Just a very quick post to let you know that we’ve updated our post on how to avoid buying fake ghd’s from dodgy scam websites purporting to be genuine “official” ghd retailers. The post can be found here:
Posts Tagged ‘counterfeit ghd’
Update to our fake ghd advice post
Thursday, May 14th, 2009 by adminFake ghd - the easy way to waste £61!
Saturday, December 27th, 2008 by adminOr £40.50, or £46.00, or £57.99, or £56.55, or £78.50, etc…
For much of 2009, the key search pages on Google for ghd (i.e. those returned when you search for ghd, ghd hair straighteners, ghd straighteners, ghd styler, etc) have included a number of ever changing scam websites that claim to sell genuine ghd hair straighteners (and often claim to be Official Retailers) but instead sell counterfeit ghd hair straighteners.
If you’ve arrived at this article, chances are you are worried about fake ghds and want some information on how to identify if a particular website is selling genuine or fake ghd hair straighteners.
Firstly, don’t worry you are not alone in being unsure about which websites to trust when it comes to buying ghd stylers and other hair products. You can see from the extensive comments below that many other consumers have run into difficulties when shopping for ghd hair straighteners and sadly, some have ended up buying fake ghds that are not warrantied and, indeed, may actually be danagerous.
If you think you have bought a ghd product that is not genuine then the best approach is to call ghd on 0845 330 1133 or use the online product checker here .
Alternatively, if you are wondering if a particular website is legitimate, then the following steps should help you:
1. Is the ghd retailer’s site based in the UK?
Does the site have a clearly visable UK postal address?
2. Does the site selling ghds have a UK landline telephone number?
That could include 0800 or 0845 but not numbers starting with 07 or any number with an international dialing code.
3. Is the ghd website VAT registered?
Check the terms and conditions - you should find a VAT number and also a Registered Company number. Sites that are legitimate don’t need to hide these and will always have them on display (indeed, displaying such information along with postal address is a legal requirement).
4. Will your ghds be delivered from within the UK?
Check the small print or any delivery details page. Your ghds should be dispatched from within the UK using a domestic delivery service that takes no more than 2 or 3 days.
5. Can you use a payment method other than Paypal?
This is an important tip. If the site only allows you to pay using Paypal and doesn’t have its own credit card processing then it is almost certainly a scam site. Unfortunately it is very easy to accept payments using Paypal without having to undergo the same level of stringent checks that a company must pass in order to accept credit cards directly via their own merchant account. A site that has its own credit card processing will not require you to login or pay via Paypal-branded pages.
6. Does the site offer “Tax Free” or “No Sales Tax” or “Non-Tax”
If so, then it is a scam -100%. You live in the UK and the only websites you can buy genuine ghd products from are in the UK also. Thus you can’t buy “tax free” - it is not legal to sell products free of “sales tax” (i.e VAT). Can you buy a Sony Bravia tax free in the UK? No Can you buy a Nintendo Wii tax free in the UK, No?
So can you buy the most popular hair straightener tax free?
7. Does the site sell other hair care products besides ghd?
Almost every genuine ghd website sells many other products alongside ghd hair straighteners (there are a few exceptions but these will not fail on the other points in this article). You can normally expect to find Tigi, Kerastase, Paul Mitchell and other such Salon brands. You shouldn’t expect to find “ugg boots” or any other highly expensive and commonly counterfeited product.
8. Does the site “feel” right?
To help you understand what we mean, we’ll take the scam site “www.ghd-hair-straighteners.net” as an example.
Look at the Privacy policy and the first line reads “Thank you for visit Official Ghd Online Retailer website and reviewing our privacy policy.” Not only should “visit” be “visiting” but rather than the site name they have used “Official Ghd Online Retailer website” - so that they can cut and paste this same privacy policy into their next scam site. Also nowhere in the privacy policy is there an address to which you can write to obtain a copy of your details (a legal right under the Data Protection Act).
Their shipping page uses a completely different text colour to the rest of site and again is written by someone with very poor English “Please contact us within 24 hours after delivered.”
Also, from their delivery details:
“Most approved orders leave our warehouse within one business day. The time it takes to receive your package varies depending on the shipping method you choose, but our standard is 8-days, meaning you will receive your package within 1week usually”
8 days? For UK delivery by DHL, Fedex or UPS (as they claim later)? Even if they were using one of the cheapest services from DHL, the slowest you’d expect to get your order would be 2 days following dispatch. 8 days pretty much guarantees you that the delivery is originating overseas - and is thus fake.
Now each scam site will have slightly different black marks that make identifying it reasonably obvious, but they will always be there.
9. Are they selling the “ghd gold” hair straightener with cluch bag?
This hasn’t been available for years from ghd, but was remarkably popular with counterfeiters who much still have relatively large stocks remaining. No legitimate website has this product listed.
10. IS THE PRICE TOO CHEAP?
This is really what it boils down to. Is the price just too cheap? We make it our job to source the cheapest ghds around to display on our website and we’ve NEVER seen genuine ghd IV styler’s priced at less than £87.99 (and even that was only for a few days, athough do note that the ghd mini IV styler can be as low as £80 as it has a £10 RRP). There is very little margin to play with when selling ghd hair straighteners and as such prices of £61, or £59 or whatever are JUST NOT POSSIBLE!
No matter how desperate you are to grab a big discount, you need to understand that ghd’s are not even sold to retailers for £61, so there is 0% chance that a site selling them for around that price (or even £20+ more) is going to be genuine. You cannot buy anything at less than the wholesale price, so why would you be able to buy the most popular hair straightener in the world for less than wholesale?
Finally if you are still willing to “take a chance” then please bear in mind that by buying a fake set of ghds, you are not only funding organised criminal behaviour, you might be risking the life of you and your family as the product could potentially catch fire even when switched off (but still plugged in to the mains). A fake product will not have passed any electrical safety tests, won’t have been CE tested and will have been put together with the cheapest components available.
So remember, there are plenty of fake ghd products out there, and the only way to ensure that you are buying a genuine ghd product that is properly tested and manufacturered to the appropriate standards is to buy from a ghd approved retailer.
With your peace of mind our priority, here at Compareghd.com we only list ghd approved retailers in our price comparison tables, ensuring that you get the cheapest price for genuine ghd products!
How to spot fake pink ghd stylers - 10 easy tips!
Monday, September 1st, 2008 by adminNote that if you are looking for advice on how to avoid buying from websites that sell fake ghd hair straighteners, why not check out our post on that subject here.
The following are 10 easy tips to help you stay safe when buying pink ghd hair straighteners. Please note that this post was originally written in September 2008 so relates to the 2008 pink ghd. Although most of the advice is pretty general in nature and would apply to most ghd stylers.
1. Pay attention to where the pink ghd is being sold from (or delivered from). If the website (or eBay listing) says that the ghd is being sent from China or Hong Kong or if the estimated delivery time is more than 2 or 3 days, it is likely to be a fake product.
2. Consider the price. GHD stylers are expensive, and that includes the price that retailers pay as well. If you see a site that is selling pink ghd for less than the general internet average, then they are almost certainly fake because the margins are just not that good.
3. Really, really consider the price again! Pink ghd’ sell out every year, so there is no reason why any genuine retailer would be offering them for less than £120+. Look at Amazon - they are famous for cutting their prices to the bone, and even they aren’t discounting the pink ghd! If a product is limited so that supply is way less than demand, then the price stays high (although there is always some variation, which is where our pink ghd price comparison comes in)
4. Every retailer we have ever spoken to complains of not being allocated enough stock of pink ghds. It really is a limited edition product. So ask yourself why some personal sellers on eBay, Gumtree and elsewhere are able to obtain a seemingly endless suppy?
5. Avoid baby pink! There are NO baby pink ghd hair straighteners left and there haven’t been since late 2005. Yes, some people prefer them to the new more vibrant ghd pink shades, but unfortuantely, that view is not shared by ghd and as a consquence any new baby pink “ghd” being offered for sale is 100% fake.
6. Be aware of the speed that fraudsters move on! Even the more prolific counterfeiters have stopped making baby pink ghds and have now focus exclusively on the hot-pink ghd models.
7. This year’s model looks very different to last years. So pretty much anything with black plates, or a roll-bag is now firmly in fake territory. The only genuine pink ghd’s will have pink plates and a glossy pink finish. There are no seconds or excess inventory, or anything like that. Only fakes, and lots of them. It is perhaps one reason why ghd have to change the look of the pink so frequently (that and staying ahead of the fashion curve of course!)
8. Of course, bearing in mind point 6, it will not be the slightest surprise to see fake fuschia pink ghd stylers available before Christmas. You can bet your bottom dollar that there are several cases worth of 2008 pink ghd kiss stylers sitting in Chinese factories being copied as you read this, and even given a 8-10 week manufacturing and delivery timescale, thousands might end up in the UK before Christmas, so don’t just rely on a pink ghd looking like the pictures you are seeing of the “new model” as a way of ensuring its validity.
9. Talk is cheap. Anyone can call themselves an “official ghd retailer” or a “ghd approved website” or anything else that takes their fancy (although “fake ghd seller” is one title they usually shy away from). There is no “official” list of “ghd approved websites”, so to separate the wheat from the chaff, use a site like ours to be sure of buying from a REAL ghd approved website. We have no connection with any ghd retailer (just ask them!) and accordingly, have no need to invent the credentials of a particular site. There are enough approved sites in existance for us to fill our ghd price comparison tables with, and we are extra vigilent when it comes to adding new ones. All we have as an independent price comparison is our reputation, and we wouldn’t risk that for anything!
10. Holograms and sticky “security” labels are pretty cheap as well. Don’t you think if you were able to mass produce near identical copies of a sophisticated product and ship them half way around the world to a network of scammers and organised criminal gangs, that you wouldn’t be able to add pretty convincing holograms or security labels to your fakes as well?
Okay, so there ends the lecture…. We really don’t want to come across as too over-the-top on this, but fake ghd products are a major problem and the only way to fully eliminate the incentive for the scammers to produce them is to educate consumers on how to avoid them.
Bear all of the above in mind when buying pink ghd straighteners and you will be fine. And of course, use our pink ghd price comparison. It is updated with every price movement in the market and is almost certain to get you the best deal on a genuine 2008 pink ghd.
Recent Comments