Landlord charges tenant a monthly "tech" fee for a fridge he installed as a replacement, threatening to remotely disable it if they refuse to pay: ‘To take a basic repair and turn it into a recurring revenue stream is disgusting’

• The original fridge perished after months of grinding noises and leaking coolant. Eighty dollars of groceries went with it. Four ignored texts later, a replacement shows up, and for one brief moment, it looks like a basic repair is just going to be a basic repair. Then the email arrives. Fifteen dollars a month for the privilege of using the smart features on the fridge they installed without asking, in the apartment where the lease just says refrigerator included, with no mention of tiers or tech fees or proprietary apps anywhere in the document.

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  via New Africa

  Young man staring into a refrigerator in a kitchen.

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• The leech who owns my building is now trying to charge a subscription for the fridge

  callme_noel

• I have been living in this dump for about two years and it has been one disaster after another but this latest move is just beyond parody. About three weeks ago the ancient fridge that came with the place finally gave up the ghost. It was making this grinding noise for months and leaking coolant everywhere until it just stopped cooling entirely. I lost about eighty dollars worth of groceries because it happened while I was at work and of course the landlord ignored my first four texts about it. He finally sends some random guy over to haul the old one out and bring in a brand new unit.

• I actually thought for a second that maybe he was doing something decent for once. The new fridge is one of those smart models with a screen on the door and it is definitely overkill for a studio apartment but I figured whatever. Then I get an email from the management office yesterday morning. They informed me that since my original lease agreement specified a "standard white appliance" and they have provided a "premium smart device" there is now a mandatory fifteen dollar monthly tech fee to use it. They even said if I do not pay they will remotely disable the smart features which apparently includes the ice maker and the internal temperature controls through some proprietary app they installed.

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  via Vitaliy Abbasov

  Man opening a stainless steel refrigerator door in a bright kitchen.

  ^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• I checked my lease and it literally just says "refrigerator included" without any specific brand or model number mentioned. When I pointed this out the landlord replied saying that the old fridge was a courtesy and the new one is an upgrade that provides "added value" to my lifestyle. It is a fridge. It keeps milk cold. I do not need a screen to tell me the weather or play spotify while I am making a sandwich but apparently I am being forced to pay for the privilege of not having my food rot. The sheer gall of these people to take a basic repair and turn it into a recurring revenue stream is disgusting.

• They are basically holding my ability to store food for ransom under the guise of an upgrade I never asked for. I told him I would be happy with a cheap used unit from craigslist as long as it worked and he said they no longer stock "low tier" appliances for insurance reasons. 

• It is just another way to squeeze an extra couple hundred bucks a year out of people who are already struggling to keep up with the rent increases. I am honestly considering just buying my own mini fridge and telling them to take their smart junk back but I know they would probably charge me a removal fee for that too .

• I guess I am just supposed to be grateful that I am allowed to pay for the electricity to run his high tech billboard in my kitchen .

  callme_noel

• 
  via New Affrica

  Young man holding condiments while looking into a sparsely stocked refrigerator.

  ^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• The move to frame a mandatory appliance replacement as a lifestyle upgrade is beautiful in its audacity. He did not fix your fridge. He provided added value to your lifestyle. The fridge that keeps your milk cold now also has a screen that can tell you the weather, which is information available on every device you already own, but the important thing is that it is on your fridge now and that is worth fifteen dollars a month apparently.

• The remote disable threat is the part that takes this from annoying to genuinely absurd. The landlord installed an appliance with proprietary software that allows him to remotely control whether the ice maker works. He now holds the temperature settings of your kitchen hostage behind a subscription paywall. This is what happens when smart home technology meets someone who has always viewed tenants primarily as revenue sources.

• Offering to take a working used fridge from Craigslist instead, and being told they no longer stock low-tier appliances for insurance reasons, is the perfect ending to this particular negotiation. The system is sealed. You cannot opt out, you cannot downgrade, and you are definitely going to pay for the removal if you try to solve this yourself. All of this started because a fridge broke and someone decided that a repair was actually a monetization opportunity in disguise.

• When this landlord decided to "upgrade" the broken fridge in their rental unit, they forgot to mention that the upgrade came with a subscription plan, a remote circuit breaker, and absolutely zero shame.

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