re: We are being nickel and dimed to death.

Threads like this pop up from time to time.

Why are people still surprised by this?

We live under a capitalist system. Corporations exist for one reason: to make a profit for the stockholders. And management is incentivized to look for ways to continually increase profit.

They employ psychologists and marketers that are always looking for new ways to mentally manipulate consumers. They are very good at it.

Sometimes they get it wrong (i.e., the infamous Bud Light tranny promotion), but most of the time they succeed.

If you don't like the fact that GE figured out a way to force you to use their filter, then you can always switch to a brand that does not force you to do that.

But before GE made that decision, they did market research and found out that they would still make more money even though they might piss off a few loyal customers. It is a risk they were willing to take, and it is most likely paying off for them, or they would stop.

Your choices are:

1 - switch to a different brand of refrigerator
2 - organize a boycott of GE
3 - accept it and move on

I’ve been drinking tap water exclusively for decades and have no health issues. I’m sure filtered water is like hand sanitizer in that it prevents your body from dealing with foreign things like it’s made to do

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I’ve been drinking tap water exclusively for decades and have no health issues. I’m sure filtered water is like hand sanitizer in that it prevents your body from dealing with foreign things like it’s made to do

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Yeah I don’t care about water out of the fridge but I still want the ice maker to work

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Ok. I can understand your overall point, however it’s your fridge. A device you use everyday for years. I myself don’t mind the higher price for such an important fixture in my home. Just saying.

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I think you still missed the point. He's talking about the company decision to force purchasing their branded filter at multiple times the cost of a comparable off-branded filter. The filter is not better, different or more efficient than others. It was ONLY to force you to buy their marked up filter, which they happen to offer a subscription service for!

Our gluttonous consumer society that always has to buy the new thing, and will pay whatever prices that these companies put up are at least partially to blame.

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Pop the chip off the old filter, tape it to the off brand filter so it'll line up with the reader?

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This baw knows how to operate.

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The light on mine went from green to orange

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just reset the light before the wife spots it. the filters clogged when it stops making ice or water.

I have a GE fridge and there's a semi-simple fix to this that allows you to use third party filters.

Find a filter bypass plug, they are like $25 on amazon. On the plug there will be a chip, mark on the fridge where the chip sits on the sensor. Take the chip out of the filter plug and tape or glue it to the spot where the sensor is located. There will be a warning that pops up that says "not filtering", but just monitor the replacements the old way by month. Having the chip there allows the system to trigger the bypass, which allows it to work and not recognize third party filters that are usually less that 1/3 the price of branded ones.

Or you can just keep the plug in and run tap water through it if you want.

How about I bought 4 $8.00 tickets to the LSU game through stub hub. After markup from the seller only 20$ so not terrible Stub hub adds another $100.00 in fees so the total was almost $190 for $32 bucks in tickets

I think I went at least two years with an expired filter, and I'm still alive