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Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

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Re: Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

#21

Post by ErikVandeWater »

randshift wrote: post #11

The title of this article is somewhat silly to me. The subscription fee has never been a surprise to anyone who's owned one. The point of a Peloton is to do the classes, either for running or spinning, which require a subscription. It would be silly to buy a premium device who's point is to use the subscription based features and specifically intend to use it without the subscription. Just buy a similar treadmill fro…

The title is poorly worded. But intentionally bricking customers' devices post-purchase to require a subscription is an absolutely insane decision, especially given that the reasoning they give for it is a reminder that they just killed a child.

Re: Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

#22

Post by tnzm »

darkcha0s wrote: post #4
aliasEli wrote: post #2

Hardware changes slower than software. Some very influential software companies (e.g. Microsoft, Adobe) switched to a subscription model some time ago. From a marketing perspective it seems to make sense. If your customers pay a lot of money to buy your product and don't hesitate to connect it to the internet, they are probably wealthy but not very intelligent. Ideal marks for a subscription service.

What kind of weird ass psychoanalysis is this? People who pay money for products and connect them to the internet are stupid and have money?

Yes.

Re: Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

#23

Post by jerf »

'The company has cited "safety and well-being" as a reason for introducing the membership fee.'

I've noticed the "fake because" lately seems to be getting more and more brazen from corporations.

This is about the third or fourth "for your safety and convenience we're helping ourselves to more of your money" I've seen in the last couple months, and unfortunately all the other ones I've seen are for products or services I actually have.

But I for one am just grateful that we have so many companies and governments willing to take more of our money, spend less of theirs, extend wait times, reduce services, and just generally do less for more money for our safety and convenience. Imagine how unsafe we'd be if they weren't taking so much money and actually provided service. What a bloodbath it would be.

Re: Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

#25

Post by justanotherguy0 »

wrycoder wrote: post #8

Corporations love the steady revenue of the subscription model. Look at Blackrock buying up all the housing and renting it out. The idea being that people won’t own anything except (maybe) their clothes. Well, certainly a lot less trouble for the kids when you kick off.

Do you mean Blackstone?

Re: Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

#27

Post by bink »

The article uses the term "Just Run" several times but never bothers to explain what "Just Run" is. If it's the ability to use the treadmill without a subscription, well, that sucks but I can't imagine anyone spending $3k on one of these without even using the tablet.

No one should have to do it to use the device but Peletons are actually relatively simple to jail break.

Re: Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

#28

Post by jbigelow76 »

mimixco wrote: post #3

Since Peloton has sold subscriptions from day 1, this probably shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. The worst part of this story is that the device killed a child and they're using that as the reason to collect monthly ransom. It sounds like a Sopranos episode: Make your monthly payments or we might hurt your kid.

Yeah, that's pretty fucked up. Peloton provided a comment but didn't indicate why the TreadLock code couldn't be provided without the subscription, obviously because there is no defensible technical reason they couldn't do so.

Re: Peloton's $3k treadmill now comes with surprise 'subscription fee'

#29

Post by lotsofpulp »

wrycoder wrote: post #8

Corporations love the steady revenue of the subscription model. Look at Blackrock buying up all the housing and renting it out. The idea being that people won’t own anything except (maybe) their clothes. Well, certainly a lot less trouble for the kids when you kick off.

> Corporations love the steady revenue of the subscription model.

Non corporations love it too.

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