
Is There Any Other Way to Know a Document Was Delivered?
A fax confirmation page lets you verify that your documents have been sent, and faxed documents are legally recognized as being equal to hard copies of original documents in most cases. There is only one other way to be legally sure that any documents you sent have been delivered – and that is to physically mail them using a tracked mail service. Of course, this takes much longer than faxing, is more expensive, and also means more paper has to be used.
Use an Online Fax Service for Proof of Delivery
If you’re sending anything that is even slightly important, which you might want confirmation of delivery for, then this is best done by online faxing. Online faxing gives you all the security and legal proof that a fax confirmation page provides – the certainty that comes with knowing you’ve done your part – with the same convenience and low cost as email. To find out more, check out the Municorn Fax apps for iPhone and Android, plus the email-to-fax service — the highest-rated fax apps out there, all including flexible plans for unlimited faxing.
