A recent court decision over a non-responsive touchscreen on a Peloton treadmill is acting as a brutal reminder of buyer beware.
Teri Fisher purchased a Peloton treadmill from Dina Lenning through Craiglist in June 2023 and soon after took the seller to court after the item was not in the condition as promised.
Before the sale, Fisher requested that the treadmill be left assembled so he could test it out before taking it home. According to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, Lenning agreed to this request but emailed back, “I would not sell a machine that doesn’t work.”
Lenning sent Fisher a picture of the treadmill’s touchscreen, indicating that it needed regular maintenance. However, she then disassembled the treadmill before the sale, meaning Fisher could not test it out.
Fisher accepted the treadmill despite the state of disassembly and took it home. However, when he returned from holiday a few weeks later to assemble and test the treadmill, he found that part of the touchscreen was unresponsive.
According to the decision, Fisher attempted to resolve the issue and shared three videos with Lenning, showing that most of the buttons on the lower screen did not work. This meant he couldn’t log in to his account and use the treadmill as intended.
Lenning argued to the court that the touchscreen was “fully functional” when she sold it and tried to claim that she provided a video of the treadmill running to Fisher. However, no video was given to the court as evidence.
Instead, the court found that Lenning breached her express warranty that the machine was working well by disassembling the machine despite the email evidence that they had agreed that Fisher would inspect the touchscreen before the purchase.
Lenning was ordered to pay Fisher a total of $1,071.40 for the replacement touchscreen, including $946.40 for the screen and tax and $125 in court fees.