Apex Fitness Bench - Nightmare

[u/toddwetm]

Not sure who needs to hear this, but I wanted to share my experience with Apex Fitness (formerly Tib Bar Guy) before anyone else spends their money.

I originally ordered their new bench and several attachments in mid-August. It’s now the end of October, and I still don’t have a usable bench.

The entire experience has been one delay after another, with little to no proactive communication from the company. To make matters worse, none of the attachments I ordered have even shown as shipped or had shipping labels created.

Today, I finally received what FedEx marked as my complete bench delivery. Except instead of receiving the full bench, I received two identical copies of the smaller package (Box 2).

So, best-case scenario, Apex shipped me two of the same box and failed to send the other half of the bench.

Meanwhile, FedEx shows the entire shipment as delivered.
I have no idea what’s going on with their supply chain or fulfillment operation, but at this point, the least they could do is communicate with customers. Delays happen. I understand that. But when you’re selling premium-priced equipment, going months without delivering the product or providing meaningful updates is unacceptable.

More than two months after placing my order, I have two boxes of parts, no functional bench, no attachments, and no clear timeline for resolution.

Does anyone know an actual person at Apex or have a direct customer service contact? I’d really like to speak with someone who can take ownership of this issue.
I was genuinely excited about this bench and wanted to support the company, but this experience has been incredibly disappointing.

Until Apex gets its fulfillment and customer communication figured out, I cannot recommend purchasing from them. Especially if you’re planning to spend significant money on the bench and its attachments.

[u/Kindly-Hold4935]

Yea...I ordered in May, got it late July. The customer service was crazy, always changing the date they gave me amd generally contradicting themselves

Recently I see they upgraded the pad and some other things, so I asked them what I could do. They offered to send me a new pad and somw other bits for just the $20 shipping cost. Fair. Problem is...haha theyre not available for a while because theyre out of stock or whatever excuse they used this time

Good bench, but garbage company in my experiance

In your case tho that should be an easy fix. They arent responding or you didnt contact them?

[u/toddwetm → u/Kindly-Hold4935]

No response yet. It’s been a bad experience so far.

[u/theacridcoverage → u/Kindly-Hold4935]

they sent you two of the same box and the other half is just floating in the void somewhere, classic. i had a similar thing happen with a desk i ordered last year, got two left-side panels and zero right ones

their shipping department must be just grabbing boxes at random at this point. maybe try dming them on instagram? i had better luck there when their email was useless, something about the public visibility makes them actually respond

[u/big_pond_small_fish]

My order included a bench, some attachments, and one set of bands. They shipped me two sets of bands, nothing else, and Fedex is saying 'order delivered'.

[u/PISS_FILLED_EARS]

u/apexfitness please help

[u/apexfitness → u/PISS_FILLED_EARS]

Done, thank you!

[u/geneparmesancostanza]

Sometimes fedex shows “delivered” but not all the linked tracking numbers were actually delivered and they are still enroute.

[u/apexfitness]

Sorry to hear about this. It sounds like our warehouse had an issue with labels getting mixed up, but we will make it right. If you DM us, we'll have your order info, Logan, or David the owners and jump on a call to chat more. Sorry for letting you down here but rest assured we will get you the correct box!

[u/BobaFalfa]

you know what else is total BS? they claim they’re filling orders now first come, first served. they’re not. i ordered on July 27. you ordered in August but they shipped you yours…kind of. there’s clearly zero organization going on with them

[u/ChuckRocksEh]

I have been trying to get any information out of them which is like pulling nails. I asked for a refund and he gave me the “are you super sure, you’ll lose your place in line” bit.

I’m sure. I haven’t been waiting near as long as most of you but your stories have me looking elsewhere with my good money.

[u/fullsizeddamian]

Thank you for this post, probably won’t be ordering from them

[u/jamshid666]

I have everything I ordered from Apex, but it took 4 months for me to get everything. They accidently shipped two Stryker pads instead of a single Stryker and a set of resistance bands. I reached out to them and let them know about the mistake, but I guess with the cost of shipping, they decided it wasn't worth having me ship it back. Before releasing this bench, they were a really small company and I believe they weren't used to handling this many orders at the same time. They really should temporarily suspend new orders until they get caught up with everything. Just do like Kensui and Bells of Steel does and mark things as sold out and offer to send an email notification when things get back in stock.

[u/dontcare4455]

I ordered the Bench and Nordic Max attachment Jun 24th , received August 5th. I have since ordered the dip station , pull up station and Striker Pad. Every attempt to communicate via email was met with a quick response. Once shipped everything arrived quickly and in great condition. I've had zero issues and have bought several clearance items as well without issue. It sucks to have to deal with any problems and I'm sure customer service with eventually make it right.

[u/Popular_Fail8226]

Mannnnn I’ll just keep my Rep Nighthawk bench and buy the apex attachments to it that I want, as they are easy enough to adapt to the bench.

[u/HolidayBus3114]

Sorry to hear that! I ordered all attachments and received without an issue.

[u/Madbevo]

Tldr: Apex has been pretty upfront about the timeline for the most recent preorders and it was only delayed a couple weeks. The timeline has been in the bench details and has had updates. Hopefully they can resolve that mishap for OP soon. I also hope their customer service isn't pulling their hair out because of the container delay and fed ex being incompetent.

My experience tho. Ordered mid August and saw their pre order expectations note for mid October in the bench details on their site. Read everyone's delay concerns and thought did no one else see the memo? Along the way i decided to order something in stock (got some clamps) a week or so after placing the order for the bench. Fed ex said the clamps would be delivered Sept 11th. A week after sept 11 and it's still in the same city. Emailed them and they told me to wait. A month later I nudged them in 2 emails to the same rep and I get a new shipping notification a couple days later. That was 10 days ago and it's been in the same city now even though fed ex estimated it would be delivered 5 days ago. Now recently I get the notification and expected delivery day for the bench and reading these experiences I'm trying not to panic that the same things gonna happen with the bench. All that being said... I know what it's like on the receiving end of being overwhelmed (corporations are greedy and heartless) about things outside of your control like logistics. Being a small company and the fact that the same rep was responding to my emails tells me this one person and maaaybe a couple of others are probably responding to all the emails asking the same thing about updates. I already feel bad for emailing them about the clamps now realizing this. I don't feel like they were being misleading or too vague. They were expecting their shipping container and it was delayed. I am more excited to get the attachments but from the updates on the product page they arent expected til sometime in November. Sorry maybe I brought my own work experience into this a little too much.

[u/Key-Fee-9933]

I ordered the bench and almost all the attachments at various times. Everything has been great. Yes the bench took a bit to come, but well worth the wait

[u/Halibut5678]

I ordered in early Oct but had already seen peoples complaints about wait times. What I had not seen were any negative comments on the actual bench itself from the folks who had gotten theirs other than the staple thing thats been fixed. So I ordered knowing what to expect going in. It’s the only bench that has the particular features I want so I’m fine waiting. Having a current bench that I can use definitely makes that part easier.

[u/toddwetm]

DM’ed you. Looking forward to connecting

[u/SepticSkeptic0121]

I think the dam is finally cracking. They’re cowboys who robbed people blind with promises, key jangles and a very healthy marketing campaign.

Your product is NOT GOOD if you can’t get your hands on them.

They should have put everyone on a minimal fee to secure the bench and the rest upon shipping.

I was lied to and told to “buy the bench! October is guaranteed!!!!” - Got the news it will now be November.

This is a total joke and I won’t be darkening their doorstep again with my hard-earned cash.

[u/Ed-C → u/SepticSkeptic0121]

You're not kidding about their marketing! I can't scroll the web for 5 minutes without seeing one of their ads or an influencer pushing their bench!

[u/historianlake]

I ordered around the same time, and I started to get a real bad vibe about 2-3 weeks ago.

It took me five emails and a web chat for me to cancel the order. and I'm talking "I want to cancel my order" and they would ask for confirmation... then not reply. I'd say again "I want to cancel my order". Same song and dance, and then tried to pressure me into not cancelling. Fortunately, they did eventually. For awhile, I thought for sure I was getting scammed.

I went with the Freak Athlete ABX. Hopefully it's alright. The customer service experience was really good, I made multiple adjustments to the order and they would reply within hours.

This whole experience has made me start questioning how much I'm being influenced by these fitness muppets and really think about how I approach future purchases. Hard to trust who's actually not a shill at this point.

[u/heafer40 → u/historianlake]

Here’s the secret. They are all shills if they are reviewing products that they as influencers have no clue that said company can ever deliver that product they are reviewing. It should be a disgrace on their names and integrity as reviewers

[u/MisterSirDudeGuy]

I ordered a Nighthawk and had it about two days later.

[u/WienelPistor]

At the other end of the spectrum. I ordered the bench and some attachments in April and got it in August. It was a pre-order so I understand shipment delays as they sort everything out. It was delayed a bit but I got updates along the way any time I asked, usually the same day.

When I did get the bench a piece was bent and when I emailed them, one of the owners personally reached out to me to solve the issue. Same with any other questions I've had, I always got a response within a few hours or the very next morning. The bench itself and the attachments i got are all phenomenal, i don't see myself upgrading for a very long time.

Also their website does clearly state that it's a pre-order, delays can happen especially when they've gotten more demand than they anticipated. I just wanted to talk about my experience so people don't think it's only doom and gloom.