Genuine products vs Fake products

Genuine products and fake products have been competing for, well, thousands of years, all the way back with the Aztec and Mayans who had to compete with the fake cocoa bean dealers. It might be odd to think of using what we consider to be food as money but the fake cocoa bean industry was a real problem for them. Then came the Romans and their goldsmiths. They would stamp their coins in such a way that it would identify them as the originator. Now we have everything from money to car parts and clothing being faked. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if the fakes were made to the same standard. It would be bad for the person who originally made the product but for the customers it would be safe. This however, is not the case is it?

Today we are going to look at how you might identify a genuine product, vs a fake. Why you might want to reconsider saving £2 on your pods and instead getting the official one, and why the price of genuine products is a little higher than you might like. 

How to tell a fake

Fake products aren’t always obvious. Sometimes a counterfeit product looks so authentic it convinces even the original maker that they’ve got their own product, but counterfeit products hurt the original company and so they try to make things obvious. From using holographic labels that allow the user to look at the product and know instantly that it’s an original, to a verification code that can be input on the manufacturers website to confirm authenticity.

These are methods you might find on the box of a product, but they can be faked too, so how else might you tell a fake from a genuine product? Some products use a tactile element that is not easily replicated, from a textured surface on a label to an etched component on a device such as Aspire. This is a very good way to identify a company's product as it is something easily overlooked by a counterfeiter who is just trying to make some quick money. 

Honestly though, the easiest way to know if the product is genuine? Look at the price. If you were going to buy some Nike shoes and saw them priced at £15, you’d think they were dodgy. The same should go for your vape products. If you see our own brand QSalts selling for £1, chances are it’s someone selling a counterfeit product. If you saw someone selling them for 50% off? They might just be running a great deal to promote something. Check the price, know the worth of the product and don’t ignore the value of things.

Why should you buy a genuine product instead of hunting for that extra cheap option.

I know, the cost of things keeps going up, and soon we’re going to see this forced onto the vaping industry in the form of duty, but you shouldn’t just run to the cheapest option. We work closely with the UKVIA and other members of the vape industry to try and keep the government listening to our customers' needs, but this doesn’t always stop them harming your pockets. So why am I trying to convince you to not save some money on a cheaper product? Well, first off, we’re ultimately here as a better health company. We try to take our customers' health very seriously and our goal to help you stop smoking and move to a healthier lifestyle is high on our list of priorities. So when we hear that someone is selling fake Oxva pods that only last 2 days before they need replacing, we start wondering how many other corners were cut in the creation of the counterfeit. Did they use harmful metals in the coils? Did they use mold release agents that are banned due to their harmful properties? Is that organic cotton or bleached cotton in the coil? All of these are very bad. News reports of finding lead in coils, or chlorine in vapour come to mind with these issues and we’ve known for a hundred years how toxic these things are.

As for the liquids, they might be contaminated with all manner of harmful banned substances, or even worse, laced with drugs. In the UK, this is less common than say America, but there are issues with children being sold products that contain drugs which the kids didn’t know. I highlight this one because, with vapes being an over 18 product, kids can’t legally obtain them. This results in them being forced into black market situations where they have no idea what they are buying or how harmful it might be. Finally, there’s the battery. There are laws around how electronics are to be made. This is because, if they are made badly, they are actually quite dangerous. Like Samsung's batteries bursting into flames which caused some very severe burns on their customers. 

So what do we do to ensure that the products we sell are genuine? How does this affect the price? Why is it worth it?

We like many other legitimate brands out there, follow the law and try to go above and beyond it where possible. For vapes, this means we don’t put anything that is known to be carcinogenic into the flavours. We don’t put combinations of chemicals that could cause carcinogenic materials to be made when the product is used (correctly I might add, there’s always a way to do something dumb afterall) and the product itself is built within a standard of general safety.

Our bottles, for example, are fitted with a child safe cap. Our bottles also come with a tamper evident shrink wrap seal so you can have peace of mind when you buy our products that they are as they should be. Our products also undergo laboratory testing, like any TPD compliant product, which identifies several things. 1, that the level of nicotine is correct and within margin for the labelled product. 2, that none of the ingredients are carcinogenic and 3, none of the ingredients are toxic / outright harmful. The company we use also makes a point to identify things we might have overlooked that while not “harmful” could be an issue in the future.