Faulty GHD Hair Straightners Irons

Lem

Hi everyone. My GHD hair straightners have developed a fault - the usual problem it seems whereby there is a loose connection inside the unit and power cord which makes the red LED light go off when the flex moves. More worringly, sparking noises can be heard when the unit cuts out. I have had them for 3 and half years and have returned them to GHD for repair. I have been advised the same thing - that it is due to wear and tear and they cannot be repaired. They said I can have the updated version model 3.1b for £60 or the new mk4 version for £90. Or my old irons returned if I pay return postage and a handling fee of £10! (They cost me only £5.70 to post by special delivery to them). Although these prices are a discount off the RRP, I still feel this is unfair, especially after reading the watchdog reports on the BBC website of Oct and Dec 2006. Watchdog is still recieving record numbers of complaints about faulty irons all with the same electrical problem. They relate to irons made in 2002 and 2003 (model 3) the same as mine. There is clearly a problem with these particular models which trading standards has even confimred after testing different models. Safety experts have advised that GHD should recall these old models. There was even a report of a pair of 4 year old irons setting fire!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/health_and_beauty/health_20061003.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/health_and_beauty/health_20061219.shtml

I have tried speaking to GHD customer services and they refuse to acknowledge there are faulty irons still in use and say this is all they can offer me. Does anyone have any thoughts? Is this acceptable? I appreciate that things wear out but it seems too many people have expereinced the same problem. Looking on ebay you can also see numerous listings for faulty irons available for sale all with exactly the same problem. It seems to me GHD is being unfair offering a replacement of a faulty iron for £60 or £90 pounds. These are not cheap electrical appliances - when I bought them for £100 in 2003 I expected them to be a quality appliance which would last! My £20 hair dryer has lasted me much much longer! I'm tempted to go for the Babyliss irons that people have reviewed so not to give businees back to GHD. Has anyone had the same problems and managed to get a better outcome from GHD?

JohalaReewi

See this thread...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=303150

furrypolka

If the fault can be proven to be a manufacturing fault which was present in the irons when they were purchased, then you would have an argument for a repair (if possible), or if repair is not possible either replacement with goods of the same value as yours would have been had they not become faulty (not brand new straighteners as you cannot have betterment - you would have to pay a contribution towards this), or alternatively rescission of the contract. This is a partial refund to allow for any use you have had from the product. Therefore you wouldn't get a massive amount back anyway if you have had them for 3.5 years.

Faithless_2

I bought my GHDs back in November 2003 for a whopping £135.00, and I love em so much that I reckon that if my house was burning down, I'd save my daughter and then my GHDs!! Sadly, they have just developed that ever so common fault of lose wiring inside. I got on the phone to GHD and was told that I should send them in for repair. I asked how much it would be and they couldn't tell me. I asked for a ballpark figure, and they still couldn't answer. So I asked how much to get them back if I couldn't afford the repair and I was told "a small handling/postage fee". Again, I asked how much and again, I didn't get an answer! Now I daren't send them in in case I can't afford to pay the ransom to get them back.There's something so wrong here...</p>

nellytheelephant

I'd hate for my straighteners to break

I think that when they're nearly 5 years old you'll get the same response as the OP x

pinkshoes

This is a common fault with the older GHD straightners, as a couple of my friends have had an issue. One mate had them spark and blow up in her hand! Gave her quite a fright as she'd only had them for 7 months!

Your, on the other had, although are probably part of the batch likely to be affected by this known fault, have lasted 3.5 years, which i would say is a reasonable shelf life for straightners that get used on a daily basis. Perhaps go visit your local salon and ask how long their straightners last for before being replaced, and if they say 3 years, then obviously straightners for just personal use would be expected to last much longer, and therefore GHD should repair them.

dmg24

Thanks for that bit of advertising ghdrepairsuk. Please delete your post, as it is not allowed on here.

hollydays

My hairdresser told me the latest ghds are not so good,that they catch on your hair.

daryll_2

I bought my girlfriend a pair of Hot Pink GHD's for Valentines day, but they stopped working after 18 months. I returned them to GHD , but GHD customer services were very unhelpful. They refused to repair or replace them despite admiting they were authentic GHD's, and wouldn't return them to me without paying them an exorbitant £10 postage charge. They wouldn't even let me collect them in person. But....they would sell me more of their GHD's at a 25% reduction! They are very overpriced and totally unreliable...do a search for faulty GHD'S and see the thousands of unsatisfied customers. Rant over but I just had to get it off my chest.

borosupporter82

Hi all,

Rather than return to GHD direct, has anyone used an independent repair service? Some of the sites below look a bit ropey but repairs are under £30 and work guaranteed for 3 months. Would rather do this than fork out over £100 on a new pair for gf's bday:

http://www.ghdrepair.co.uk/p1.htm
http://www.morganthomas.net/ghdrepair/
http://www.ghdrepair.org.uk/index.html
http://www.ghdspares.com/
http://www.ghdsrepairs.co.uk/

borosupporter82

Hi all,

As an update from my post below, I can confirm I decided to use the second company listed below, after several emails and telephone conversations to reassure me it was the real deal and not dodgey.

Anyway, it turns out the company name is Top Irons (http://www.topirons.com) and after paying £29.95 via the site, I posted the straighteners through the post on Friday 1st Aug. I received on email on Wednesday 6th August confirming they had been fixed (replacement cable) and dispatched. I received them through the post the next day and the missus was over the moon the irons had been fixed. All in all, seemed to be a good experience and would recommend after many posts on here with complaints about GHD customer service.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
G

borosupporter82 wrote: »

Hi all,

Rather than return to GHD direct, has anyone used an independent repair service? Some of the sites below look a bit ropey but repairs are under £30 and work guaranteed for 3 months. Would rather do this than fork out over £100 on a new pair for gf's bday:

1) http://www.ghdrepair.co.uk/p1.htm
2) http://www.morganthomas.net/ghdrepair/
3) http://www.ghdrepair.org.uk/index.html
4) http://www.ghdspares.com/
5) http://www.ghdsrepairs.co.uk/