Hair Straightener Scams - Don't let It Happen To Your Salon

I have been in hairdressing for over twenty years, styling clients hair and selling hair products in my salons I have worked, managed and own. When hair straighteners first hit the market, I was a stockist. I would like to share with you some of the scams and dodgy practices that I faced stocking selling hair irons so hopefully you will not fall foul to them costing yourself a lot of time money and not forgetting the head stress and damage to your hair salons reputation.

One of the first hair straighteners scams that started after they had been on the market for around four years was this.

Customer visits the salon says they would like to buy a pair, they purchase, pay and walk out the door with a receipt. Return a day later with the straightener receipt and box exactly as it was demanding a return. Some of the excuses where my girlfriend does not like it, unwanted gift or just plain old changed their mind.
The customer was refunded in full their paid up amount and the hair straightener returned for resale.

What really had happened is that the straightener within the box had been carefully unwrapped and replaced with a cheaper fake. Your thinking why bother? Well the cost at that time mean't that cheap fakes could be saving a person just doing this trick a nice fifty quid or more on a new pair of straighteners.

But it doesn't stop there the same pair was then sold onto another customer as there was no way of telling that the straightener was a fake. It had a hologram weighed the same, the same colour identical in every way. It was purely the hair straightener inside that was different

This is when the problem really started because the straightener promptly blew up after three month's, the customer was told to return to the manufacturer as instructed via the guarantee inside the box. The guarantee asks the customer to state their point of purchase. Our salon was then contacted by the manufacturer to explain why it's selling fake goods? And so it goes on...

This is easily done although now in every hair tool box the guarantee states the straightener or dryer must be returned to the card in the box. There's a lesson here if you sell electrical hair tools in your hair salon here's some tips.
? Display a written policy of goods purchase with a no returns policy to the salon only to the manufacturer of the product.
? Make staff aware who are selling these products of this returns policy and clearly communicate to customers before purchase.

I hope you found this article helpful, and may help in the future in your business endeavours

About the Author

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