Originally Posted by
unterhausen
I didn't need warranty service on my original kickr, but it didn't really work until they told me how to install one of the older versions of the firmware (click 10 times on the top of the app and turn around 3 times under a full moon or something like that). And instead of telling me about that right away they strung me along for a week. They are always messing up firmware and it seems like firmware development is already underfunded. They just put out a bad firmware for the bolt not that long ago. One of the later kickr versions had a problem that was very likely, I think the internet undercounted on that one. But my point is, I might make a gamble that my device would be unusable if it cost me 10% of new, but it seems like you never get a discount that big. My kickr is essentially unsupported at this point, I'm not used to having that experience with a device that lasts this long and costs as much as it did. Disposable devices should cost less.
On the subject of Stages, it looks like Giant took a minority ownership position for $20million. Seems like good news for them.
I agree with your point, that buying expensive products from a company that may not be around much longer comes with some risks. I have a feeling Wahoo will end up getting bought by a big company for pennies on the dollar, rather than just vaporizing.
That said, the experiences with Wahoo customer support that I'm familiar with are the opposite of yours. I know two different people who recently had problems with Kickr Cores that were out of warranty, and in both cases Wahoo worked to try to solve the problem and when it became clear that there was no solution, they sent new/refurbished units as replacements.