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Comment by unethical_ban | Hacker News Reader

Seems like the sort of case where they should have a "child safety" package at no cost (of course it would be built into the price of all units sold). Kind of like there are non-childproof medicine bottles.

Anyway, their stock is down 10% but I think that's silly; I don't think anyone who was considering a PTON is going to not, now. Maybe their earnings will take a hit, but does retail even care about that anymore?

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I'm drawing a parallel to ikea who recently recalled a bib because somewhere in the world the snaps fell off. No one was even hurt.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/customer-service/product-support/....

Yeah, well, all you need is a single baby to die to get a huge lawsuit so saying 'no one was even hurt' is hugely understating the problem here.

I think this is more because they are still trying to recover their reputation from the deadly dresser debacle.

I wonder if companies that do a recall because their product killed someone are more likely to intentionally make future product recalls about minor things so that the public will associated "brand + recall" with something less morbid.

I only speculate but yes I think companies and other public figures use "PR hacking" just like this to try to shake associations with bad press. This case is slightly different to me, though, because Ikea just had a huge reckoning with the falling dressers. They definitely don't want another blow to their reputation on product safety.

I don’t think including a rear guard is a child safety specific issue. All in all you’d probably prefer not having your leg sucked under your treadmill, even if you don’t have kids.

They're refunding every affected treadmill and they can't sell treadmills until they design a new model. It doesn't matter what "anyone considering a PTON" thinks.

About 125,000 units at $4,000 each plus the overhead costs of dealing with the whole issue. So $500 million just on the recall, not to mention the liability on any suits for existing injuries and deaths, the brand damage, the delay before they can sell a new product, the loss of content subscriptions from people who no longer have a unit... Those subscriptions are really where they planned on making money.

It's a good chunk of change. It's on the order of a six months to a year of revenue. Any company that suddenly loses a year of revenue is going to see a big hit.

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