Counterfeit FURminator

[Sueh]

Fire Fox, I have to say this occurred to me too. They are so cheap you wonder how they can sell them if they are genuine. Anyway, I alerted Trading Standards via Consumer Direct who thought they would pursue it , as well as Amazon who did follow it up with me.

It's a murky world - if you google Furminator China suppliers you come up with all sorts of c**;.

Here's an example  - look at the price!
http://xfsports.en.alibaba.com/product/421673855-210719748/FURminator.html

Both the fake and the "real" (or better fake) ones work OK.

[Fire Fox]

I just had a reply from the suppliers of the fake FURminator, which was Quickvet (via Amazon), as follows - seems their suppliers have let them down:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention...we had a new delivery in last week, and i had not checked these myself!, the lads in the warehouse just carried on sending them out as usual.
upon inspection i am utterly shocked at the products that we have recieved and i have been trying to get hold of the manufacturers all day to see why this shipment is not the same as our last which are genuine ones....
I do have a couple of the genuine furminators here which i had put to one side, and i am more than happy to send you one of these out if you want.
I can only apologise on the behalf of our company, but do thankyou for making me aware of the problem.
The shipment has all been boxed back up ready to be shipped back to the suppliers, and another order has been placed with another company.
Please email me if you would like another furminator and i will personally make sure that your order gets dispatched asap.

[/i]

Maybe I am too suspicious for my own good but ..... doesn't sound right to me. He referred to his supplier as the manufacturer, he happened to have some set aside, knows they are genuine despite his supplier sending fakes, hasn't sent you out a replacement automatically. 

[Tiggy's Mum]

Have you used in on the cats yet? What do you think?

My cheapo Amazon one has the FURminator logo and the US patent numbers on the plastic so looks like I got a bargain! Can't remember how much it was but it's the medium sized (dog) one and was something like £6-8 

[Sueh]

I've had the genuine one from Quickvet now. It's difficult unless you have both to compare, but the genuine one looks less crude, the plastic is better moulded, the steel is more finely ground and the teeth better engineered, and and it has the name and US patent nos embossed on the plastic, which the fake one didn't - it had nothing on the plastic

What alerted me to the fake one was the packaging, in which the printing was blurred and there were spelling mistakes the text of an improbable kind: shlution for solution, doweward for downward, profeddional for professional, and for any. The US patent nos and the copyright statement were not included on the fake one's packaging I looked at genuine ones in a local shop yesterday and the packaging there was similar to my proper one, although there was a bit more in other languages.

On the topic of fakes generally, I take the point about if it does the job etc., and I wouldn't give too hoots about fake "designer" clothing, but trademark and copyright protection exist for good reason and if they are marketing such a thing they should not use the name even if the original product is "overpriced". Even without using the name they would be violating the patent.

[jezebel]

I contacted FURminator in the US but they couldn't tell me how to check whether the one I bought was real or not - understandably they don't want to give fraudsters this information. They asked me to send it to them but I really don't want the expense of posting it to the US so I just gave them the name of the seller and offered to send photos instead. They've passed the info on to someone else in the company, but I've heard no more.

On the plus side, I've used my FURminator a few times now and am pleased with the results!

[Tiggy's Mum]

That's a pretty good response, I guess there's no way of knowing whether they knew they were counterfeit but at least they seem to be taking it seriously.

[Sueh]

I just had a reply from the suppliers of the fake FURminator, which was Quickvet (via Amazon), as follows - seems their suppliers have let them down:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention...we had a new delivery in last week, and i had not checked these myself!, the lads in the warehouse just carried on sending them out as usual.
upon inspection i am utterly shocked at the products that we have recieved and i have been trying to get hold of the manufacturers all day to see why this shipment is not the same as our last which are genuine ones....
I do have a couple of the genuine furminators here which i had put to one side, and i am more than happy to send you one of these out if you want.
I can only apologise on the behalf of our company, but do thankyou for making me aware of the problem.
The shipment has all been boxed back up ready to be shipped back to the suppliers, and another order has been placed with another company.
Please email me if you would like another furminator and i will personally make sure that your order gets dispatched asap.

[/i]

[Tiggy's Mum]

I bought a cheapo one from Amazon (got the medium sized yellow dog one though) and whilst I've nothing to comapre it to as haven't seen a £30ish one it seems to do the job and the packaging looked OK. I think with some things you're just paying for the brand name so if the item looks similar and does the job then it's all good.

Sounds like the quality on your one leaves a lot to be desired though. Was it bought through Amazon itself or a marketplace seller on Amazon?

[Fire Fox]

Amazon's customer service is second to none, it is well worth insisting on a free return. I am told that Amazon are very strict and will likely ban the seller.

[jezebel]

Thanks, I will watch it.

Mine looks solid enough and I can't see any mismatched teeth, but I've never seen a real one so I have nothing to compare it with.

One thing though, now that I've checked, it doesn't have the yellow FURminator logo - it does have an embossed logo in the purple plastic, but I suppose that's pretty easy to do.

[Sueh]

It was Quickvet, although the ones listed this week are from another supplier and even cheaper.  I just unpacked and used it and it seems solid enough, although I shall be keeping a close eye on it. It was the naff packaging and instructions that alerted me. I've seen the real things and they just look more expensive. On mine the teeth are a bit misaligned with the plastic mounting and the machining of the steel is a bit crude, and  the current stock from the real company just look different.  I wouldn't worry too much if you've got one but watch it carefully.

[jezebel]

Oh hell, I bought one from Amazon last week - how can you tell if it's fake? I've thrown away the packaging - although I did notice a typo in the instructions. But I used it yesterday and it seems fine, certainly hasn't harmed my cats and their coats are much nicer for it.

Which buyer did you get it from?

[Sueh]

I suppose I'm asking for it paying £6 for something that should cost 4 times that much, but I just bought a FURminator grooming tool on Amazon which is clearly counterfeit: roughly manufactured, with crudely reproduced packaging with stupid spelling mistakes & blurred photos.

FURminator do warn about this on their website, so I guess I'm a mug for not heeding it. Apart from the dishonesty & misrepresentation, there's a potential risk to the cat - it's sharp and could damage the cat if misused or it breaks. I shan't use it.

I have complained to Consumer Direct who said they'd report it to Trading Standards.