- Peloton is introducing a $95 “used equipment activation fee” for bikes purchased from outside its official channels in the US and Canada, aiming to boost revenue and maintain onboarding quality for new subscribers.
- The fee has sparked criticism as it reduces the cost savings typically associated with buying secondhand equipment and diverges from practices in other industries, potentially discouraging used market purchases.
- Peloton’s hardware sales continue to decline, but subscription revenue has seen slight growth; the company still faces financial struggles despite cost-cutting measures and layoffs.
Why are we comfortable with not owning the things we buy :/
It’s not enough to not buy one. We need to demand that Congress and the FTC do their goddamn jobs and quit letting every company fuck over the public.
For everyone with a peloton, you can flash the bike with an aftermarket software.
flash the bike with an aftermarket software.
Not a phrase I’d ever thought I’d hear.
They already charge a ridiculous monthly fee just to use the bike.
And sure, it’s a nicer exercise bike, but you can get a similar experience with a much cheaper bike and a tablet.
Yep. I’ve been doing this for a while now with a cheap old no-name bike and an ipad. Poor man’s peloton ftw.
How do you do this with a tablet? Can you buy like a wheel sensor or something?
Do you see an alternative? Each year more companies move to a subscription model, even when it doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. In many cases if you have the time to do proper research and/or a lot of technical savvy, you can find alternatives from companies no one recognizes. Most people don’t have the time or know-how, and the companies that like subscription models are spending billions making sure their names are the only ones people think exist.
This is about an exercise bike, right? Why the heck is there so much nonsense surrounding it?
Peloton is designed for rich people. They don’t say it explicitly because thar ruins the illusion, but the bike is meant to be a status distinction. You may only own it if you’re eager to be seen as someone who spends too much money on an exercise bike.
Ah thanks. Though for enough $$ they could get even more status with a vintage Cinelli track bike and some Weyless rollers. I mean I’d be impressed if I saw that. Unlike with the Peliton.
The answer is actually corporate greed and synthesized hype for what’s probably a pretty quality piece of equipment if you remove all the enshitification from it.
I mean you’re not wrong in a sense. Their marketing campaign centered around targeting a specific demographic (high income insecure millennials)…those that would spend a lot of money to get their own exercise equipment than go to the gym with other people around.
Now there’s nothing wrong with that (with wanting your own exercise equipment, at least). I just wish people realized other gym goers don’t give a shit about you. I literally don’t remember anything about anyone after the gym (like “wow that dude was so fat”).
But alas, here we have our lovely corporate propagan-….I mean “Public Relations”…manufacturing insecurity in the mind of the consumer.
As much as I dislike Planet Fitness’s predatory business model, I do gotta say they used this “gym insecurity” manufacturing from other PR firms to their advantage. “We know you’re insecure about going to the gym. Here’s a gym for the regular joe. Super cheap and the gym won’t have those judgmental gym goes (who never existed in the first place) that other gyms have. It’s only $10 a month! Yeah, we make it so you literally need to give us your left kidney in order to cancel your subscription, and yeah 90% of our revenue comes from people who never actually use the gyms, but hey, if you’re one of the 10%, then that’s even better since the 90% basically pay for your membership, new equipment, clean gym, amenities, AND the gyms won’t be crowded!”
So yeah…predatory as fuck…but at least their PR campaign centered around taking advantage of a manufactured insecurity rather than adding to it? Or maybe by perpetuating this myth that there really do exist a bunch of toxic gym goers at other gyms isn’t really helping…I’m not so sure now haha.
Yeah I mean I’m not surprised that this business is failing. It always just seemed like a worse and more expensive version of something that was always inherently pretty boring.
I mean it was already overpriced for what it was, and it was only really good/popular during covid. A lot of people now will either go to the gym for classes or just get a bike without a $12-$49 monthly fee. I just can’t wait to see how long until they lock the wheels without a subscription
So they lost resale value and will have more trouble selling new hardware as well?
My thoughts exactly. This seems like a short term play to boost the stock price, let execs get out of the market, then sell off the company before it goes under.
Also how are they gonna prove you didn’t buy it before the announcement and just didn’t register/use it until after? Seems to me that’s gonna be sticky in the eyes of copyright terms & conditions
I don’t get what it has to do with copyright?
It’s as simple as they built the equipment to require an app. And it needs the cloud, so its either accept the license or stop using the hw.
It’s happening everywhere.
Thanks, I meant terms & conditions, fixed. If I buy a product that does not have an activation fee in the t&c at time of purchase, legally I probably shouldn’t have to pay it even if they implement it later and I waited to activate. That would maybe still require you to sign up even if you aren’t paying to get the t&c then though. It could be argued that since the fee was not in place at time of purchase it shouldn’t apply and that is what I meant by ‘sticky’ is all.
let execs get out of the market,
A new business architecture without this particular flaw seems to be in pretty capitalist demand today.
Maybe something about conflict of interest being illegal for such positions. Maybe just cooperatives with modern technologies to help make them more organized.
Company: we’re limping, how can we recover and pick up the pace?
CEO: How about we shot ourselves on the foot?
Company: die
CEO: Why would customer do this to us?
