LBF and COVID 19 - Status Updates

Hi all. 

We hope you are all staying safe and well.

Please note the following - updated on the 15th of February 2021:

  • Our online store is open and we are dispatching orders to all states, but our showroom is currently closed for face to face sales
  • We are currently offering contactless collection of orders for those that live with 5km of our store. 
  • For delivery orders, we will email you when your order has been dispatched with tracking details
  • Pre-order dates are our best estimates and not guaranteed dates. We will notify you of any significant delays.
  • We are experiencing some delays but we are working on continually updating our customers.

Please choose carefully when making a pre-order purchase as any cancelled pre-orders will incur a 10% admin fee.

If you have a general question about what's happening at LBF, with our stock levels and pre-ordering, shipping or order collection, check our our COVID-19 FAQ page before contacting us - the answer may be there. 

All current updates can be found below. 

 


 

Updates - 03 - 10 - 20 

We hope you are all still staying safe and well.

As we say good bye to Stage 4 restrictions in Victoria and start to get out and about a little more, not much has changed at LBF.

Our showroom remains closed, and will probably stay closed for a few more weeks. We are landing containers of equipment regularly, and producing our Aussie made equipment regularly but nearly all of the products coming in are pre-sold so our focus remains on shipping out orders, and preparing click and collect orders as soon as possible after stock arrives.

To be honest, we could open our showroom now - but as most stock coming in is already sold, we don't have a lot to show you, and we'd be largely wasting a lot of people's time.

 

Our admin staff are still working remotely, so our main phone line remains unmonitored. The best way to get hold of us is via email or facebook messenger. 

Just a reminder to please not attend our showroom / warehouse without an appointment. 

Stock

We are still seeing some delays in equipment caused by raw material shortages in China, congested shipping lines and congested docks in China and Australia. We are trying to keep all customers up to date with any changes via email but if you have questions or need an update - please let us know. 

As of today, most equipment is sold out until early 2021. The website remains the best indicator of what is in stock, and what expected arrival times are of incoming stock. 


 

Updates - 02 - 09 - 20 

We hope you are all staying safe and well.

As we near the proposed end date for Stage 4 restrictions in Victoria, we’re hoping the numbers stay low and we can start to move back to a more efficient operating model.

At the moment, our admin staff continue to work remotely, and our warehouse staff numbers are reduced. Contactless order collection are still available, but only for people who live within 5km of the store.

Supply Chain Updates

We are almost in constant communication at the moment with both our suppliers in China and our Logistics team to ensure orders are being completed not only as quickly as possible, but also to the standard we expect – and then shipped in the most efficient manner.

We are starting to see some positive signs, and hope that there will be no more significant delays after September.

Looking at current delays:

  • Rubber Coated Olympic Weight plates due Mid August – arriving around the 10th of September
  • Cable Attachments due early September – arriving late September
  • Rubber Hex due early September – arriving late September
  • 360 Strength Racks and Benches and accessories – arriving early October

Anyone with orders affected by the above delays should have been contacted directly at least once with an update. If you have not heard from us about a delay on the above products, please feel free to contact us for a targeted update.

All other orders are running approximately on time, or early.

Local Delivery Delays

We are working hard to ship all orders as soon as we can. When you get an email from us saying your order has been shipped – it means that your items have left our warehouse.

But – we are still seeing delays from the courier companies we use. For local deliveries, we have ramped up our staff numbers to deliver more products to Melbourne ourselves, but for interstate, there may be additional delays.

Please note that, while we ship everything together, often items across the one consignment are being delivered to customers across a number of days to keep freight moving as quickly as possible. If you receive only half your order – this is the most likely explanation. We will not ship a barbell on one day, and plates two days later. The remaining items are typically delivered within a couple of days. Please be patient and allow an additional couple of days for your items to arrive before contacting us or the courier company for an update.  

Customer Click & Collect

Customer click and collect will continue to be offered to customers within a 5km radius of our shop, as per Victorian Government restrictions. This will continue to be a safe, contactless collection. All current appointments will be honoured.

Showroom

Our showroom remains closed for the near future. Please do not attend our showroom / warehouse without an appointment. 

  


 

Updates - 05 - 08 - 20 

 Hope you're all continuing to stay safe as the Australian landscape changes again. 

With Victoria moving into Stage 4 restrictions, we will still be operating, but there are some changes to how things work at LBF. 

  • Our admin staff will be working from home. This, combined with the recent surge in calls and emails may mean a slower turnaround on queries, and we ask for your patience.
  • Containers of equipment will continue to arrive, but we expect to see delays in having them delivered to us.
  • While dispatching your orders will continue to be the highest priority for us, we expect to see further delays from external courier companies as distribution centres moving to 2/3 capacity and general online purchasing increasing.
  • We will be dispatching more local orders using our own drivers to try and offset this.
  • Contactless order collection will be available, but only for people who live within 5km of the store.

 We take this situation very seriously, and we are doing all we can within our power to make sure we are operating in a safe way within the guidelines from the Victorian government. We will continue to run a closed door business, meaning no walk in customers at all, and only contactless, safe collection and delivery.

Supply Chain Updates

We continue to work closely with our suppliers in China – in most cases through daily conversations and updates. But, we are seeing more delays as the global gym equipment shortage and the high demand exhausts raw material supply – particularly rubber and steel - and labour in China, and shipping lanes get busier, causing shipping delays.

  • For delays of over a week or so, we will be contacting all affected customers and advising them of the delay.
  • When these delays are no more than a week or so, we will not be contacting customers, but focusing on shipping these orders as soon as possible.

Again, we ask that you stay patient with us. We are continuing to experience an extremely high volume of phone calls and emails. We are attempting to reply to all customer requests but our priority still remains on shipping orders as soon as possible.

Incoming Shipments

Most shipments are still tracking on-time or within 2 weeks-ish.

Recently, we’ve seen delays in rubber coated weight plates, and further delays in 360 Strength equipment – affected customers are being notified as soon as we have confirmed dates.

But, we’ve also continued to have some orders arriving earlier than expected, with customers getting rubber hex, and bumpers a week or two ahead of schedule.

Delivery Delays

We are shipping all orders as soon as we can. When you get an email from us saying your order has been shipped – it means that your items have left our warehouse.

But – we are seeing delays from the courier companies, and this will only get worse as they operations are scaled down, and online purchasing increases. For local deliveries, we have ramped up our staff numbers to deliver more products to Melbourne ourselves, but for interstate, there may be additional delays.

Please note that, while we ship everything together, often items across the one consignment are being delivered to customers across a number of days to keep freight moving as quickly as possible. If you receive only half your order – this is the most likely explanation. We will not ship a barbell on one day, and plates two days later. The remaining items are typically delivered within a couple of days. Please be patient and allow an additional couple of days for your items to arrive before contacting us or the courier company for an update.  

Customer Click & Collect

Customer click and collect will only be offered to customers within a 5km radius of our shop, as per new Victorian Government restrictions. This will continue to be a safe, contactless collection. All current appointments will be honoured.

Showroom

Our showroom remains closed for the near future. Please do not attend our showroom / warehouse without an appointment. 

  


 

Updates - 20 - 07 - 20 

Hi All,

Hope you're all continuing to stay safe as the world changes again, with new lockdowns in Victoria and the virus again taking hold.

We continue to work closely with our suppliers to ensure that we deliver quality goods to you all in a timely fashion. But we are seeing some delays as the global gym equipment shortage starts to impact raw material supply and labour in China, and shipping times become longer.

  • For delays of over a week or so, we will be contacting all affected customers and advising them of the delay.
  • When these delays are no more than a week or so, we will not be contacting customers, but focusing on shipping these orders as soon as possible.

Again, we ask that you stay patient with us. The recent lockdown in Victoria has sparked another surge in equipment purchasing and as a result we are experiencing an extremely high volume of phone calls and emails. We are attempting to reply to all customer requests but our priority still remains on shipping orders as soon as possible.

And please be nice - we will get back to you. Sending multiple duplicated emails does not get a quicker response, nor do threats of negative reviews or of consumer affairs. We are working as fast as we can :)

Incoming Shipments

Most shipments are tracking on-time or within a week or so.

We’ve seen delays in integrated bumpers, and some 360 Strength equipment – affected customers are being notified as soon as possible.

But, we’ve also had some orders arriving earlier than expected, with many customers getting rubber hex, and bumpers a week or two ahead of schedule.

For more details, you can review a more detailed list of products and dates: https://www.littleblokefitness.com.au/pages/incoming-shipment-arrivals-2020

Delivery Delays

We are shipping all orders as soon as we can. When you get an email from us saying your order has been shipped – it means that your items have left our warehouse.

But – we are seeing delays from the courier companies, and often items across the one consignment are being delivered to customers across a number of days to keep freight moving as quickly as possible. If you receive a spilt delivery from the courier, the remaining items are typically delivered within a couple of days. Please be patient and allow an additional couple of days for your items to arrive before contacting us or the courier company for an update.

Customer Click & Collect

We have now ceased customer click and collect for all new orders and move back to a delivery only model. All current appointments will be honoured.

Showroom

Our showroom remains closed for the near future. Please do not attend our showroom / warehouse without an appointment. 

 


Updates - 25 - 06 - 20 

Hi All,

Long overdue update.

Hope you're all continuing to stay safe as we slowly start to unpack, and face new challenges across the world.

Over the last few weeks we have been working closely with our suppliers to ensure that we deliver quality goods to you all in a timely fashion. Although the manufacturing for most of our incoming orders is nearing or has been completed, there have been some delays in shipping.

  • For delays of over a week or so, we will be emailing all affected customers and advising them of the delay.
  • When these delays are no more than a week or so, we will not be contacting customers, but focusing on shipping these orders as soon as possible.

Shipments

Below is a summary of what stock we have arriving in and when over the month of June and early July:

Arrived and shipping:

  • Rubber Hex
  • Cable Attachments
  • Bands
  • Medicine Balls
  • Flooring
  • PRO HG Bumpers

Arriving and shipping this week:

  • Kettlebells (on customs hold for past week - shipping asap)
  • Olympic Weight plates (on customs hold for past few days - shipping asap)

Arriving and shipping last week of June / early July:

  • Olympic Bars – Economy, EZ curl and Dumbbells - (delayed by around 10 days)
  • PRO Bars (on time)
  • Standard plates and bars (delayed by around 10 days)
  • Impulse equipment (on-time)
  • Power Bags (on-time)
  • Commercial Benches (on-time)
  • 360 Strength Squat racks / Benches (delayed by around 10 days)
  • 1RM Squat Racks and Benches (delayed by around 10 days)
  • Slam balls and wall balls (delayed by around 10 days)

For more details, you can review a more detailed list of products and dates : https://www.littleblokefitness.com.au/pages/incoming-shipment-arrivals-2020

Customer Click & Collect

  • We are now offering order pick-ups from our store in Reservoir, by appointment
  • If you have already placed an order, you’ll receive an email from us with details on how to make an appointment.
  • If you’re placing a new order, details will be emailed to you.

Showroom

Our showroom remains closed for the near future.

 


Updates - 04 - 05 - 20 

Hi All,

Hope you're all staying safe as we head towards an easing of restrictions :)

Pre-Ordering

All incoming products have now been loaded onto our website for pre-order, complete with estimated arrival dates. You can access them via the PRE-ORDER menu, or via the normal product menus. All products available for PRE-ORDER will be labelled “PRE-ORDER” in the product title. We will continue to update these as stock sells out and more stock becomes available.

Why do we say estimated arrival dates? Gyms have been shut down all over the world, not just in Australia and this has put a lot of pressure on the factories in China that make gym equipment. Because of the additional pressure, the dates they provide are their ‘best guesses’ in the current environment and may be subject to change either way.

Our focus as always will be on quality and timeliness. We have been using the same factories for the past few years, and have faith in their ability to produce our products properly in a timely manner, even in this environment. But at the end of the day, I’d rather have your products here a few days late and perfect, than a few days early and problematic.

Bumper Plates / Rubber Hex / PRO Bars

Bumpers and RHD arriving by the end of this week and Pro Bars next week. We’ll be shipping orders out as soon as we have the stock. You’ll get an email from us with tracking details as soon as your order leaves the warehouse. 

 

Updates - 28 - 4 - 20

Hi All.

Delays

Our April rubber hex shipment arrival has been delayed from the 28th of April to the 9th of May. Apologies to everyone who purchased dumbbells. We’ll get these out as soon as possible after they arrive.

Bumpers and Rubber Hex Pre-Order Stock Levels

Integrated Bumpers: All sizes have sold out. We'll have more are arriving in late June.

Pro Bumpers: Only 5kg, 10kg and 15kg plates remain. 20kg and 25kg plates have sold out. More are arriving in mid-June.

Rubber hex dumbbells: Only 1kg – 9kg remain available in the April delivery. More arriving in around the 8th of June.

Pre-Ordering.

In these unprecedented times, we find ourselves pivoting again and again to ensure we are getting our products out to those that need them as efficiently as possible.

With this in mind, we will no longer be taking pre-order requests via email. Instead, all incoming products will now be available for pre-order directly from our website. These will be loaded up onto the site over the next week or so.

We're making this change following to ongoing feedback regarding the speed of our email quoting system and an overwhelming demand for us to offer pre-orders on all stock arriving over the next few months,

Exceptions to this are:

  • Custom packages outside those on our website. Please email through queries.
  • Email requests that have already been emailed through will all be answered.

Pick-Ups / Store Collection.

We will continue to offer delivery as our only form of order dispatch. We understand the inconvenience this causes, not to mention the expense and do not make this decision lightly but we do so for the safety of our staff, our customers and their family and friends. When we feel it is appropriate to do so, we will happily re-open to the public and anyone who chooses to collect a pre-order will have their delivery charges refunded.

Updates - 21 - 4 - 20

Hi all.

A quick reminder to please be patient with emails, orders and quote requests. Please note that our phones remain offline so that our team can focus on the large volume of existing customer orders and queries in the system.

If you need to reach us – please only email us once, to one account, we will get back to you. Emailing multiple accounts and simultaneously messaging us on socials does not get you a quicker response – it does slow everything down, and may even get you pushed down the queue.

Pre-Order Quotes:

We are still working through emails, including all quote requests and will continue to do so ongoing.

If you have not emailed for a quote, you are welcome to do so, but the following will ensure you get a quote quicker:

  • Tell us exactly what you want, if you can. A list is great as we can quote you for everything on it.
  • Give us your postcode – we are not offering pick-up at the moment so you need to advise us where to deliver it to.

Kettlebells, Olympic Plates and Economy Bars:

These safely arrived on Friday and are currently being packed and shipped out. If you were able to grab some in a pre-order, you do not need to email us and ask where it is. Just sit tight - you’ll get an email with tracking details from us when it leaves our warehouse sometime this week. On this, please note that our courier partners are often delivering orders in two batches due their processing system and the size and weight of items. The missing items in your order will most likely be delivered the following day(s). You do not need to email us or the courier company to follow this up – please be patient.

For everyone that missed out, or that did grab something only to have it cancelled, we apologise. We are doing our best to ensure we get all incoming equipment to as many people as possible, but in the current market where demand is significantly outstripping supply, there will always be someone who misses out. There is just not enough equipment to be shared around. We had over 1,000 people hit our website in the first few minutes trying to purchase Olympic plates and bars, and it all sold out very quickly.

We do have some 1.25kg, 2.5kg and 5kg plates left over in the warehouse. These will go up on the website sometime this week (sorry – no idea when). We will not be doing email sales on these.

Integrated and PRO Bumpers:

Both are arriving around the 28th of April.

We have already sold out of 15kg and 25kg integrated plates, so are no longer offering 150kg or 140kg integrated packs for pre-order. All other sizes are available.

All sizes of PRO plates are available – we’re around 50% sold.

Rubber Hex Dumbbells:

Also arriving around the 28th of April.

We have already pre-sold all sizes 20kg and above. Sizes from 1 – 17.5kg are still available, but some are very limited quantities. We have more arriving in early June and are now taking pre-orders on these.

Other items arriving soon and available for pre-order include:

    • Power Bands – pink, green and orange available at the end of April. All sizes here mid-May.
    • Cable Attachments
    • PRO Commercial Barbells – 7ft only
    • Swiss Bars
    • Trap Bars
    • 1RM Commercial Flat Benches
    • Black foam plyo boxes

The above arriving into stock early to mid- May.

Shipping

Finally, in most cases we are not allowing pre-orders to be split shipped. This is to allow us to better manage logistics and make sure we provide an efficient shipping service. We need to wait until all items in your order are physically “in stock” to ship and complete your order. If you would like to have your order spilt shipped, additional freight costs may occur.

 

Updates - 9 - 4 - 20

Hi all.

A quick update on pre-orders and restocking.

Next week:

We have Olympic rubber coated weight plates and bars, and kettlebells arriving next week.

  • Classic and Pro Kettlebells will go onto the website for pre-order on the 11th
  • Olympic rubber coated weight plates and bars will go live on the website on the 14th.

Apologies – this is a change from earlier dates announced.

Quotes:

If you’ve emailed us for a pre-order quote in the past week for a quote, please be patient – we have been working through over 500 requests a day.

Emailing us daily / messaging us on socials asking when we’ll be doing your quote just takes up valuable quoting time 😊. We will get to all emails over the next few days.

Pre-Ordering:

We’ve tried to take a fair and reasonable stance. We’re happy to take pre-orders on any stock we have coming in the next month. This includes rubber coated weight plates, Olympic economy and commercial bars, rubber hex dumbbells, bumpers and a few other bits and pieces. There is a finite amount of equipment and when it's sold, it will be months before more arrives.

We have most of our products restocking again in May, June and July but we’re reluctant to take pre-orders on them yet as we really have no feel for what will be happening in Australia at that time. We’d hate to take your pre-orders on equipment arriving in June, only to find that the courier companies are no longer running, or that we are no longer allowed to run and can no longer deliver your items, or on the flip-side – we’re out of lockdown, gyms are open and you no longer need it. The 2-4 month pre-order approach just creates problems for everyone as you may end up paying your money for products you may not see until such time you no longer need them.

Restocking:

The following outlines the products we’ll having coming into stock in the next month:

  • Mid-April
    • Olympic Rubber Coated Weight Plates
    • Economy Olympic Bars (7ft, EZ and DB)
    • Classic and Pro Kettlebells
  • End April
    • Rubber Hex Dumbbells
    • Power Bands
    • Cable Attachments
    • Pro HG bumpers
    • Integrated Bumpers
  • Early May
    • PRO Commercial Barbells – 7ft only
    • Swiss Bars
    • Trap Bars
    • 1RM Commerical Flat Benches
    • Black foam plyo boxes

Updates - 1 - 4 - 20

Hi All,

A few updates:

We are back online and selling

After a few days packing orders, and a full stocktake, we managed to get all orders made before we went offline on the 25th shipped, quantities on the website updated and we reinstated the website checkout on Monday. While most popular items sold out within the first hour, we still had a lot of other stock and that has been selling down over the week. If a product is on the website, it's in stock so grab it as everything is selling out. 

Preselling.

With containers of equipment landing over the next few weeks, we will continue to offer equipment for pre-order to allow everyone the opportunity to purchase. We'll list products for pre-order a few days before each container lands, but we're happy to take pre-orders now if you want to lock equipment in. Just email your list and postcode to info@littleblokefitness.com.au and we'll shoot you a quote. 

The preorder page - https://www.littleblokefitness.com.au/collections/pre-order-april-2020 - will stay active, and be updated regularly. Once an item arrives into the warehouse, it will be removed from the pre-order page.

What's coming in?

  • Benches, Racks, 30kg weights vests, timber gym rings and a few others arrive on Friday 3rd. These went onto the website for pre-order today and most benches and racks have now sold out.
  • Kettlebells, Olympic Bars and Olympic Weight Plates arriving around the 15th.
  • Rubber hex dumbbells, bumpers, commercial bars and flat benches arriving around the 28th.

We're not thinking much beyond April at this point.  

Operating...

For the health, safety and welfare of our customers, team members and the greater community we are not offering pick-up, or face to face purchasing at this point in time to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

We will offer all available products online – and process and ship orders as quick as the courier companies can take them. We will also continue to operate as long as courier companies are still running, as long as the man says we can, and as long as it’s safe for us to do so.

Questions or concerns - please email us. The phone is ringing off the hook (is that even a thing any more) and we're not always able to answer or call back.

Stay safe and healthy…

 

Announcement - 25-3-2020

Hi All,

We've made the difficult decision to suspend all selling, effective immediately to allow us to prioritise fulfilling the hundreds of orders placed in the last few days. 

Please note that we have oversold products here and there as our website and inventory system sync could not keep up with the orders. We'll be notifying people whose orders were affected by this over the next few days.

As always, we appreciate your patience and understand as we all navigate through these new, uncharted times.

Stay safe, and stay healthy. 

 

Announcement - 23-3-2020

We hope you are staying safe and healthy during this difficult time for Australia. 

We'd like to notify you of a change to our operations.

As of the 24th of March:

  • Our showroom in Reservoir is closed to the general public. We will no longer be showcasing our products, nor making face to face sales. 
  • We will no longer be accepting orders with warehouse pick-up. You can still order online, but you will only have the option to have items delivered. 

Any items ordered for warehouse pick-up or collection prior to the 24th of March will still be available for collection from us in Reservoir, but we will be observing social distancing etiquette - for your safety and ours.

Please note that this is only temporary - we will reopen our showroom once it is safe to do so.

Please note that we are experiencing a high volume of purchases and delays in delivery are expected. We are trying our best to dispatch as soon as reasonably possible. Your tracking details will be sent out to you as soon as the dispatch has been completed.

Stocks will be replenished on an ongoing basis - keep an eye on our socials for updates.

For everyone that's called, or visited our store in the past two weeks - we really appreciate your patience and understanding. We are a small, hardworking team and there have been delays in having calls and emails returned - but you've all been incredible. No agro at all - not even a single raised voice - in these times, that's pretty amazing. 

If you have any enquiries, please email us and we will try our best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Our email address: team@littleblokefitness.com.au

We hope you stay safe and healthy during this time.

Kind Regards,

The LBF Team