Peloton announces $95 “used equipment activation fee”

Comments

• tabular@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why are we comfortable with not owning the things we buy :/

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  • Squizzy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Im not, I wouldnt buy one.

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    • grue@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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    • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I would consider dragging my used equipment over sr mgmt’s face

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  • Batman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    For everyone with a peloton, you can flash the bike with an aftermarket software.

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    • LemmyFeed@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      HACK THE PLANET!!

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    • bigkahuna1986@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      flash the bike with an aftermarket software.

      Not a phrase I’d ever thought I’d hear.

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    • blindbunny@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Zwift or TrainerRoad

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  • Wogi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • elliot_crane@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I mean, there’s a reason almost nobody is buying their products.

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  • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m not which is why I don’t use photoshop or lightroom.

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    • TheFriar@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Pssst. You could always pirate them.

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  • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • tabular@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Update consumer protection laws and actually enforce them. Laws written back when tech would come with the schematics.

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• solrize@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This is about an exercise bike, right? Why the heck is there so much nonsense surrounding it?

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  • cygnus@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Because it’s an exercise bike ✨on the internet✨

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    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Why make crazy amounts of money on a stationary bike only once? When you can every time they want to use the bike? Capitalism innovation for the win baby!!!

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    • dch82@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The F in IoT stands for Freedom

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  • underwire212@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They hired some PR firm that did a really good job of marketing the enshitification to a specific demographic (high income millennials)

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  • Donkter@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • solrize@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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    • saltesc@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Jokes on them, I think lowly of people with exercise bikes. I’m on a level of pretentious they can’t reach.

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  • snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    [deleted]

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    • almar_quigley@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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    • underwire212@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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 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 the idea that there really do exist a bunch of toxic gym goers isn’t helping really…I’m not so sure now haha.

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• twig@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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  • abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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

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• zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So they lost resale value and will have more trouble selling new hardware as well?

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  • billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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

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    • piecat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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• cordlesslamp@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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?

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• aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The tech world has become and endless conveyor belt of stupid greedy miseries.

  No subscription-based company products should be in public schools. That would stop with inculcating model acceptance.

  No federal agency should be using any subscription product, including any cloud products. Public data should not be capable of being held hostage or monetised.

  Both are a waste of public funds and set a bad example.

  We can put marketing teams in the fields and mines doing honest toil.

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  • Noodle07@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The marketers yearn for the mine

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  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The tech world has become and endless conveyor belt of stupid greedy miseries.

    Simpler. It’s easy to create artificial maintenance costs there as needed. That, of course, wouldn’t work well without oligopoly.

    Government officials are interested in buying such products due to kickbacks, which means that everybody else directly or indirectly needs them for interoperability. Thus oligopoly persists.

    It’s as if only radical solutions would work, be it radical authoritarian or radical libertarian.

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    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s easy to create artificial maintenance costs there as needed.

      That reminds me of the bricked polish trains, not only did they create artificial maintenance cost, they also tried to ensure that only they would be able to do that maintenance (unflipping the kill-switch)

      www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrlrbfGZo2k

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  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Thing is cloud stuff does cost money to run. In the end even electricity is a subscription.

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  • Nomecks@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    So they shouldn’t lease buildings, or subscribe to water and power?

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    • aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Water and power still need to be reconfigured, obvs we’re not there yet, but they don’t contain my personal info and can’t leak it.

      I’m not against govt working with entities when needed, but it’s become a lazy solution to outsource functions and often the blame for failure as well, rather than build a responsible solution.

      It’s gotten too cozy and intertwined.

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• Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If this shit is allowed, every other company will follow. Imagine buying a used car and getting hit up with a $1000 activation fee, fuck that

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  • filister@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Don’t give them new ideas. Cars are already slowly turning into a SaaS on wheels.

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    • Angry_Autist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Another thing I predicted a decade and a half ago that the internet of that time mocked me for…

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  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They do. At least for optional features like Apple Car and Android Auto.

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• RangerJosie@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So you’re saying there will soon be a scene dedicated to cracking Peloton software.

  Cuz that’s what I’m hearing.

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  • Glytch@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Already exists. The Peloton subreddit has a guide on rooting your bike and installing custom apks.

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    • RangerJosie@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Damn. Might be time to pick up a used one.

      Thanks for the heads up.

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• madcaesar@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Don’t Tesla do the same bullshit? If you paid for some feature then sell the car, the new owner has to pay for it again?

  This shit should be illegal.

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  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Just outlaw things that don’t work without internet connectivity. Activation included.

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    • Angry_Autist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      AAAAND that’s the moment I’d go from frothing progressive to bomb-slinging radical. That very moment.

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  • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s the “full self driving”. All the newer cars come with computers capable of doing it, but you either pay a $99/month subscription or a one time $8k charge.

    I just checked out their website and apparently you can either transfer it to a new Tesla or leave it with the car and basically sell it to the new owner. Not what I expected at all.

    www.tesla.com/support/fsd-transfer

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  • Angry_Autist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    there’s a fucktonne of stuff that SHOULD be illegal that isn’t because no one has made a big enough stink about it yet.

    refined sugar for one.

    Cloning celebrities for sex trafficking for another.

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    • qevlarr@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Cory Doctorow calls this one “it’s ok cause we do it with an app” and urges regulators to enforce the laws already on the books. It’s an absurd defense legally, but there’s no enforcement of antitrust or consumer law at all anymore

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  • Tja@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If you sell it to a new owner directly you decide if you want to leave it with the car or take it for yourself (assuming you have another Tesla where to use it).

    Only if you sell it to Tesla, they will remove it.

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• kevincox@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This is basically admitting that consumers don’t actually value their subscription service for the cost. If users were buying used bikes and signing up for subscriptions Peloton would be thrilled, they would do everything that they could to encourage that like free trials. But it must be that most people who buy used bikes don’t find the subscription worth it and cancel within a few months. Adding this fee both extracts more money and creates a sunk cost fallacy that will cause them to go longer before cancelling.

  If the product sold itself they would just let people pay them subscriptions, its basically free money.

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• UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Is this like an… idiot tax?

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  • underwire212@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The “signing up for Planet Fitness membership but not actually using the gym” is the real idiot tax. Well, yeah, I guess this one is too.

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  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    But this fee wasn’t there when people originally purchased this was it? If so, they will now have a less valuable product since they won’t be able to sell it as easily. Or are they only doing it for new units?

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    • UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      To my understanding, it has always only been usable with a subscription, so…

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  • shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I cannot understand why lemmy gets up in arms over bullshit like this. If the idiots wish to pay, let them.

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    • GeneralVincent@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The people getting up in arms are upset because they see it as a slippery slope. First just the idiots pay for subscriptions, then it creeps into the lives of everyone. And eventually it’s harder to avoid the bullshit than just pay, and the whole market becomes more predatory. Like if the idiots give companies an inch, they’ll eventually take a mile

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• Angry_Autist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I predicted Peloton’s failure on launch, two of my cryptobro friends laughed and dumped semi serious money into it.

  LOLLLLLLLLLLL

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• RalphFurley@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Wife and I bought a Peloton. It works well, we love it. I’m going to cancel the subscription and just use the damn thing without attending the classes etc like an old school stationary bike.

  Sucks bc I enjoy a couple of the classes but this is BS

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  • barsquid@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If more people were like you we wouldn’t have such shitty companies. They’d still be thirsty for every last penny but they’d know they cannot get away with it.

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    • Animated_beans@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I think it is the opposite. Because everyone knows they don’t need the subscription, Peloton needs to make up for subscriptions losses by introducing these one-time fees.

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  • Angry_Autist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Questions: Do you lose any other features besides classes offlining it? Can it run linux?

    If you can’t answer that last one, no worries I’m sure someone who can answer it will see it, going by lemmy OS use statstics

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• ReCursing@lemmings.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

  Uh… what? No

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• Pika@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Is this even legal in some other countries outside of the US and Canada lol, I know there is some countries out there with quite strict consumer protection and I’m pretty sure second hand Market is one of the more regulated ones

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• M500@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I recently read that a baby crib did the same thing they charge an activation fee after it’s sold. First we had subscriptions now we have reselling activation fees. It’s just another way to get a little bit more money.

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  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Should just be illegal. Either you buy a thing or you rent it. This is cheating.

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    • M500@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Anyone who has already purchased a Prloton, should be able to resell it. If they can’t, then I see a class action coming.

      New sales could do this I guess, hopefully people will stop buying from crap companies

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  • IamAnonymous@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Cradlewise. At least that is a one time $120 fee and you don’t need an additional app subscription to use it, for now. It might get worse as the first set of users are just starting to sell theirs, as it’s useless after 2 years.

    For Pelaton, it’s reactivation fee + app subscription.

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• Sam_Bass@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Still too steep if thats what they consider a bargain price. Im all for companies making money long as they pay their rank and file fairly though

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• jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  For a subscription fee of [+$5/six months] your brand new pair of Peloton Underwear™️ won’t shit themselves.

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  • Jon_Servo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The downside: You have to shit them yourself.

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• venusaur@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  They should have been more conservative in their business and expected that it was only surging because of the pandemic. They cashed in on the IPO but should have gotten out. Now they’re beholden to investors. Probably made enough money to not care if the company crashes and burns.

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• altima_neo@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The old EA project $10 never truly died

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• Plopp@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  lol

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• datavoid@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Will no one think of the onboarding quality?!

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• helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Havent heard anyone talk about this but its particularly inisidious because most likely consumers wont find out about this fee until AFTER they buy it…

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