Remember, if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Counterfeiters will often “bait and switch” the unwary consumer by showing pictures of a genuine FURminator® de-Shedding tool, only to ship fake, inferior items.
Genuine FURminator® products are available at most pet speciality retailers. Before you make a purchase from another re-seller, ask yourself these questions:
a)
Is the re-seller selling a lot of products that are not intended for pets? FURminator® products are primarily sold to retailers that service customers who purchase products for their pets. Be wary of retailers who primarily sell non-pet products but have a limited inventory of de-Shedding products or retailers that you don’t often purchase from (such as pawn shops and one-off sellers on online marketplaces).
b)
Is the re-seller only selling de-Shedding tools? Counterfeiters often purchase fake goods in large quantities and then attempt to quickly sell through their inventory before moving on to the next product. Look at the seller history to see what products have been sold.
c)
Who is actually selling the product? There are many internet sales sites which operate as “marketplaces” allowing multiple re-sellers to list products for sale. These sellers are independent sellers and normally are not affiliated with the host retailer (for example, Amazon.com hosts such “marketplace” re-sellers). Be sure you know who is actually selling you the product; this is not always the same entity that is shipping you the product. You can usually determine which company does what by looking for the terms “SOLD BY” and “SHIPPED BY” (or similar terms). Amazon may SHIP you a product, but Don’s Cat Palace might be the company that actually SELLS you the product who may or may not be sellers of legitimate FURminator® products. While there are chances of encountering online counterfeit sellers or online sellers of grey market imports non-original goods, in Europe we do have online partners who do sell original FURminator® tools on their own websites. If in doubt, please get in touch with us.
d)
Is the re-seller advertising “Discount FURminators” or “Cheap FURminators"? FURminator® products are not commodity products, and are typically not marketed in this manner.
e)
Is the re-seller using a website with a name that misspells FURminator® (for example, ferminater.com or furmminator.com) or uses the word FURminator® as part of the main part of the website name (for example, furminatorforyourcat.com)? While a legitimate on-line retailer may sometimes use the word FURminator to direct the consumer to that portion of its on-line store that sells FURminator products (for example: www.amazon.com/furminator), they do not engage in the foregoing activities. Remember, our European FURminator® website is www.furminator.net. Apart from this, we have partners with their own websites, as aforementioned, selling original FURminator® products. If in doubt, please get in touch with us.
Concerned about a re-seller? Contact us using our
Report the Fakes form below.