It has been a morning of ups & downs for Peloton.
Peloton hosted their annual 2023 Turkey Burn classes on Thanksgiving this morning. The classes this year were getting extra promotion as Peloton had shared they were attempting to set the Guinness World records for largest cycling class & largest running class.
The good news for Peloton is that they were successful in setting both records (even if they weren’t records for largest Peloton classes ever).
However, the classes did not go off without a hitch, as thousands of members reported they could not join Robin Arzon’s Turkey Burn run for the first 20 minutes of class. Although the servers were fixed after about 20 minutes, many members had given up on trying to join – although some people who stuck around were able to join. Others experienced an outage the entire live class and were never able to join live.
Members have been understandably upset by the issues – with some people having set up their holiday schedule around joining the Peloton community live for these special classes.
Shortly after the classes were over, Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy issued a formal statement & apology to the Peloton community through a post on the Official Peloton Member page on Facebook. Peloton also sent the same message via email to members later in the afternoon.
In the post, McCarthy acknowledged to members that the company “let you down”.
He went on to note that so many members “overwhelmed our technical infrastructure” – without going into specific details about the part of the infrastructure was impacted, or what steps the company would take to fix this in the future.
You can see the full apology, and wish for a happy Thanksgiving & holiday season, from Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy below.
Dear Members,
This morning, we set out to create an amazing annual Turkey Burn Ride experience, and we let you down.
The number of Members trying to join the ride overwhelmed our technical infrastructure and we were unable to support all those attempting to participate in the class. While over 37,000 Members were able to participate, we know far too many of you could not.
I know for many of you, this has become an annual tradition, and we owe you the best possible Member experience. On behalf of the team, we apologize.
For our US Members, I wish you and your family a happy Thanksgiving and to all of you, a wonderful holiday season. Thank you for being a Peloton Member.
Together We Go Far,
Barry McCarthy
CEO, Peloton
Support the site! Enjoy the news & guides we provide? Help us keep bringing you the news. Pelo Buddy is completely free, but you can help support the site with a one-time or monthly donation that will go to our writers, editors, and more. Find out more details here.
Get Our Newsletter Want to be sure to never miss any Peloton news? Sign up for our newsletter and get all the latest Peloton updates & Peloton rumors sent directly to your inbox.
He should send this in an email to all members and not just post it on Facebook.
Did they forget to load test?
Not good enough. What’s gonna be done so this doesn’t happen again? Super disappointing especially for the “new members” that they are apparently working so hard to keep. Peloton sucked today. Super disappointed.
If the number of people participating was in not the largest ever for a class, how was a record set?
I’ve had my bike since 2016. With Peloton charging $47 a month for the app, a lame apology does not cut it. I’m angry every time I think or look at that bike now that global scale incompetence means nothing. Oh, sorry. Peloton will keep charging you monthly for substandard service. Not our bad. I think I’m going to give myself a break and suspend for a while. Try something different. Thanks for the space to vent.