How to spot the ghd fakes... |
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... and avoid getting straight hair to die for!Fake ghd hair straighteners – the Facts!  The ghd hair straightener is a professional hair styling tool that uses 240 volts of electricity to heat up ceramic plates to temperatures of around 200°c (approximately 400°F). As such, they are manufactured to the highest possible standards and have to pass the most stringent safety tests before going on sale to customers in the UK. Fake ghd hair straighteners also use 240 volts of electricity to heat up ceramic plates to temperatures of around 200°c (400°F). Unfortunately these products are manufactured in unregulated factories without a concern for safety and without being subjected to ANY safety testing! Simply by turning on a counterfeit ghd hair straightener you are putting your life in the hands of criminals whose only concern is stealing your money and then covering their tracks so that they don't get caught! Fact: Untested and unsafe electrical products can result in severe (even fatal) electric shocks and have even been known to catch fire when turned off but still plugged into the mains! There are hundreds of websites trying to steal your hard earned cash...  2009 has seen a dramatic increase in the number of websites selling counterfeit ghd products. Indeed, there are now so many of them that it can sometimes be easier to find websites selling fakes than it is websites selling genuine ghd hair straighteners. These websites are designed to catch you out, so they have been set up to look like legitimate websites. That means:
A selection of some of the known scam sites are listed below:
This is not an exhaustive list! These scammers do not like to hang around. They register dozens of domains and switch between them so as one counterfeit website is shut down another one pops up. This is called a "disposable" domain strategy, and it means that it is impossible to list all the scam sites. However don't worry, buying genuine ghd hair straighteners is still very much possible, you just need to learn some key info to defeat the scammers. Below we list two 100% guaranteed ways to avoid buying fake ghd hair straighteners, 6 foolproof ways to identify a website selling counterfeit ghd products and the only tip you'll ever need if you've already bought some ghds and want to know if they are real or fake? Buy genuine ghd hair straighteners - 100% guaranteedStep 1: Check the website on the official ghd Approved website checker. This is available on the official ghd website and shows you whether or not the website you are interested in buying from is Approved by ghd - this means that the website purchases their stock from an authorised distributor. Step 2: Use our ghd price comparisons - EVERY website we list is ghd Approved! Despite all the fraudsters, you can still get bargain on genuine ghd hair straighteners! Use our ghd price comparison tables (see the links at the top left of this article). We only list ghd Approved retailers, helpfully arranged cheapest first. So not only do you get peace of mind, you also get yourself a great deal! And you can even put our domain name (www.compareghd.com) into the website checker to confirm that we are ghd Approved! 6 Foolproof ways to spot a website selling fake ghd hair straighteners1.Price You can't buy ghd hair straighteners for £40, you can't buy them for £60, you can't buy them for £80. Sorry, but you just can't. Its like someone offering you a new Ferarri for £10,000 - you'd never believe that was legitimate, and ghd hair straighteners are no different. Including P&P the lowest price for a ghd IV styler is within a few pounds of £90, and you'll not see any of the limited edition ghds for less than £100. Bear in mind that the RRP for a ghd IV Styler is £116.49 and the RRP for a limited edition starts in excess of £125. So when we can offer you a merchant selling a ghd IV Styler for £90 including free delivery and a free gift then you are already getting a great deal. If that merchant could sell you the same product for £60 and turn a profit, then they would. However, £60 is significantly below the WHOLESALE price for any ghd hair straightener. Everyone likes to get a bargain, but remember when you pay £90 for a genuine ghd you are actually getting a bargain (compared to the RRP), butwhen you pay £42 for a fake ghd you are just throwing away all of the money you spent. This is because it is about value, and a fake ghd is worth nothing to start with! 2.Outdated Stock In the UK you can't buy the gold ghd gift set. You can't buy the ghd pure white gift set. You can't buy the ghd dark gift set. You can't buy the Purple ghd gift set. You can't buy the ghd Benefit Radiance gift set. And you can't buy "hot pink" Limited Editions. Why? Because they all sold out, and ghd are a trend-based brand and so regularly change their Limited Editions. Counterfeiters wouldn't know a trend if it bit them on the you-know-what, so just keep bashing out the same cheap copies of old ghd models. If you see any of the sold out models you are on a scam websites. Especially if they are being sold for £85, or £65, or £45 (...you get the picture!) 3.Payment methods There is nothing wrong with either Paypal or Google Checkout, and of course neither company is wittingly involved in the counterfeit goods business; However, this doesn't stop them being the payment processors of choice for scammers. Basically if you pay with Paypal, Google Checkout, Western Money or Cheque and you are taking a MASSIVE risk. 4.Delivery Timescales The most you'll need to wait for genuine ghd hair straighteners is 1-3 days. Most genuine websites will offer Next Day Delivery on top of this (often at no extra charge). Almost every fake ghd website will offer delivery that takes at least 4 or 5 days. Why? Becaue they are being shipped from China or some other overseas territory. 5.UK business details No scammer will provide you with the following:
All genuine ghd Approved websites will provide you with this information, either on their website or immediately by request in the case of the VAT registration number and/or Company Registration number. 6.Text quality Due to most ghd counterfeiters not having English as a first language, you'll find that their scam websites are littered with really dodgy sounding phrases. We are not talking about the odd spelling mistake, but an overall poor quality of text. Like this: GhdHairShop is welcome you here you will find cheap ghd hair straightners 50%-70% off direct from factory. All the ghd hair straightners irons will be shipped to you with ems in serveral working days from factory to your home where you live. To UK we will try our best to ship in 5-7 more working days. Just find more cheap ghd hair products here on ghdhairshop now Or this: GHD has floated different versions of hair stylers to help beauty conscious in achieving their dream appearance. They are designed to make the hair styling experience a great one, with noticeably marvelous results. We'll be the best choice for you to buy ghd straighteners, if you want to make your hair more beautiful and shining. Want to get a cheap ghd, just move around on our site and you will get what you need. Or this: We have the back prop, the factory efficiently and steadfastly supporting the producing of our commodities .The factory occupies a floor space of 1.75 square kilometers in China, equipped with ample modern facilities and intelligent talents. Every product from our factory has gone through extremely strict test. Never Let the unqualified products get into the market is our aim. Either from the soft ware or the hard ware, our factory can be acclaimed top one. And after several decades of effort, we have gained an unshakably prestigious fame, which have left the other competitors far away behind. (Hint: ghd is based in Yorkshire!) Already own a ghd hair straightener and want to know if it is legitimate?Then all you have to do is enter the unique code you'll find on the sticker attached to the wire of your ghd styler, just below the barcode into the code checker on the official ghd website Every single genuine ghd hair straightener will pass this test, and every single fake ghd hair straightener will fail it. Accept no excuses from the website you bought it from. There is not ONE SINGLE VALID REASON why you ghd hair straightener will not pass the verification code test. Not one. So unfortunately, if your ghd hair straightener fails this test, then the best you can hope for is to get your money back from: 1. The Scammers (very, very unlikely) 2. Your credit card company (if you used a credit card to pay with via Paypal or Google Checkout) - (entirely dependant on their policies) 3. Paypal or Google Checkout (not likely from the anecdotal evidence we've had submitted to us) Basically, you are most likely going to have to kiss goodbye to all the money you wasted on buying a fake ghd hair straightener, so please, please if you haven't already bought one, don't! Only buy from a ghd Approved website. If you are sitting with a fake ghd hair straightener, don't feel too bad, thousands of people are in the same boat. These scammers are very good, and that is why we have to spend our time writing articles like this. However, please re-read the opening paragraphs and make sure you stick the fakes in the bin (or better still send them to your local Trading Standards office with all the details of your situation). This might help others avoid being conned in the future! |