“It’s like telling someone you’re going to have a puppy and now you’re not,” said Ms. Sinclair. She’s now frustrated when she sees ads for Peloton and articles about the company’s founders and their lifestyle, she said. “They packed all of our money and this is where they are put on the cover of the magazine,” she said. “You can’t even give us our goods.”
The indignation has worsened due to apparent disruptions that some buyers claim allowed them to shorten earlier delivery times by compulsively clicking a link while rescheduling emails. In one case, so much data was released around Christmas that people who ordered in December said they had received bikes in the same month, while many who placed previous orders were still waiting. Peloton couldn’t explain how this happened.
Back in the day, when new Peloton customers went to Facebook to complain about the long wait times, fans defended the company, arguing it was worth the wait. That largely stopped at the end of last year, according to Crystal O’Keefe, who hosts a podcast with her husband Tom called “The Clip Out”.
“We have reached a turning point,” she said. “You can’t talk these people out of them anymore. It is overwhelmed with complaints. “
Peloton is now transporting some of its bikes by air to avoid congested ports, which is significantly more expensive. In late December, the company paid $ 420 million to acquire Precor, a US-based fitness manufacturer, which will allow Peloton to begin manufacturing motorcycles in the US in the second half of the year.
Competitors are trying to take advantage – SoulCycle was quick to announce that their bikes would be arriving within one to three weeks. Michael Sepso, a Manhattan entrepreneur, tweeted in late December that the Peloton Tread he ordered in October had not yet arrived. “Of course they have a hot product that is in great demand, but the service part of that was just annoying,” he said.
Several fitness manufacturers responded to his tweet with news about their products, he said. He canceled his peloton order and bought a treadmill from a competitor. It arrived in early January.