Counterfeit Ghd Hair Straighteners

[steve2006]

Ok I don't use them personally ( what can you do with greying, thinning hair with an over exposed forehead!!!!)

But for those who may be considering buying some for themselves, girlfriends,daughters or nieces please be aware that the UK is flooded with counterfeit ones especially the pink 4.1 series ( the latest model)

These are believed to be Chinese copies which are very hard to distinguish from genuine ones as they have the " official" GHD hologram and numbers on them.

Obviously if you are buying from a registered stockist you should be OK but be careful with auction sites like eBay ( other auction sites are available).

One of the give aways on the counterfeit models is the hologram label on the straighteners is placed over the serial number and you can feel a ridge between the 2. On genuine models this label is one piece.

I had two pairs of these in at work last week and they even fooled me for a while as they are that good a copy.

If you look at the picture you will see 2 pairs of GHD's from two different customers in different parts of the country but check the hologram code they should be different and unique but are exactly the same.

[Rory]

how good a copy are they, I ask because my missus had a pair she thought to be real, she used them regularly and they lasted a year and the switch popped and she smelled burning, and then the switch stopped functioning, and this meant the straighteners were always on regardless of the switch position, which apparently was a known fault with genuine ones a couple of years ago (featured on watchdog)

She returned them and used a temperary replacement of a different brand, and they weren't as good at all, reinforcing her belief that her GHD's were real, but GHD sent hers back claiming they were fake, could they have just been fobbing her off to avoid replacing them?

[steve2006]

Hi,

As I said they fooled me ( a professional electronics engineer) for a while mainly because they were the 1st MK4's I had seen but on opening them the wiring was different the heaters are soldered to the PCBs ( genuine GHDs have tags and screws)

A quick google confirmed my thoughts!!!

You can check the hologram number ( 3 sets of 5 alpha numerics) on the GHD website this will either say " we have a problem" indicating a counterfeit pair or " Welcome to the world of.." indication a genuine set.

Did GHD return the "counterfeit" faulty ones?

[Rory]

yeh, the numbers have rubbed off so we couldn't chek them, and the barcode doesn't scan either#

[steve2006]

GHD are generally very good with warranty repairs in fact I have returned some sets for repair and then sent brand new replacements so there is the strong possibility they were counterfeit.

Break them open and send me a picture I will be able to confirm either way.