Technology

59495 readers

3114 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

358

Peloton to ruin the secondhand market by charging a $95 ‘used equipment activation fee’ | It doesn’t apply to refurbished models bought directly from the company (www.engadget.com)

submitted 3 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Peloton is in something of a financial rut lately, and we all know what companies do when that happens. They take it out on consumers. To that end, the exercise machine maker just announced it will be charging a $95 “used equipment activation fee” to anyone who buys one of its machines on the secondhand market, according to a report by CNBC.

The company made this announcement in its Q4 2024 shareholder letter. The fairly exorbitant fee will apply to any machine bought directly from a previous owner, meaning anything purchased via Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or, heck, even a neighbor down the street. Without tithing $95 to the church of Peloton, the machine won’t have access to any of the classes or features the company has become known for.

The company says this activation fee is just to ensure that new members “receive the same high-quality onboarding experience Peloton is known for.” In a recent earnings call, however, a company representative was more transparent, calling the fee a “source of incremental revenue and gross profit,” according to The Verge.

The standard Bike, for instance, sells new for nearly $1,500, but you can pick up a used one online for $300 to $500. Now, that price goes up to $400 to $600. Peloton also requires a monthly membership fee to access content, which is around $44.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] credo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Not advocating for peloton, but it’s not really that much work to dial up/down a spin bike. The point of letting the rider do it “manually” is because they may not be where the rest of the class is. They very likely need to customize the resistance.

The only real benefit here is in the real time feedback on the screen (calories, distance, etc) which also adjust with resistance, and visual queues if you’re keeping or not.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

I'm aware of what adjusting an exercise bike entails.

It is completely trivial to have a class that easily adapts to user difficulty while still automatically adjusting that difficulty to simulate a varied environment, which you cannot do manually and is the entire reason a smart bike makes any sense at all over just putting it in front of a TV.