Thursday 30 June 2022 12:15 AM Melbourne businesses 'bombarded' with dozens of fridges they didn't ask for trends now
Frustrated business owners are being 'bombarded' with shipments of dozens of fridges they didn't order or pay for.
Supermarkets, a winery and even a salad bar have been gifted dozens of free refrigerators as part of the Victorian Energy Upgrade Program.
The program gives homes and businesses access to providers selling 'energy-efficient products' to replace ageing or the least cost-effective appliances.
Installers can then claim profitable carbon credits for delivering the fridges to businesses who complain they are arriving without any explanation.
Victoria's Essential Services Commission has responded to the bungle by suspending carbon credits for installers of the energy-efficient appliances.
Supermarkets, a winery and a salad bar have been gifted dozens of free refrigerators as part of the Victorian Energy Upgrade Program (pictured, a fridge from one of the deliveries)
Business owners say dozens of fridges are being dumped outside their shops while others complain of being harassed over phone and email by contractors.
Brandon La Manna from La Manna and Sons told 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell up to 40 fridges had been delivered across his four businesses, with more on the way.
The owner of the green grocer chain fears that additional fridges will end up in landfill and said he plans to donate the appliances to charity.
'To our knowledge it's a carbon offset that the big energy companies are doing, they're giving these fridges out to people to meet the offset,' he said.
'There was a bloke we had never heard of, never met, saying that he had free fridges and we thought to ourselves this must be a scam, but before you know it they just kept rocking up.'
Mr La Manna said he had naturally taken the fridges as they needed them and because they were free, but that it 'didn't make much sense at all'.
Ben Payten from Payten and Jones Winery has also received several
