****UPDATE: Credit where credit is due — Apex’s co-founder personally reached out.
I wanted to come back and share a very positive update because I believe it’s just as important to recognize great leadership as it is to call out a poor customer experience.
David, one of the co-founders of Apex, reached out to me personally via text to apologize and understand what happened with my order.
And I have to say, I was genuinely impressed.
No excuses, no canned customer service response, and no passing the buck. He acknowledged the issues, offered some transparency into the fulfillment challenges they’ve been navigating, and committed to personally working with the warehouse to get things resolved.
He also proactively issued a full refund of my shipping costs without me asking for it.
As someone who appreciates what it takes to build and scale a business, I have a tremendous amount of respect for a founder who is willing to engage directly with a frustrated customer and take ownership of the experience.
The bench situation isn’t fully resolved yet, but my perspective on the company has changed significantly.
Products get delayed. Supply chains get complicated. Mistakes happen. What separates companies is how their leadership responds when things go wrong.
David didn’t have to reach out personally, but he did. That says a lot about the culture they’re trying to build.
I was pretty critical in my original post, so I want to be equally vocal when someone steps up and does the right thing.
Huge credit to David and the Apex team for taking ownership. I’m looking forward to getting the bench, putting it to work, and hopefully coming back with another positive update once everything arrives.
Rooting for these guys.
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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.
