I actually got online and googled the products the rite aid ect are selling, and they are not even the same packaging!! PLEASE read this article and do not buy any Paul Mitchell product except from a professional!!! Thanks for reading and pass the information on
Sincerly,
Missie
Counterfeit Hair Care Products Flourish
March 4, 2009
FORT MYERS — ABC7 has uncovered a type of fraud with the potential to impact you every time you wash your hair. If you shop at any number of major grocery and drug stores in Southwest Florida, you may find mixed into the store's authorized lineup of hair care products are brands like Sebastian, Rusk, Crew, Redken, Tigi and Paul Mitchell.
According to the manufacturers, that's a major problem – because those products are only authorized to be sold at local salons. Paul Mitchell even has distributors sign an agreement saying so.
Manufacturers say the products being sold inside the unauthorized stores could be several years old, fakes, stolen, or may even have been tampered with.
Co-founder of Paul Mitchell Systems, John Paul Dejoria, told ABC7 about the problem the industry calls "diversion." "If you buy Paul Mitchell in any drugstore or supermarket, we didn't sell it to them. It is either counterfeit, or black or gray market, or extremely old or stolen," Dejoria said.
The "black or gray markets" Dejoria talks about means products being diverted and sold to unauthorized stores. He says that when diversion happens, his company can't be responsible for what consumers are buying.
ABC7 took a tour of Southwest Florida supermarkets and drug stores with a hidden camera to see if we found these diverted products here – and we did at nearly every stop.
In numerous stores in Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties, we had no problem finding the products.
In all, ABC7 bought nearly a dozen products. Inside several local stores we found bottles shampoo missing their diversion codes – a key piece of information that helps the manufacturers track the products distribution.
Comparing two bottles we purchased, one legitimate and one that had been diverted, you can see the diversion numbers have been filed off the store-bought product.
Some, though they looked like they just arrived at the store for sale, were actually identified as being more than three years old.
Paul Mitchell Systems' independent laboratory tests of diverted and counterfeit products found dangerously high levels of bacteria and other impurities that can be dangerous to consumers.
"We have had situations where people thought what they were buying was real Paul Mitchell they put it on their face and did have medical problems. They found out it was a counterfeit product," Dejoria said.
Locally, an unidentified Southwest Florida woman went to the hospital when her scalp began to burn after using a product believed to be counterfeit. According to Dejoria, a large percentage of consumers who buy tampered with or fake products might not know – putting the blame back on the manufacturer.
Many salon-only manufacturers are currently in litigation trying to stop the diversion and sale of their product at unauthorized stores.
But because the unauthorized stores often buy the products from the independent collectors or distributors that did not sign exclusive contracts, the court system says the stores aren't doing anything illegal by stocking the products.
"What I would like to say to all of the drug stores in Florida and the nation that are selling this product is stop doing it. You don't know if it's black market gray or if it's counterfeit. You don't know, and the company your buying from is not going to tell you," Dejoria said.
He says the bottom line is if you buy salon-only products at a drug or grocery store, there is absolutely no guarantee that the product is real or that the contents inside the packaging is what the manufacture put in it.
Moreover, there is no recourse for consumers if they buy the products there because the guarantee is void.
Representatives from the major stores where ABC7 found the products say until laws are changed making it illegal to sell the products, they feel confident with stocking them on their shelves.
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