Is that people here really don't seem to like to conduct business via e-mails and are still relying heavily not only on telephone but on Fax machines - that one was kind of a shock to us, honestly. 
 
Due to my accent, I usually prefer to communicate via e-mail. As a matter of fact, for all the time I've worked in offices, it's always been my favorite method because unlike a phone call, you can access the info anytime you need and archive it and retrace it, it's time stamped and all...
 
Incidentally, in our offices, we had a turnaround time of 2 business days to answer an e-mail. It would never have occurred to me not to reply - no more than I would have ignored the ringing phone.
 
But here, in the last few years, my success rate communicating via e-mail must be of approximately 5% - thanks in large part to Amazon and audio software and hardware companies who do reply to e-mails.
 
I don't know what it is that people like so much about that darn phone - even when I specify that my 1st choice for correspondence is e-mail, they often disregard it and call. Yet, that's the minority, those who don't simply ignore e-mails.
 
I hate phones, honestly, even more so since we've practically all traded land lines for cells - communications have only degraded. That's not to mention that most of the times, people on the other end of the line have an accent worst than mine...
 
In the last week, I don't know how many e-mails I've sent to Witness Protection and the DA's office, to no avail. A simple call and magically, I'm in touch with someone.
 
That's one example in a million my wife and I have experienced since we got here. 
 
Faxing stuff... Seriously? Why don't we just ask these guys how they would do it, instead?
 

 
 

I quite regularly have people ask me if they can fax me something. I'm like...bleugh?
 
I don't even have a land line. For sure I've had "all in one" printers that have fax built in but I've never used them. Why on earth would you send a fax when you can either send an email, or a scan? I'm with you, I like to have everything filed away on a hard drive for archive purposes. Email is by far and away the best way to do this. I love my business email account - I have the inbox set up to act like a real in-tray. Emails are labeled into folders once I'm done with them, so the only emails I have in my inbox are those I've yet to deal with. When I'm done with all of them, I have an empty inbox. It's such a buzz! And I always know at a glance what I have to respond to. 
 
What bugs me the most is texts. I hate them! We have a "no text" policy with clients and it causes a bit of friction sometimes. On my iPhone, I can't mark a text as being unread. I can't categorize or archive it. Once I've read that text, I have no visual indication that I still need to act on it unless I manually set up a reminder. I frequently read texts, vow to respond to them later, then forget. So clients "shoot me texts" and I ask them nicely, "could you email me that request? I need to have it filed and categorized." It's just how I work. But they claim a text is more convenient for them. I ask them if they have a smart phone with email - they all do. So how is a text more convenient? Never understood that one. Plus, sometimes someone will send me a text and I won't get it till a couple of hours later. Never happens to me with email. 

You've got a cool accent, Rain.

You can send/receive faxes over the internet. A couple free services are HelloFax and I think MyFax (been a while since I researched it). HelloFax can be added to your Gmail account and take the files to be faxed from your GDrive (the cloud drive thing that comes with GMail). So you just have to scan whatever it is you want to send, upload it to GDrive then type in the recipient's fax number in HelloFax and off it goes. It will also allow you to set up a "phone" number that you c an receive faxes on so you just give that to whoever is wanting to fax you from a regular fax machine.
 
HelloFax also has digital signatures (as do many of those online fax services) so you can just upload a scan of your signature if you want then it will superimpose it on docs and stuff. Many official documents need to be faxed for legal reasons so this is basically a way around that using an email style service.
 
The free services however (like HelloFax) will only give you a certain amount of faxes you can send in a month for free and/or might superimpose their logo on the cover sheet the recipient gets. After that you have to pay them to send more. There are also a lot of paid services as well that don't have any of that other crap but I very rarely send faxes so it's not necessary.
 
Obviously the other cheap/free way is to just buy a fax modem card for your PC, set it up (you gotta plug it into a phone line) and use the Windows fax thingie.
 
No need for a noisy, clunky ass machine. You do need a scanner though to get docs into the machine... obviously. Otherwise PDFs are also legal and can use digital signatures (and can be sent through an online fax service).

I think texting would have been a totally fun thing to do ... back in the 80's.  Now I think it's just about the stupidest form of communicating there is.  You're holding a phone, just call the person up and, in next to no time, you can exchange far more (and, even better, more accurate) information and be done with it.  Personally, I only like emails as a paper trail backup of what was agreed upon during an actual conversation.  It puts a summary of what was discussed down in a more concrete fashion.  That said, I've always been one to believe that talking with someone is the more courteous manner of communicating with someone that shows far more caring than an impersonal email.  Of course, I also hate having to wait as you go back and forth for hours in email to clarify something.  A simple phone call usually gets everything sorted out in a minute (or, if I'm in a corporate environment, I go even farther and would usually just talk to someone in person).  Texting from one office over just seems like a couple of immature kids in elementary school passing notes between each other that they're not supposed to and giggling about it.

I hate texting and think I've only received one legitimate text in my life. I feel the same way about instant message crap too.
 
Honestly... as someone in my mid thirties I feel like a larger percentage of my generation simply never grew up. It's not like even a high school mentality it's a JUNIOR high school mentality and in some cases, especially when they let their emotions and selfishness get out of control, a freaking elementary school mentality.
 
Not all but many. It's a little alienating and I guess why I've always preferred the company of people older than I. Usually folks who grew up in the 60's or 70's.
 
They have their issues too though but aren't quite as vapid and self centered.

I don't like texting either. Even just physically, typing on those tiny screen annoys me to no end. I'd probably need a phone the size of an iPad for it to be a bit less uncomfortable. 
 
I do agree that in certain cases, the phone can be a better option, especially with certain people who can't read and write properly - and there are lots of them. You give them a very simple and basic A or B scenario and they start to get creative - their brain seems to venture in the most unlikely and unforeseeable path... But I still prefer to use e-mails as a first option.
 
Beepster - I hear you, brother.
 
You know, I remember when I started 4th grade I suddenly had to grow up. All of a sudden, it really wasn't cool to be reading comics and drawing giant super robots - it was considered kid stuff. Man, we were nine! lol
 
At any rate, I look at folks my age and we seem to be the generation that decided not to grow up. It's absolutely common for guys my age to collect comic books, spend most of their free time gaming, wear superhero t-shirts, have collections of action figures... And I do some of that stuff too, you know.
 
Still, I'm trying to picture my dad w/ a Batman t-shirt. Or spending an evening playing W.O.W. online, drinking soda pop and eating pizza pockets. Posting pictures of his dinner on Facebook. Or playing with a light sabre... 
 
That's not just working.
 
 

here in good old Blighty the NHS is obsessed with faxes...most referrals are done thusly. and the only email which is secure enough to use is nhs.net, whereas most organisations have their own (so mine is nelft.nhs.uk, for example). this is despite fax being so open and insecure...
 

IMO a text message is great for urgent info and in cases battery life of the phone is an issue. Internet connections are often either unstable or slow to use  on phones depending on where you are or what phone you're using. In my business, for example, auction results are sent as group SMS so people get it in a quickly accessable form no matter in which  corner of their farm they are.
Also, using internet eats phone batteries, so many don't have net on if they know they can't charge the phone during the day. You can send a hundred text messages with the battery strain required for a few e-mails.
 
I think it's a bad joke to have, say navigator for pedestrians if you can't use it duer to low battery life.

Rain
 
 
Faxing stuff... Seriously? Why don't we just ask these guys how they would do it, instead?
 

 
 

 
 
If it's connected with a wire to the outside world, they don't use it....  However, they will run their farms and houses on generators and solar as well as use Cell phones since.... yup... not connected to the heathen world's wires.