In doing business with a financial institution in another state the other day, I was told to sign a certain form and fax it back. I told the woman on the phone that, because I don’t live in the 1990s, I do not have a fax machine. Even if I did, I don’t have a landline to plug it into.

Since she was emailing the form to me in the first place, I inquired, couldn’t I just scan it into my Mac and email it back to her? Nope, she said, it has to be via fax.

I was going to ask why — since they’re both electronic, digital replicas of the original paperwork — but I sensed she’d just tell me, “That’s our policy,” or some similar stonewall. Shaking my head in disbelief, I printed out the form, signed it, then drove to a UPS Store that has a fax machine and had them send it.

For that convenience, I was charged $3. The clerk told me it was usually only $2, but this was a long-distance call, thus the added fee. Again, I wanted to object by asking who pays more for long distance these days, but didn’t want him to tell me that was company policy, and if I had a complaint, I could fax it to the main office. Which is not a local call.

Instead, I just kept my mouth shut, paid the man and went home.