High Step - in England???

I

icklemoley

Cathlete
I don't think i'm alone here (am i?) when i say "where can we (who) live in England get the highstep? It would cost too much to order from from america with the import tax...anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

Wayne.
 
Wayne, it may be a good idea to leave a message on Ask Cathe, for SNM to see, about the high step in England. I presume it may come to the ROW, but who knows ?
And I agree the import tax would be unbelievable :eek:

Maybe SNM could let international Cathe fans know of its release over here ?

Anna :)
 
Hi, Wayne,

Do you already have a club step with risers (I bought mine from pro active health in the UK)if so, you could just order the topper from Ck sales if they start to stock it, then it will be a little cheaper overall with postage and customs charges, I have already asked them and they said that if they do stock it then I can just order the topper if I am willing to pay the shipping, ,but I would get them to weigh it before I buy it. If they dont stock it then I personally will do without it because the UPS postage from here to the UK, is too expensive.
The other option is to buy a weider step, the one that raises to about ten inches, I have seen it in the index or argos catologue for around £39.99 I use this for my firm videos, and Cathes muscle endurance dvd ,etc.
I would love to order the step from cathe's site but those nasty UPS brown vans in the UK slap their own charge on top of the one I pay for shipping from Cathe, plus the customs charge so I am paying three charges.

Hotchick

:)
 
Hiya Wayne,
SNM posted over on Ask Cathe to say that if we want a quote, we can e-mail them: http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=2&topic_id=27557&mesg_id=27593&page= I sent a mail yesterday asking for a quote for one riser and one mini topper. I haven't had a reply yet but I can't imagine it would be much higher than the quotes I had from several of the US companies I contacted when I was looking for a full-size step with 4 risers. If I hadn't been recommended to try Proactive Health I would have gone ahead and ordered my step from the US.

CKSales have already said they won't be shipping it to folks outside of the US and Canada so I also contacted Proactive Health over here but I don't hold out much hope because they didn't bother to reply to my question about buying extra risers! All I got was a catalogue! They are very good when it comes to products in stock but so far they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to answering queries.
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
Lisa,

I asked Pro active about extra step risers, and they told me they sell a pair of extra risers for £15. Not too bad, I suppose, better than the costs it would be to order the high step through SNM ?

Editing to ask, please could you let us know what SNM say about ordering the top bit for the riser ? thanks

Anna :)
 
>Lisa,
>
>I asked Pro active about extra step risers, and they told me
>they sell a pair of extra risers for £15. Not too bad, I
>suppose, better than the costs it would be to order the high
>step through SNM ?
>
>Editing to ask, please could you let us know what SNM say
>about ordering the top bit for the riser ? thanks
>
>Anna :)

WOW that's not a bad price. Did you call them? I used the Web form to contact them - maybe it doesn't work? I will give them a call in the morning and see if I can order them. I know it would probably be easier to go to their shop in Bath because it's only 5 mins by train from Bristol, where I live but I always get so lost in Bath that I'd be better off using the phone or the net to contact them :) I'd still want the mini topper though but it would save on shipping if I could get the risers here.

I will let you know what SNM say as soon as I get my quote! Hmm I wonder if it's worth calling Customs & Excise or UPS to find out what the import charges are likely to be? If I get time tomorrow, I will see what I can find out :)
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
Hi Lisa,

I asked them when I ordered a body bar a couple of months ago. I was planning on buying some to turn my club step into a bench I could lie across that was higher off the ground than 8 inches. I've just never got round to it ! LOL

Though, if we can order just the top bit of the high step, then I would seriously consider that, because DH is into weight lifting now.

You know, I wish they would abolish these taxes, they cripple me too. I have resorted to ordering vids from Collage and CK Sales two at a time :(

I am also going to ask SNM about Cathe's caps, I would dearly love one, but I worked out its going to cost £45 (including shipping) for a cap ;(

Please let us know Lisa, that would be great !

Anna :)
 
Though i would dearly like the high step, i won't pay the UPS tax duty whihc i'm assuming will cost the earth. I orderd three DVDs and it cost me £43 in tax! Ouch, not to mention the $150 plus $24 in postage!!! It is such a shame as many people who live in the UK love Cathe but the prices are just so high for us here! I have ordered 6 risers to make my step bench (i have the cool grey one!) into a HIGH STEP BENCH! lol ... just the same, but bigger! I'm sure it will catch on! Thanks everyone...i see that proactive health are now stocking Stott pilates videos...perhpas its time we asked them to stock Cathe workout dvds/videos/gear??? just a thought? What ya think? Wayne :)
 
Hi Anna,
I've been in touch with Customs and Excise who gave me a commodity code: 9506919000 for the high step. It comes under sports equipment (I spoke to someone who knew what I was talking about YAY!) The charges will be as follows:

Duty: 2.7% of the cost of the high step + postage and insurance
VAT: 17.5% of course.

Unless you're buying the whole thing, the charges on the step itself are pretty low. The shipping costs will bump it up of course but I haven't what these will be yet (SNM wrote back to let me know they would find out and get back to me)

I heard from Proactive-Health who say they have no plans to get this (they didn't know about it so maybe they will decide to carry it in future) and gave me the number of a company called Fitness Professionals: 08705 133434, which I'll try later. I e-mailed Proactive to ask if they still sold the risers separately and I'll let you know what they say. I might give them a call though even though the High Step isn't out for a month or more, I'd like to place an order now because it's nice to know it would be on it's way! I can dream can't I? :)
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
Well... I caved in and rang Proactive Health and spoke to the person who e-mailed me this afternoon. They no longer sell the risers separately (you just cannot get them over here anymore and they bought up all of the remaining surplus stock and sold out just a couple of months ago) the woman I spoke to was very nice and suggested trying a local health club and waving some cash about to get some risers from them because if it's just one or two, they wouldn't miss them as much!

I asked if they would be selling the High Step themselves and they said they buy in bulk (thousands) and would need to consider storage space as well as demand. I thought that was fair enough especially as the home fitness market isn't as big over here (it could be if we could just get the bad celeb videos off the shelf and replace them with Cathe et al :) )

I spoke to Fitness Professionals who put me through to the person responsible for equipment who was on lunch! I left a message and my number so hopefully she'll know what I'm talking about and will call me back soon.

Hmm... Something tells me I'll be ordering my high step + riser(s) from Cathe... after all :)

Has anyone else had any luck yet?
ATB,
- Lisa :)
Edited to add: Proactive thought that UPS was about the best way to import fitness equipment because some carriers don't do the full customer service part and your goods can be held at the airport! That could mean having to get yourself to somewhere like Heathrow and back again!
 
Oh Lisa, thats such a shame about the extra risers. Thankyou very much for letting us know about this. Drat ! I should of bought some when I asked......Oh well !

Do Fitness Professionals have a web site ? And how many inches is the top bit for the hi step ? I am still just seriously considering ordering the top bit and putting it over the 4 risers I have ?

Thanks for the updates, Lisa !

Have you tried the Physical Company ?

http://www.physicalcompany.co.uk

They sell a range that is as big as Pro Active.

Anna :)
 
Lisa,

Just a thought, maybe the Cathe UK-ers can all send supportive e-mails to you and you could pass them on to Pro Active ? Like a mini petition ?


Anna :)
 
RE: High Step - in England - there is hope!

Ooooooooh! Proactive Health's Sales Director just wrote to me to say that he'll be bringing it to the attention of their man in charge of new products when he gets back on Monday! :) :)

A petition isn't a bad idea :) Just a thought, is it cheaper for the other internationally based Cathe fans outside of the UK to order equipment from England or from the US? Perhaps we should make them aware that there is a market? It would be great to see them stocking Cathe DVDs but (and I know you'll think this is weird) there's something really nice about getting my Cathe DVDs direct or from CKSales :)
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
Just a P.S. to say that I haven't heard anything from Fitness Professionals yet. I'm always a little bit wary of leaving messages on someone's voice mail because it's easy to let a query go when you're not sure what the person is talking about. The person I spoke to at F.P. (not the person I needed to speak to though) sounded knowledgeable and was certainlly friendly but she hadn't heard of the High Step and it might be that their equipment buyer may not have heard of it either. I guess the marketing folk at Escalade Sports haven't targeted the UK market yet?
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
RE: High Step - in England - there is hope!

Lisa,

That is GREAT news !!!!! :D :D :D :D

I shall be keeping my fingers crossed for Monday ! :D

I think if you live in Europe, ordering from the UK isn't too bad ? But I am not sure about further afield ?

Lisa, you are not weird, I love getting my workouts from CK Sales too ! LOL :7

It would make more sense to stock the high step as it matches the club step perfectly ! ;) Well, thats my theory anyway ! :D


Anna :)
 
I once got in touch with Escalade Sports about buying the weights bench, Cathe uses. They told me they don't stock it in the UK, because there is no market here. To order it plus shipping I was looking at paying £150 !!!!! I didn't go ahead though, it was too pricey x(

Anna
 
Hi all,

I got in touch with Ck sales today and this is exactly what they said.

We are still waiting from Cathes office about when we will be able to get the high step, I think cathes office is pretty busy right now so I dont have any specific details right now about the high step yet ( price, availability etc.)

the problem with shiping such a large parcel overseas is that the postal costs are astronomical, air mail rates are calculated by parcel size and weight, and would probably cost $75 to ship just the topper. If the parcel was sent by ground (ship) it would take anywhere from 4-6 months to reach you and shipping costs would still be pricey.

We can let you know when we have exact measurements and weights(once we recieve the high step) to determine the shipping costs.
If anyone from the UK wants to pay the high postal charges,then we wil send the high step out to them.

END


I personally will be keeping in touch with Ck sales to see how much the topper is going to cost me, and obviously if it is too much then I will do without it.
If I order it from Cathe direct I am worried that I will have to pay postage twice,from UPS,as well as customs charges, once to have the goods sent , and twice to have it delivered as the ups postal services in the UK charge just for handling the goods.

Hotchick;)
 
Hi Hotchick,

If it is going to cost that much for shipping from Canada, then I think I will be doing a lot of praying for Pro-Active to stock the hi step topper ! LOL ! :D

Anna :)
 
That's good news about CKSales! Their newsletter said they wouldn't ship it overseas so it's nice to know that like SNM, they're willing to ship the High Step to anyone who wants it. $75 is rather a lot even when you convert it from Canadian $ to Sterling though. The 4-6 months alternative is a rather loooooong time to wait though. I wonder why it takes so long? Are big things put on the slow boat?

Are the UPS charges a percentage or do they charge a set amount like the Post Office (£4)? I've only had two UPS bills and neither of them had much information on them and it looked like they had run out of the normal forms because the paperwork they posted, resembled a packing invoice than a freshly printed official bill.

I was really surprised at the response I got from the Customs & Excise helpline yesterday because I had always been told by the people you ring when you have a query about the charges that you only pay duty on the goods not the goods -and- the shipping costs. Perhaps this is only true for items like DVDs? I don't know. It's outrageous to be taxed on your shipping costs as well!

Lets hope Proactive decide to stock the High Step because as much as I want it, I'd much rather use the money I'd save to buy the Cathe DVDs that I haven't yet got :)

Maybe we should all save up to travel from England to Cathe's and buy our High Steps direct? :)
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
I was thinking in US dollars when I saw $75.00, that works out about £34, not too bad for the shipping ? :)

Anna :)
 
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