In a first for a smart thermostat company, Tado is exploring charging its customers £1 / €1 a month just to control their devices from its app. Multiple users have reported that Tado, manufacturers of smart thermostats, radiator valves, and heat pump controllers for Europe and the UK, sent a message through their app alerting them to the impending charge.
The notification said the new fee was due to the company facing increased costs. It notes that users will still be able to use integrations through Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa to control their system for free.
Currently, Tado offers optional subscription fees ranging from €3.99 to €5.99 a month for services such as an auto-assist function and intelligent energy shifting, both of which purport to save on energy costs. However, using the app to schedule and control the Tado system has always been free.
A Tado moderator on the community forum told the original poster that the message was a test and that no one had lost free access to the app: “Like lots of other companies, we routinely do marketing tests and research, plus we look at customer feedback every day. Those involved in this test retained full access to the tado° App with no charge,” they wrote.
Tado spokesperson Jason Collie initially declined to provide an attributable statement to The Verge, as is required by our background policy. After publication, Collie demanded that we issue a correction for writing that Tado would not comment and suggested that we could have cited an unattributed statement to him anyway. The statement is essentially the same as the one posted by a Tado forum account that we had already included in full in this story. “As is typical in the industry, tado° is routinely doing marketing tests and research, and looks at customer feedback every day. Those involved in this test retained full access to the tado° App,” Collie wrote.
If this was just a test, it was a bad move on Tado’s part not to make that clear in the messaging it sent out to users. However, if Tado is testing this, it’s obviously considering implementing this fee. That would be another bad move.
Charging users to control their devices with the app might temporarily increase revenue but could cost the company in the long run as customers jump ship or stop recommending the product to friends and family — something several users on the community thread indicated they would be inclined to do.
It’s one thing to increase subscription fees or add new features and capabilities for an extra cost, but making users pay for something that was once free — and which every other smart thermostat company offers with no charge — is an almost guaranteed way to lose customers.
Update, February 20th: Added response from Tado spokesperson Jason Collie.
