Counterfeits have long been the bane of all legitimate businesses – and those involved in high quality, highly sought after brands are mostly targeted by counterfeit schemers because they can ride on the brand’s reputation and success.
THE POWER OF THE GHD BRAND
The power of the GHD brand has drawn the attention of criminal counterfeiters – just as other incredibly successful brands including Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci have been targeted by counterfeiters.
The attention of counterfeiters shows that GHD Hair Straighteners are highly sought after and backed by inspirational marketing – but GHD is dedicated to protecting consumers and legitimate businesses from the effect of this poor quality, dangerous and illegal counterfeits.
The counterfeits often appear to be very similar to the genuine hair straighteners – but they do not have electrical safety approval, do not use the same high quality internal parts or workmanship and have not been through GHD’s stringent quality control process. Thus those buying counterfeit ghd hair straighteners risk serious injury such as electrocution due to the poor quality construction and lack of safety checks.
CURRENT TRENDS
In recent times eBay and similar online auction sites as well as untrustworthy websites (mostly based in overseas) have become the main channel for counterfeits to distribute their cheap imitations to salons, wholesaler and the public.
WHAT DOES GHD DO?
GHD Hair is going to extreme efforts to prevent counterfeits from reaching consumers. These efforts include numerous court proceeding, customs seizures, police investigations and many investigations into non authorized websites. A list of known counterfeit sites is listed on the official GHD site www.ghdhair.com.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Often if something seems too good to be true – it often is. Do your research, you don’t want to be asking yourself “is my GHD Hair Straightener fake?”
Check that they are a hair salon, not just an online retailer.
GHD’s are a professional hair straightener, and are thus only available through Hair Salons. If I site does not have a “Salon Page” or list their salon name and address then you then be skeptical.
Look for Phone number, and give them a call.
You need to make sure that you are looking at a site that is Australian. A good, quick way to check is to look at the Contact Us page of a site. This should list not only a phone number but their Salon name and address.
Search Australian forums for feedback on the site.
Forums such as VOGUE are totally unbiased to a website or retailer, and give you a great look into other customers experience, comments and thoughts on where they have bought their GHD from.
Check ABN to make sure they are an Australian business.
This is another good idea to confirm if the ABN of the site/salon is legitimate.
Check GHD official website.
All Hair Salons that have been officially approved to stock GHD products are listed under their Salon Locator, check the address or salon name. If they are not listed – be very wary.
Our hair salon is located at Burleigh Heads and is listed as “RY Hair And Beauty” on the official GHD website. You can buy genuine GHD hair straighteners from there or you can order online from our website at www.RY.com.au/brand/ghd.html. We usually offer the lowest price and provide up to 30% discount off the Recommended Retail Price and we price match other competitors selling genuine GHDs. Why buy anywhere else?