Peloton bricks treadmills for non-subscribers

[hyouko]

Speaking from my personal experience, when I am on the treadmill what I mostly want is distraction, not an exercise guru cheerleading me to go faster. The amount of effort I put in on a treadmill is largely dictated by the treadmill - there's extrinsic force there and I have to move my legs at a certain speed to keep from being flung off. Compare that to a spin cycle where at any time you can move your legs faster or slower and the motivation or instructions from the coach might actually make a (psychological) difference... I think Peloton may have set themselves up for failure here by assuming that the two modes of exercise are similar and will drive similar subscriber retention rates.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Damn, we love our Peloton, but we were thinking about getting rid of the sub for awhile as we haven't been using it as much now that doing other things is more flexible, guess I won't be doing that....what a dick move. Hell I don't even use the classes anyway, my wife does, I usually turn on a show or listen to music I don't need someone yelling at me while I'm riding a bike.

 

[tmarg]

Speaking from my personal experience, when I am on the treadmill what I mostly want is distraction, not an exercise guru cheerleading me to go faster.

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Running naturally keeps you in a higher heart rate zone at a lower effort level than most other excercises anyway.

Runners are supposed to keep the majority of their miles at an easy pace.

I have heard elsewhere though that there's actually a safety recall on these treadmills, and the bricking is what's being done to the ones people are refusing to send back. In that context this all makes a bit more sense.

 

[Tobor]

UPDATE:

Peloton forced its subscription plan on Tread+ owners, but claims a fix is coming

It seemed like the company was locking free users out.

www.theverge.com

They're citing technical limitations for this currently and they plan to address it shortly. I'm an engineer so I get that sometimes weird tech debt can result in seemingly ridiculous/malicious outcomes for consumers. This situation is exactly what product managers are for, if they knew this was the result of tech debt then their PR should have gotten waaay out ahead of this with more clarifying information.

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So let me understand this:

1. They are fixing the problem
2. They gave everyone three months free so they can fix the problem
3. They are allowing full returns on the treadmills if you aren't satisfied

This is internet outrage over nothing.

 

[Neonvisions]

I know - I kept wondering where all this faux rage was coming from.

 

[deepFlaw]

So let me understand this:

1. They are fixing the problem
2. They gave everyone three months free so they can fix the problem
3. They are allowing full returns on the treadmills if you aren't satisfied

This is internet outrage over nothing.

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Well, now they're offering the free subscription for 3 months. At first they just told people that it wasn't available to them anymore. You can see the email they sent someone who asked about it in both the OP's article and the one you linked.

It's not outrage over nothing - the outrage may have been what got it addressed.

 

[Loudninja]

So let me understand this:

1. They are fixing the problem
2. They gave everyone three months free so they can fix the problem
3. They are allowing full returns on the treadmills if you aren't satisfied

This is internet outrage over nothing.

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I know - I kept wondering where all this faux rage was coming from.

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Try reading the OP updated story after the fact.

Well, now they're offering the free subscription for 3 months. At first they just told people that it wasn't available to them anymore. You can see the email they sent someone who asked about it in both the OP's article and the one you linked.

It's not outrage over nothing - the outrage may have been what got it addressed.

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Yep this wasn't no mistake at all.

 

[platocplx]

Well, now they're offering the free subscription for 3 months. At first they just told people that it wasn't available to them anymore. You can see the email they sent someone who asked about it in both the OP's article and the one you linked.

It's not outrage over nothing - the outrage may have been what got it addressed.

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Exactly. They tried pulling a fast one here.

 

[Neonvisions]

Try reading the OP

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Already did- thanks. They are working to make the Tread Lock feature workable outside of having a membership. While that is worked on, they are giving users 3 free months in order for them to access Tread Lock. So big deal. 🙄

 

[HylianMaster2020]

Worst case scenario, but usually people buy those FOR the classes to be present with an instructional video/person.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

Like they're already dealing with literal child deaths in regards to their equipment and they think this is a good idea? Any decent PR department would shoot this down in a second.

 

[Zoe]

Already did- thanks. They are working to make the Tread Lock feature workable outside of having a membership. While that is worked on, they are giving users 3 free months in order for them to access Tread Lock. So big deal. 🙄

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It was a big deal. They've since addressed it.

 

[Vish]

Already did- thanks. They are working to make the Tread Lock feature workable outside of having a membership. While that is worked on, they are giving users 3 free months in order for them to access Tread Lock. So big deal. 🙄

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They are now offering, they were not before. Thanks though.

 

[Tobor]

They are now offering, they were not before. Thanks though.

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They were offering the three months the whole time. It's right in the OP.

They botched the messaging on this, for sure. They should have more clearly stated the issue was being resolved. I think that is what was intended by the original message, but it's sloppy PR.