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I've heard broadcast faxing is illegal, is this true? |
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No. Broadcast faxing is a legitimate, legal and cost effective means of mass communication used by a variety of different businesses. |
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Is sending unsolicited fax advertising illegal? |
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Yes, the Telecommunications Act of 1991 (also called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991) prohibits sending an unsolicited fax to companies/individuals with whom you do not have prior business contact. In addition to this federal law, each state has its own set of laws. Laws concerning e-mail broadcasts vary. ACS does not provide legal counsel for proposed broadcasts and STRONGLY recommends that qualified legal counsel be sought if there is any uncertainty concerning the legality of a broadcast. |
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I receive fax ads but never give my fax number to anyone who I don't know. How are these companies getting my fax number and how can get them to stop? |
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As in any business, there are companies with values and then there are the other guys. Most fax broadcast companies that provide an advertising service are already breaking the law, so obtaining your fax number without your permission is a minimal offense in their eyes. These companies obtain fax numbers by setting computers to speed-dial, calling every possible number combination. When a fax tone is detected they store it in a database and provide it to their customers for advertising. When consumers use these type of companies and their lists they not only are breaking the law and putting themselves at risk of being sued, but they are also wasting their money sending their promo to a random, unidentified audience. Keeping your fax number off everyone's solicitation list is, unfortunately, a never-ending battle because of this technology. However, if a particular company continues to fax you after you have requested that they stop, you might consider taking legal action. |
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What kind of companies use your services and what exactly do they send? |
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Our customers include associations, non-profit organizations, manufacturers and distributors, government bodies, publishing companies, medical organizations and many other companies of various sizes. Some examples of what our customers send to their contacts include newsletters, press releases, industry-specific updates, product information, event information and registration forms, membership/subscription renewal forms, etc. |
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What must I provide to ACS in order to send a Fax Broadcast/E-mail Broadcast and what is the best way to send it? |
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The 2 things ACS needs to send your broadcast are your document and your list of contacts with fax numbers and/or e-mail addresses. Once these are received we can set up your order, verify your list is usable and send you a sample fax/e-mail. E-mail is the best option for sending your information to ACS because it is quick and electronic documents are simple to convert to either a fax or e-mail message. ACS can also receive lists and documents by fax, mailed diskettes or hard copies. |
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How quickly can ACS distribute my Faxes/E-mails? |
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ACS has the capacity to deliver over 12,000 fax pages per hour or 200 fax pages every minute. Therefore, sending a 1-page document to 1,000 contacts should take right around 10 minutes or so. The speed of e-mail broadcasts varies depening on the size of the message, attachments, etc. But in most cases, e-mails are faster than fax and almost always complete the same day (regardless of size). |
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How will I know if everyone received my Fax/E-mail? |
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At the completion of each and every broadcast, ACS generates a report that is e-mailed to the customer. The Fax Broadcast report lists every contact that we were not able to send the fax to and even gives an explanation why. It also displays any invalid numbers and contacts that were found to be exact duplicates. E-mail reports list every address that was not attempted due to invalidity. Valid addreses are attempted and any bounce backs are sent to an e-mail address of the customer choice. It is very uncommon for a fax or e-mail broadcast to be 100% successful, but with our reports you can at least identify those contacts who did not get the information. The same cannot be said for mailing. Also, unlike mail, our customers only pay for successfully delivered faxes. E-mail is billed based on attempts. |
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How can I be sure my Fax will get to the right person? |
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Each individual fax we distribute can be personalized with instructions to deliver the fax to a particular person(s) as long as contact names are included in the list. Routing instructions can be part of the header, on a cover page, in a routing box or merged within the body of the text. |
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How, exactly, does Fax/E-mail Broadcasting work and why not just send the faxes/e-mails yourself? |
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ACS uses a complex system (network) comprised of a customized software program. For fax, this system allows us to prepare the list and document and launch the faxes to a bank of servers. These servers are equipped with special fax boards that distribute the faxes across multiple digital T-1 lines. A single T-1 line can transmit 24 faxes simultaneously. With e-mail, the same system is used to launch individual messages to one large server that distributes them rather rapidly. The reason Fax/E-mail Broadcast providers like ACS exist is not because we are capable of delivering information you could not send yourself. It is simply because we can do it in a fraction of the time. The same 1,000 pages we send in 10 minutes would take the average individual more than a day, even with basic fax broadcasting software. Many of ACS' existing customers originally planned on sending their own faxes/e-mails. Most of them quickly learned that it was a lot more labor and equipment intensive then they ever imagined and that they actually save money by sending their communication with ACS as opposed to doing it themselves. |
