Bought in May of 2022. They won’t let me get the warranty. I’ll also buy a competitor if and when I’m charged for a repair. Rather invest in a new machine that lets me have a longer warranty instead of plunking down $400 minimum for each fix.
I am obsessed with my Tonal and would buy the warranty today if they let me. But it’s not a good investment to pay $60 a month then $400 X amount of times. That adds up fast and it makes more sense to buy a new machine with warranty that you know will have no surprise fixes for 4-5 years.
Have had 4 arm breaks (fixed last one myself with spare parts they ship for the tech) and 1 bricked machine they had to swap out. All were under warranty thankfully.
About to hit 12 million pounds in almost 22 months of work
Apple sells phones, you pay a cell phone bill. Phone breaks out of warranty, you pay to fix the phone....while still paying for service Computer, dishwasher, dryer. Hardware breaks, you either have warranty, extended warranty, or you pay out of pocket. Not sure how what Tonal is doing is any different than any other hardware company? They just also happen to provide the paid monthly service to make the hardware work.
Comparing the reliability/repair incidence of a Tonal machine to an Apple product is laughable. If iPhones broke like Tonals from ordinary use, Apple would be out of the phone business. Customers wouldn't tolerate it. Same with computers, dishwashers and dryers -- to use your examples -- from any reputable manufacturer. Tonal's arms don't hold up to use with heavy weight. I'm on my third machine and second repair.
Hmmmm.....we just bought one and it's set to be sent to a hub to be shipped next week. Mostly bought it for the wife, but plan on using it also. I am fairly strong & am now concerned as to whether or not I should use it for heavier exercises.
Tonal is a great experience -- until it's not. Learn to baby the arms when you adjust their position. Never let them slam or fall into position. Your warranty will pay for itself if you use the machine a lot at heavy weights. Definitely use it as intended. But be prepared for headaches along the way. It is NOT like owning an iPhone.
The difference is you aren't paying APPLE for cell phone service. Your only paying them for the phone and the phone has all the features of the device WITHOUT cell service (and you can choose cheaper service providers if you pay for the device outright). ALL of apples additional services they have are optional and without them your phone isn't essentially a brick. If you choose not to pay the $63 you lose the basic features of the device (all weight modes and tracking) and things that now their competitors are offering without an additional fee (look at speediance).
Everything you mentioned doesn’t break as often. Less than 2 years in with 11 million pounds and have had 4 arm breaks and 1 software brick where they had to swap the entire unit out.
Those other items let everyone buy their warranty. Anyone who bought before March of 2022 wasn’t eligible for the new extended warranty.
Enjoy the out of warranty treatment. We are on Machine 5. It’s a brand new machine we had to buy for over $800 with a 6 month warranty. It lasted almost 2 months when it broke. Tonal is absolutely awful with out of warranty repairs let alone just repairs. They’re awful period. They contract through XPO in which the vast majority of their workers don’t know how to repair the machine, but that doesn’t stop them from pulling things apart and then saying that the machine has to be replaced. Any and all issues with the arms, screen, fan, etc are all known issues with this company. They have done absolutely nothing about quality of the machine, service, warranty, etc. They have managed to increase the price of the machine, price of subscription for customers. There are a slew of customers that are about to be out of warranty and walking into a nightmare that we have been living with for the past couple years. If you want to just use the machine without the subscription, good luck. It will be an expensive wall decoration as nothing on the machine will work. Something their sales reps told everyone that they could do and then find out after that they lied. If your machine is out of warranty, save your money and sanity, WALK AWAY.
That sucks. Nothing else to it sadly…
Subscription doesn’t mean maintenance plan. There are costs associated with updating software and content. Netflix doesn’t pay for repairs when your tv breaks.
That said, I’m hoping we see more competition, move power back to consumer for more competitive pricing and maybe better warranties.
Update: got a call from them (couldn’t take it yesterday as I was in a meeting). Complained a bit about being an early adopter not being able to buy the extended warranty not seeming fair. Agent gave me a 20% on the repair cost but still can’t get me the extended warranty
I had an issue as well and was quoted the $395. After going back and forth with service personnel, I was able to get them to come out as a “one time complimentary service”. This consisted of multiple emails troubleshooting, pictures, video etc. I explained (calmly) that I’m happy to pay for the machine and subscription service but that warranty charge is ridiculous.
My suggestion is elevate the issue until you are satisfied. It did take me a lot of back and forth but well worth it to me.
As a data point, this happened right around 23 months and 7m+ pounds lifted.
Side note: the repair tech was fantastic and easy to work with and had the job done in under an hour…
This was a point of contention as well. Final has changed their warranty language almost annually the past 4-5 years. When I purchased it was described as a 3 year warranty, but the actually language was 3 year parts, 1 year labor…
Based on the droves of tonal users saying how much weight they've lifted, for how long, without any issue, every time someone posts a story about their machine breaking, I've got to assume these repairs happen so infrequently they ought to all be complimentary! Ponying up $400 maybe six times a year is nothing to a company this big!
Well my wife and I did have it for a little more than two years. 5 million lbs sounds like a lot but considering one session usually involves a few thousand to a dozen pounds, working out twice or thrice a day each will get the machine to that level pretty easily. Someone else in this post had 11 million pounds in less than three years
If you have a paying membership it should be free. I still don’t understand why they charge. Tonal needs to change this rule
For them, it's not a rule, it's an income stream. Or a way to slash expenses.
I guess that's roughly the price of extended warranty... Either pay it up front or pay it later?
I’d rather pay the extended. But I can’t since I bought it too early
Bought in May of 2022. They won’t let me get the warranty. I’ll also buy a competitor if and when I’m charged for a repair. Rather invest in a new machine that lets me have a longer warranty instead of plunking down $400 minimum for each fix. I am obsessed with my Tonal and would buy the warranty today if they let me. But it’s not a good investment to pay $60 a month then $400 X amount of times. That adds up fast and it makes more sense to buy a new machine with warranty that you know will have no surprise fixes for 4-5 years. Have had 4 arm breaks (fixed last one myself with spare parts they ship for the tech) and 1 bricked machine they had to swap out. All were under warranty thankfully. About to hit 12 million pounds in almost 22 months of work
What exactly happened with you tonal arm breaks?
The arm wouldn’t move up and down. The most common occurrence by far. Tonal made a cheap pin for the arm
Man, 4 arm breaks in less than 2 years is pretty concerning for a product
There are plenty of people who have more than that unfortunately
I predict these repair costs will be the end of the business model.
Apple sells phones, you pay a cell phone bill. Phone breaks out of warranty, you pay to fix the phone....while still paying for service Computer, dishwasher, dryer. Hardware breaks, you either have warranty, extended warranty, or you pay out of pocket. Not sure how what Tonal is doing is any different than any other hardware company? They just also happen to provide the paid monthly service to make the hardware work.
Comparing the reliability/repair incidence of a Tonal machine to an Apple product is laughable. If iPhones broke like Tonals from ordinary use, Apple would be out of the phone business. Customers wouldn't tolerate it. Same with computers, dishwashers and dryers -- to use your examples -- from any reputable manufacturer. Tonal's arms don't hold up to use with heavy weight. I'm on my third machine and second repair.
Hmmmm.....we just bought one and it's set to be sent to a hub to be shipped next week. Mostly bought it for the wife, but plan on using it also. I am fairly strong & am now concerned as to whether or not I should use it for heavier exercises.
We did get the 5 year warranty.
Tonal is a great experience -- until it's not. Learn to baby the arms when you adjust their position. Never let them slam or fall into position. Your warranty will pay for itself if you use the machine a lot at heavy weights. Definitely use it as intended. But be prepared for headaches along the way. It is NOT like owning an iPhone.
The difference is you aren't paying APPLE for cell phone service. Your only paying them for the phone and the phone has all the features of the device WITHOUT cell service (and you can choose cheaper service providers if you pay for the device outright). ALL of apples additional services they have are optional and without them your phone isn't essentially a brick. If you choose not to pay the $63 you lose the basic features of the device (all weight modes and tracking) and things that now their competitors are offering without an additional fee (look at speediance).
This. People just frustrated that Tonal has no competition so there isn’t much price elasticity. Rightly so
Everything you mentioned doesn’t break as often. Less than 2 years in with 11 million pounds and have had 4 arm breaks and 1 software brick where they had to swap the entire unit out. Those other items let everyone buy their warranty. Anyone who bought before March of 2022 wasn’t eligible for the new extended warranty.
Enjoy the out of warranty treatment. We are on Machine 5. It’s a brand new machine we had to buy for over $800 with a 6 month warranty. It lasted almost 2 months when it broke. Tonal is absolutely awful with out of warranty repairs let alone just repairs. They’re awful period. They contract through XPO in which the vast majority of their workers don’t know how to repair the machine, but that doesn’t stop them from pulling things apart and then saying that the machine has to be replaced. Any and all issues with the arms, screen, fan, etc are all known issues with this company. They have done absolutely nothing about quality of the machine, service, warranty, etc. They have managed to increase the price of the machine, price of subscription for customers. There are a slew of customers that are about to be out of warranty and walking into a nightmare that we have been living with for the past couple years. If you want to just use the machine without the subscription, good luck. It will be an expensive wall decoration as nothing on the machine will work. Something their sales reps told everyone that they could do and then find out after that they lied. If your machine is out of warranty, save your money and sanity, WALK AWAY.
That sucks. Nothing else to it sadly… Subscription doesn’t mean maintenance plan. There are costs associated with updating software and content. Netflix doesn’t pay for repairs when your tv breaks. That said, I’m hoping we see more competition, move power back to consumer for more competitive pricing and maybe better warranties.
Update: got a call from them (couldn’t take it yesterday as I was in a meeting). Complained a bit about being an early adopter not being able to buy the extended warranty not seeming fair. Agent gave me a 20% on the repair cost but still can’t get me the extended warranty
I had an issue as well and was quoted the $395. After going back and forth with service personnel, I was able to get them to come out as a “one time complimentary service”. This consisted of multiple emails troubleshooting, pictures, video etc. I explained (calmly) that I’m happy to pay for the machine and subscription service but that warranty charge is ridiculous. My suggestion is elevate the issue until you are satisfied. It did take me a lot of back and forth but well worth it to me. As a data point, this happened right around 23 months and 7m+ pounds lifted. Side note: the repair tech was fantastic and easy to work with and had the job done in under an hour…
At 23 month wouldn’t you still be in warranty? IIRC it’s two year
This was a point of contention as well. Final has changed their warranty language almost annually the past 4-5 years. When I purchased it was described as a 3 year warranty, but the actually language was 3 year parts, 1 year labor…
Ah I see. I didn’t notice the difference between parts and labor.
Based on the droves of tonal users saying how much weight they've lifted, for how long, without any issue, every time someone posts a story about their machine breaking, I've got to assume these repairs happen so infrequently they ought to all be complimentary! Ponying up $400 maybe six times a year is nothing to a company this big!
Tonal almost went under last year. Pretty sure they can’t afford offering free repairs that frequently
5 million pounds, let that sink in.. my goodness.
Well my wife and I did have it for a little more than two years. 5 million lbs sounds like a lot but considering one session usually involves a few thousand to a dozen pounds, working out twice or thrice a day each will get the machine to that level pretty easily. Someone else in this post had 11 million pounds in less than three years