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Helping a neighbor temporarily can get awkward when nobody agrees on when the favor ends.
In this story, a borrowed Wi-Fi password quietly became free internet access for an entire family.
Six months later, the slowing connection pushed this homeowner to enforce a boundary without offering any warning.
See whether pulling the plug went too far.
AITAH for not letting my neighbor use my wifi anymore?
So about six months ago my neighbor knocked on my door asking if she could use my wifi temporarily because hers was down and she needed to work from home.
I gave her the password thinking it would just be for a few days.
Well her internet apparently got fixed weeks ago but she’s still using mine.
I’ve noticed my connection has been slower lately and when I checked my router there are like five devices connected that aren’t mine.
Her whole family is basically using my internet that I pay for.
The neighbor offered a compromise.
I finally changed my password last week without telling her and she came over asking what happened.
I explained that I expected it to be temporary and that my internet has been running slow.
She seemed surprised and said she thought it was fine since I never said anything before.
She mentioned that internet bills are expensive and she was grateful to save money. Now she’s asking if she can just pay me like half of what my bill costs to keep using it.
What’s the right thing to do?
Part of me feels bad because they’re clearly struggling financially and it was helping them out.
But I also feel like I was being taken advantage of since she never offered to pay anything before and just assumed she could keep using it indefinitely.
Am I a jerk for cutting off access without warning or should I let them keep using it if they pay me something?
If the internet is too slow to use with the other family using it, I’d cut them off, but if it’s not really an issue having more people use it, might as well let her pay half the bill!
Let’s see what advice Reddit has to offer.
It’s not a problem that the neighbor is having financial problems.
They should only share if they actually want to share.
But sharing could be a big problem.
This person recommends saying no.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a disabled woman who confronts her neighbors about using her spot, only to have them tell her they can park where they want.
Another person agrees that they should say no.
Changing the password finally ended a favor that had stretched from several days into six months.
His neighbor offered to split the bill, but only after her family’s five devices suddenly lost access.
A quick conversation about payment and boundaries could have prevented this entire Wi-Fi showdown.
