Just when you thought the only thing you had to worry about was acquiring a fake bottle of O.P.I. polish... along comes counterfeit bottles.
What is a counterfeit (diverted) product and why should I care?
Counterfeit bottles are diverted bottles of polish that are sold illegally and outside the distribution area.
This is how it is supposed to work:
OPI ships an order out to a distributor who is licensed and authorized to sell OPI
The distributor (who pays OPI for the right to sell their products) then fulfills orders from licensed beauty supply stores and franchised chains like Ulta (who sell directly to the public) and a few online e-tailors like The Industry Source.
The licensed beauty supply then sells to spas, salons and licensed nail techs to use on their clients and sell retail to their clients and the general public.
Diversion:
OPI ships an order out to a distributor who is licensed and authorized to sell OPI
The distributor sells to the general public, cutting out the middle guys and pocketing the extra profit.
OPI noticed what was happening and decided to take measures to stop this diversion by:
1. Giving notice to online e-tailors to immediately stop selling OPI polish online (this does not include ALL e-tailors and the few that were excluded sell to licensed professionals only which must prove their credentials before buying) Auction houses and big box e-tailors were then flooded with distributors because they can open an account and sell with anonymity.
2. Putting in place a tracking system through serial numbers and bar codes. Each order OPI sends out is logged into special tracking software with the distributors information. The distributor then scans the order into OPI's software once the shipment arrives. Then each order the distributor fulfills can be tracked to it's final destination.
Because of the massive inventory OPI ships out daily, this method soon proved to only work if each order was tracked by an OPI employee(s) which became to much even with their best efforts.
So OPI added to their staff and also added special serial numbers onto their bottles by etching a code directly on the bottle, like this:
.jpg)
They also added the serial numbers to the bottom by hot stamping:
The illegal distributors did this:
OPI lightly etches the serial numbers onto their bottles so it is very easy to remove them with a nail file
The hot stamp is easily removed by alcohol or acetone
Then OPI changed the numbers on the labels to the serial numbers:
Serial Number F69540WS
The illegal distributors did this:
Let me state here that sometimes the bottle will only have the "inner" paper label and not the outer label shown above. Yes, the illegal distributors will remove them...but the labels also fall off naturally over time because the glue dries out.
As a final measure, OPI hot punched the serial numbers into the bottle cap itself:
.jpg)
The illegal distributors did this:
As you can see from the above samples, every effort OPI has made to keep their brand exclusive had been countered by distributors who are selling diverted product. All because of greed.
Why should you care?
First off, the removal of the serial numbers is illegal. Be it a gun or a bottle of polish. It's wrong and shows deceit somewhere in the broken chain of supply. So, essentially you are buying from a dishonest person.
This also cuts out the licensed cosmetologists, nail techs and salons who have paid to go to school, learn their craft, passed state licencing exams, and pay yearly to keep those licenses. These professionals also have to compete with non-licensed businesses and personnel who undercut their prices because they are buying illegally obtained OPI (and other products) at a fraction of the price from the illegal distributors. How many nail shops have gone under in your town in the last 10 years? That's not even counting the mom and pop beauty supply stores across the U.S.
It breaks down our economy and punishes the ones who adhere to the rules.
The illegal distributors either just ship these defaced counterfeit bottles without telling you, crossing their fingers because they hope you don't ask questions OR they put up a disclaimer on their websites or auction sites....you know the culprits
"While we have tried to describe the polish to the best of our ability, know there may be a bottle that has slight scratches or other markings on them. The beauty supply stores will often do this as a way of marking the color as discontinued. If you are a "collector" of OPI and do not want a bottle as previously described, please contact us before purchasing so we can make sure we have one in stock"
I'm happy to report that these disclaimers are becoming obsolete because the word is spreading about these sort of sellers. Thank god for the internet!
Not all OPI distributors are selling outside the legal channels. In fact, most are reliable, dependable and most of all, honest. I'm not against anyone making money but I'm against dishonesty in any form. And lets not forget the distributors do make money without counterfeiting the bottles. If they didn't they wouldn't continue in the business.
I would very much like to know what your thoughts are. So if you are reading this post please take a moment to write a reply :-)
