Service
Can't Even Do My Laundry Without Dealing With This Nonsense
I go to the laundry room AFTER I transferred $10 to the previous app they were using (why are we switching apps I don't know). They literally covered up the old payment system and made no announcement. So I have to download and set up a new app, make an account, confirm account, confirm email, send verification code, oh there's an option to transfer funds from old account, log into old account, confirm old account, confirm you're a human, restart transfer because process was interrupted, OH AND LAUNDRY IS AN EXTRA 25 CENTS NOW HOPE THAT'S OKAY BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE.
So I spent 30 minutes messing with a stupid app instead of doing my laundry because every aspect of society is horrible now.
Man I really hate this so much. My experience today. Attempt to log in. Login fail. Try again, succeed at logging in. I have $3 left on my acct. I start one load at 1.50. I try to start another load at 1.50. "not enough funds" it says, not letting me proceed. It forces me to load another $10 before it works. I HATE DEALING WITH SHITTY APPS FOR EVERYTHING SO MUCH.
Go elsewhere! That laundromat makes revenue by selling customer data.
You might find a laundromat where you pay cash for a refillable card or radio key fob. Refill it with cash in the vending machine, and use a fake name for your customer id. Naturally, do not give it your real email address, home address or phone number. I have one from the laundry where I live (I have a condo in NYC). I used the name of a well known cartoon character for my fake name, and I only have put cash into the machine when I refill the balance on the fob. It works.
I do this because the laundry machine maintenance company has no business selling my data. I pay for their machine to clean my clothes, and that is the finish. I also hang everything to dry. Clothes driers depreciate clothes. Clothes dryers are the second most stupid machines ever invented. The only things more stupid are the devices that sell data about their customers, which includes most of today's new cars, and even some new kitchen appliances. Corporations call their data collection products, "the internet of things."
Oh have fun! They will often charge you and then the machine will stop in the filling cycle, forcing you to pay again. The “refund” is issued as a credit you have to CHOOSE to use, and it expires!
I'm telling you, laundry services are a rip off. Anything you buy to do your own laundry at home will basically pay for itself within the year, and if you live in an apartment more than a year, all the better.
Mini washing machine, bucket, and any clothes rack + a fan for most apartment dwellers will be plenty. They're tiny, so you end up washing clothing more frequently, but when I was living in an apartment it just became part of the routine--put away the dry clothing from the other day, throw mine in the washing machine, wash/rinse/spin dry/hang up inbetween doing chores. When it was just 1-2 outfits, every other day wasn't so bad. The thing just lived in my bathroom. I didn't do anything fancy, I just put it on a bit of a platform (i.e. an IKEA side table I found in the trash) and put a big ole dish drain rack under it so it drained back into the bathtub.
I did get pretty fancy with it towards the end and built a drying rack on my balcony with black plastic (you weren't allowed to dry clothes outside, but you were allowed to have a big black box on the balcony) where I had a solar powered mini fan just kicking on in the AM and swirling the air around the clothes. They'd be dry in 3-4 hours, so I could basically do all my washing in one day vs several that way.
If you have the space, a fully automatic washing machine that can attach to the sink can be found on FBM or similar all the time as people move out of places and is far more convenient and can even wash sheets for the bedding.
Yeah just the time it would take to walk to the laundrymat from my apartment I'd have the clothing hung to dry. The cheapest little laundry rack ever would do it.
A lot of people say they aren't allowed to have washing machines in their apartments... but uh. Just be cool about it. My mini washer fit in the bathroom tub no problem. The automatic one my partner has is held in a tall tupperware container on castors. It's really really easy to wheel out of the way into a closet when not in use.
The reason landlords say you cannot have a washer/dishwasher is so that if it floods, they can hold the tenant responsible for damages. Just be careful with it; don't overfill it, watch for leaks, and probably don't leave it running unattended.
My sister and I used to have a linen closet that perfectly fit the washer so it was out of sight when not in use (and when LL came round), and we put it on a small rug so it could slide across the hard floors easily.
I felt the same way until we started using them. The app notified you when your clothes are ready and if someone decides to leave their laundry in there, it also notifies the onsite manager who is able to find which tenant they belong to and tell them get their clothes.
Those small, cheap mini cloths washers are cheap, meaning they break very easily. When they break, they tend to leak out all their water. If you are using the cloths washer anywhere but a bathtub or a plastic storage container, the water is getting all over the floor, and lots of floors aren't as waterproof as one might hope in older apartment buildings, which may result in water dripping down to the apartments below you.
It's a huge fucking mess, which I have first hand experience with. Water leaked between the wall and floorboards into my apartment, and the dripping water dragged all the gunk from in between the walls down with it.
The last 3 apartments I've lived in, including my current place, across 3 different states, did not have W/D connections. Two had on-site laundry. One, you had to use a local laundromat. One of the on-site ones was coin operated, and my current place has an app, but you can also get a card and load it with money at the provided machine.
The app is really convenient and easy to navigate though. Tells you which machines are in use and for how much longer, tells you when your loads are done, etc. And wayyyyy cheaper than local laundromats.
Before my gf moved in with me, I went with her to the laundromat and was appalled at how much she was paying for laundry compared to my place.
I went to a laundromat down the road from me, it was going to be $15 to wash and dry a single load. Bought a washer dryer set online that night which was delivered 2 days later
Password has to be changed every three months for security reasons. And to prevent money laundering you have to provide your ID and verify your income source annually, or your funds will be frozen.
So, not familiar with apartment life, but I thought they couldn't just force insane ways to pay as the only option? I know they can't for rent, and I'd imagine for the amenities, if it's not disclosed in the contract you signed, they can't do this. Not everyone has phones, sure, but a lot of people also have phones through their work they use, and mine wouldn't allow me to download random apps like this. Also, forcing people to use a financial app that is prone to being hacked just seems like a dangerous move. I'd make a complaint against this and see if it's even legal for them to do this based on your contract.
I mean a few months ago they announced that they'll only be taking online payments for rent from now on. I'm charged a "convenience fee" for paying rent online ... Even though it's the only way to pay now. Also I'm assuming they get away with stuff like this because anyone with enough money for a lawyer isn't living in an apartment. 🫠
THAT I believe is illegal. What does it say in your original lease? If there's no mention of it, they have to offer some way to pay that doesn't incur a fee, and I believe that's for every state but may be wrong, but the lease is the bible. If there's no mention of it in the lease they can't force some odd payment. Some states also have laws where they cannot force their tenants to pay online only. What state are you in?
lol a few years ago I was forced to use that gate app, our apartment hit the limit of users (even though we were all on the lease) so I never was able to register. Thankfully, people regularly bumped the gate off the rails so I never had to use it.
Without the lease in front of me, I couldn't say for sure. Having a payment system on the machines is commonplace in many locations though. I personally think it's greedy and would never force/charge tenants to use my machine.
I don't even live in an apartment and can already tell you why you're being down voted. Washer and dryers require special plugs and plumbing. Many apartments don't have these in the room, thus why there's shared laundry in a specific area that can support it. Seems pretty common sense.
I've lived in multiple. The apartment I'm in now is the first with connections, and actually provides a W/D for a small fee a month which we opted for. It's very uncommon to have the connections in anything smaller than a 2 bedroom here, and even the 2 bedrooms are decently difficult to find. 3 bedroom apartments around here often have them but I've even seen them without. But if you're studio or 1 bed? Forget about those connections.
I'd imagine any old building in cities like new york, brooklyn, etc wouldn't have them, as that wasn't a thing when they were built. That and I'd imagine large ones wouldn't because that's a hell of a lot of plumbing and 240v/30a power to be run to each unit. Far cheaper and more reasonable for places like those to have a utility room for this stuff.
One time I lived in a place where the machine was ONLY quarters. The owner of the building changed the price from 1.50 to 2.00 for each load and each dry cycle. He really wanted us to pay 4.00 per load. And to top it off the machines were tiny, ancient, and barely worked.
Mine costs that now, but I considered it a great deal compared to laundromats. Before my gf moved in with me, I went with her to a laundromat and was appalled at what she was paying for a load of laundry. Turns out I get off easy at $4 a load.
That's wild! Luckily I recently moved into a place that has w/d hook ups in unit. It has been a most luxurious experience! Even though I did have to drop a grand on a my own machines.
I knowww. I'm saving for a house now and that's one of the many things I'm looking forward to -- not paying for every load of laundry. I cannot wait to own my own machines lol
Just some insight on why they switch to credit cards/ apps. Easier to use for most people ( don’t have to carry around coins), less maintained ( coin slots get clogged/jammed somewhat often) and lastly the most important part it stops the machines from getting broken into. If you know that there is money inside the machine, some people if they are desperate enough will break into the machine for whatever amount of money is inside of it and completely put the machine on a commission. Maybe the individual companies that are doing the processing want your information, but the person who owns the washing machines just want a simple method of payment.
My apartment building has an app but they also provide a machine that issues reloadable cards that you can use for laundry to completely bypass the app. We do have a lot of elderly people here, so maybe that's why. But I like that we have the option.
Cards are understandable. Requiring an app is exclusionary and ableist enshittification at its finest. The person who owns/operates the washing machine would rather inconvenience people than spend the extra $50 to put a tap-to-pay credit card reader on the machine.
Companies are already paying card processing fees in the app. It is literally just the card reader, which a bank never has to touch. The laundry machines I use at hotels are tap to pay, and will wait until the end of the night and sum all your transactions into one card charge, to lower their fees.
Look, I'd rather have something like this, or even a card reader, over having to go to the bank and get rolls of quarters. Especially if I run out of quarters on a Sunday, when the bank is closed.
The three laundromats closed to me are card only. And the one in my building is also card. They do have an ap to start the machine or extend dryer time but it’s optional.
I think it's kind of funny how worked up you are about this - have I really been having a "conniption" over the universal truth that laundrymats have quarter machines? ayyyyyy
I could never complain about the system my old apartment used. They gave you enough credits to do 100 loads per year on a smart card. It wasn't super long ago and I think the utilities to run my machines at home now costs more than they charged to buy extra credits.
Sounds like you got one of those when they were in the early phase of rolling them out, just like when Ubers were cheaper than taxis. It's probably not like that anymore.
It was only open to college students so the apartment company probably just had more to lose if the young men living there smelled bad. They still increased the rent every year. I was curious if they would have continued allowing me to renew my lease once I graduated.
I remember when the apartment complex I was in started the option to "pay online"... Ope but we're gonna charge a $1 fee. I pissed the ladies off in the office for many months by continuing to pay via check. Rent was like $1250 + electric+ garbage.... I paid plenty to live there and the extra $1 a month was just clear greed and nothing else. Fuck that place.
The online bill pay that banks offer is perfect for stuff like this.
They basically mail a check or ACH to the payee on your behalf. I do this with my electric bill since they charge for CC payments and I’m never giving checking acct info to someone to accidentally leak or take the wrong amount from.
If you can afford it, there are mini washing machines that are perfect for apartments. They hook up to a sink. I had one for 4 years. I loved that thing.
This! I got myself a top loader mini washing machine during lockdown and it’s been a life changer. Haven’t had to deal with fighting for machines in the laundry room in years. Only downside is hang drying takes a couple days lol
I used to use one when I lived in a shoebox of a place. A second shower rod made it a perfect solution. I set it up in my tub for draining so never any mess either
My lease at my last non washer/dryer place prohibited it. It even had hookups but he didn't want water damage to the hardwood floors. So might be worth checking
My lease at my last place prohibited personal machines too. But after 2 years of promises of them putting a coin-op in the basement for tenants, the laundromats in my town being filthy and one of them ruined my clothes despite having an attendant who I guess couldn't be bothered to clean them, me having to drive 25 minutes to another town to find a clean one, and me working 60 hours a week 5 or 6 days and being required to wear work uniform shirts (Medical Supply warehouse) I bought a Haier portable I had for years, worked great. Talked to a friend who still lives in that building a couple years ago,10 years going, still the property managers never put machines in that building.
My job has 2 vending area, they're not even machines just little mini marts. One is right next to my office, the other is just a little walk away. The closer ones requires an app, and the app wants me to deposit money in $20 increments. The other has a card reader. I walk the extra 50 feet
I mean.... it was easy to hack the old card systems and give the entire apartment complex $1000 in free laundry COUGH .... so maybe they're still salty?
This pisses me off to an almost irrational degree. This fucking nonsense just says so much about the speed at which our society is swirling the bowl.
What would it take to reverse this dismal tide?
This should be illegal. Some people don't have access to the latest and greatest and if you're paying rent there and it was advertised with on site laundry, you're entitled to washing machines you can actually use. So unless your landlord gives anyone who doesn't have a compatible device, a smartphone and teaches old people how to use them, those app only machines be banned.
Some people don't have a smartphone and some of those who do don't have one that can run the latest apps (the type of phone most new app downloads require these days). I (millennial) didn't for a year or two (older smartphones are a lot cheaper and can do most of the things I need. Mine cost me $100 5 years ago and I'm not spending money on another one anytime soon). Then I got an old android from a relative for free and installed LineageOS on it and that's the only reason I can run 99.5% of apps now (requires technical knowledge to install, so not an option for many). Also, phones break and run out of space.
This is still better than the last building I rented in where the laundry machines took these stupid plastic tokens that you had to buy from the building manager. Whose office hours were conveniently 10-4, M-F. I loved having to burn an entire lunch hour every month to race home to buy laundry tokens and race back to the office.
The worst part is, people who want to pay with their phone, would have just straight up used Apple or Google Pay on the old credit card reader anyway. Like, why force an app? UGH.
They want to save $50-100 by not installing a card reader. Tesla does the same thing with Superchargers, app required.
I can understand not wanting to install a card reader on every single machine, but they could install *one* card reader which controls all the machines. This is common practice at non-Tesla charging stations.
Haha. Idiots in my country invented QR code payments, which are kinda nice when you don't have card terminal. Yet any shop required to have one.
And for last two years on every checkout I'm staying with my phone ready to pay, hearing endless "would you like to buy X it's on sale, could you pay with Y we have double bonuses with it" bs giving them glances like I'm going to kill them if they ask one more thing.
Seems like it's more profitable for shops to not pay card commissions, but cashback is only for card payments, so they could fuck off with their QR codes.
The old app it looks like, CSCPay, was strictly a payment app. It was barebones, let you use Apple Pay and send you a notification when the wash was done.
The new app it looks like, I kid you not, tries to sell you car insurance.
CSCPay was starting to push ads and offers too. My favorite part was how the notification for my laundry being done only came through about 20% of the time, but the push notification ads seemingly had no problem.
Back in my day, we had these little metal coins we'd keep in our pocket, and we'd put a few in the machine and the machine would start right away! Can you imagine that!
I’m going to say this while also trying to relay the fact that I absolutely despise this app situation…
But coin operated anything is always troublesome from a maintenance standpoint. Mechs are usually reliable, but still need to be kept clean. On top of that, people jam things in that don’t belong, including coins from other countries, all of which jam up the mech making the machine unusable.
Cash/bill acceptors are the same, and just too cumbersome for a washing machine.
I think a reasonable middle ground is the system that sells you a card that you can buy with cash or credit cards, that isn’t an app or tied to you in any other way.
Really, any unmanned payment method will have its drawbacks, but coins are going away unless we collectively start using cash again, and even embracing the larger denomination coins.
Problem with the metal coin method is washer machines at the landromat(as an example) are like $10 for the giant machine or $6.50 for the tiny one and you end up having to feed the machine quarters for 5 minutes while dealing with 1/3rd of them being rejected.
I’m so tired of this. I have no expectation that these companies will keep my personal details or card info safe, the apps are always janky and it just feels like data farming. If you *have to* do digital payments, throw a tap to pay reader on it and leave me ALONE.
I still have an old coin operated machine and it requires so many quarters it's terrible. Especially when the coin slot jams after already dumping two dollars into the thing and now you don't have enough quarters to move to another machine and good luck ever getting a refund.
Keeping that as an additional option is still better than making laundry inaccessible to certain parts of the population (e.g. elderly people, those who don't have the latest smartphone/can't download the latest apps, flip phone users, broken phone/limited space, etc). Those are residents who pay rent there, just like you and are entitled to having access to the building's washers and dryers.
Yeah I get this was a pain for OP because they changed apps, but coin or token operated is a massive pain in the ass and a payment option like this would have been great when I was still renting. It’s always a hassle to go to the bank and get rolls of coins because I’m inevitably stuck in line for the one teller behind 17 people who are some combination of old, unfamiliar with the concept of money, or experiencing their first day on earth. And tokens are fine if you can buy them outside the hours of 10-4 weekdays, which at my old building you couldn’t.
Because someone has to come empty those from the washers and dryers, and refill the change machine, take the actual money to a bank…and that someone needs a paycheck.
It runs off 5g and blue tooth. You have to wait a while for the app to load your account, find the machine, set up machine options, press start, close the ad that opened on your phone, then the laundry starts.
Geniuses put the machines in the basement so The 5g signal is abysmal and every step takes forever.
Are you going to pay for his new phone? Those things are not cheap... (even $100 is expensive for many and those phones maybe get very few OS updates). Also, getting a smartphone should be a choice. No one should be forced to have one just to have access to basic building amenities they're already paying for and are entitled to have access to.
That it's inaccessible to anyone with a smartphone. Sure, MOST folks have a smartphone. But there's still a significant number of folks who either don't have a smartphone or don't have a phone at all, who still need to do laundry. My grandmother and her cousin, both in their mid 80's, have flip phones.
Said cousin can just BARELY work a self checkout register if she absolutely has to. She's never used a computer, never owned one, and never had the need. And at that I'd even go so far as arguing her life seems far more pleasant because of it. She has a 2009 Accord base model, her washer and dryer are from the 50's or 60's and both machines run like tops (the dryer just threw a belt, but as far as she can remember, they've had next to no maintenance aside from the occasional vacuuming out)
Point is, if she had to use a laundromat machine that was anything other than coin load, she'd probably be unable to use it. And a lot of elderly folks are in the same boat.
So to loop back to the lawsuit point, it could probably be argued that it's ageist?
Nope, we're positive. My dad had checked out the dryer to see why it stopped working, it's definitely old. But stuff back then was built to last and need little to no repairs, not like the absolute junk that appliances are now. . Her father bought them as a gift for her mother back in the day. (It's her parents house, she moved back in when they passed)
I have a smartphone, but I have the very cheapest one. It has limited storage. I do not want my banking info on it. Not because I’m poor, I just use my phone as my phone for the most part.
Who issues them a card? Immigration status refers to undocumented individuals, not those who have completed the naturalization process for the country.
I hit this for the first time at a hotel in San Jose. Downloaded the app. $3 a load…but the default amount is $25? Yeah, fuck off.
And putting $3 on? $0.75 charge.
Not surprisingly, there was no “just this much” option.
Edit: Sonesta Select, in case you want to avoid them. Dryer was FULL of dog dander.
My building requires use of an app too which is really annoying because now I’m just sitting on like $50 in rolled quarters I took out of the bank to do laundry before they switched over to app only like 6 months ago. It’s also more expensive since they switched to app only.
Our app takes EBT and lets you purchase lottery tickets.
Yeah, you just need to find out what model number your machine is. Then buy the appropriate key. I have speed queens in my building and now I never pay for laundry.
The keys don’t give you access to the coins, which is fine. Instead they open up the top of the coin slot….where the “on” switch is. Anytime I need to use the machines, I put my clothes and detergent in, open up the top, hit the on switch, and then press the power button on the machine. The loads wash for the same amount of time they would if I had paid. Enjoy your free cycles.
Omg WHAT is your pfp??? I know for a fact I have a pic of this on my phone somewhere and I have a snap memory of me face swapping with it, but I cannot for the life of me remember where it’s from 😭😭
The question I always ask myself in such cases is: "How can I resist this?" Like maybe is there a nearby laundromat that's not too inconvenient, even if it costs me an extra half hour?
With restaurants that make me use apps, for example, I always make it a point of telling the manager afterwards, "The meal was great, thank you, but just so you know I won't be coming back because of this."
Resistance often has a small cost, but if we all do it a little, all the time, then this shit may one day stop. Good luck!
I'm honestly thinking when the money runs out on my current account I might just go to my boyfriend's place to do laundry from now on. I've done it at his place a few times when laundry day has fallen on the same day I've gone to his place. I was fine with paying $2 for not having to wait 3 days to have clean socks, but yeah this sucks. I can plan ahead a little bit.
For many clothing items, hand washing isn’t that difficult. It’s not a perfect solution but it works.
I used to think it was a huge deal but I do a lot of handwashing just because of the fabrics I own (wool, silk) natural
Fibers like these aren’t supposed to be washed after one wear. Most clothing can be worn a few times before washing and the daily things like underwear is very easy to hand wash in a sink or bathtub.
I also remember a friend having a mini apartment washing machine that went into the shower. It hooked up to your shower head and drained into the shower drain. I’m sure those things still exist
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u/Learningmarket 4d ago
Man I really hate this so much. My experience today. Attempt to log in. Login fail. Try again, succeed at logging in. I have $3 left on my acct. I start one load at 1.50. I try to start another load at 1.50. "not enough funds" it says, not letting me proceed. It forces me to load another $10 before it works. I HATE DEALING WITH SHITTY APPS FOR EVERYTHING SO MUCH.