Skip to content
Beware of the fakes - only Charley Chau makes a genuine Charley Chau

Beware of the fakes - only Charley Chau makes a genuine Charley Chau

Beware of fake Charley Chau Snuggle Beds

Sadly we are dealing with an extraordinary number of unethical traders offering fake Charley Chau dog beds for sale. Some of these sellers also use Charley Chau's official photography, without authorisation, to advertise their fake products to dupe unsuspecting consumers. 

The only place to buy a genuine Charley Chau bed or blanket is with Charley Chau directly, or through one of our Official Stockists.

Charley Chau does not sell on Amazon, eBay or AliExpress, and nor do any of our official stockists, so buying what might look a Charley Chau on any of these sites, usually at a "bargain" price, is likely to result in receiving a sub-standard fake. 

This unethical copycat trading is also happening via smart-looking, independent pet boutique websites. If a store is not listed on our Official Stockists page then they are selling fakes. Please be careful that you are not ripped off. 

The 'dropship' nightmare for consumers 

'Dropshipping' is a term used to describe a method of selling products where the seller advertising the item for sale does not hold any stock. The dropship merchant lists items for sale, e.g. on Amazon, eBay or on their own "boutique "website, and takes money from customers. The orders are then sent to a third party who either make the items, or hold stock of the items, and the third party ships the items direct to the consumer. This is a legitimate business model but unfortunately it is also one rife with consumer protection issues. 

The seller never sees or handles the items ordered by their customers, and often has never seen the physical product that they are selling. One of the reasons that the dropship sellers selling fake Charley Chau beds and blankets are using our images is because they haven't got actually got a product to take their own pictures.

Beware of fake Charley Chau bedsDropship merchants use our photos, without authorisation, to sell their poor-quality, fake products. It's a rip-off and it's against the law.

The dropship merchant never handles any of the products ordered by unsuspecting customers and simply takes a commission on the sale.  It is a method of selling that has created a boom in the number of online sellers selling via the big shopping platforms, and independent "boutiques".

All a dropship merchant needs is a computer and either an account with an online marketplace such as Amazon or eBay, or their own branded website and they're in business and can start taking money.  Literally anyone can set up as a dropship merchant with a couple hours of work tucked up in their bedroom but present themselves as a credible, smart boutique.

But it's not always just random individuals involved. We are also having to deal with established companies that are also using our images to sell fake Charley Chau products - one such company is regularly featured in glossy, mainstream magazines and to an unsuspecting consumer appears to be a credible, long-established business.

A word of warning to all of our customers - please take care to shop safely online and know your rights. Always make sure that you know who you are buying from: do they publish details of who is operating the company, what is their physical address, have they published full contact details including a phone number and email address, have they published a clear returns policy, etc.? By law in the UK, all websites offering items for sale to the general public must publish this information. Which? has some good information on consumer rights when shopping online in the UK.

Where are the fake Charley Chau's coming from?

In the case of fake Charley Chau beds and blankets, the source of most of the fakes is a large number of manufacturers in China offering copies of the counterfeit Charley Chau beds for sale all over the world to dropship merchants as well as direct to consumers.

Here’s an example that is on AliExpress (a site run by Alibaba) at the time of writing - we have redacted the seller's name for legal reasons:

This seller is selling fake Charley Chau Ducky Donut Dog Beds. They are using, without authorisation, seven Charley Chau images of our Ducky Donut Dog Bed to sell their fake products. The fakes are made in China and offered for sale with delivery all over the world.

In the example shown on the AliExpress screenshot this fake Ducky Donut Bed is available to buy from £14.96. A dropship merchant can list it on their website for sale at any price they choose. When a consumer places an order with the dropship merchant, the dropship merchant orders a fake bed at a cost of £14.96 from the manufacturer advertising on AliExpress and the manufacturer  sends the fake product to the consumer.  

Beware of fake Charley Chau Ducky Donut Beds

What’s doubly alarming is that the many of the unethical sellers are retailing their fake Charley Chau's at just slightly less than the retail price of a genuine Charley Chau Bed. It is, frankly, a complete rip-off.

Why we're shouting about it

We're receiving heaps and heaps of emails from customers who are seeing our photos on unauthorised websites and contacting us to see if the beds offered for sale are real or fake. And we're receiving emails from consumers that have ordered these fake products and are very upset that they've paid a seller for a really shoddy fake Charley Chau bed and can't get their money back. Unfortunately we can't do anything to help other than explain that they have been duped.

According to the AliExpress listing above, the seller has 11,984 "pieces" in stock to ship around the globe. We're a small British business and that scale of counterfeiting is just terrifying to us.  We are doing everything we can to have these images taken down as soon as we know about them. In 2020 alone, we submitted over 2,000 copyright infringement notices to sellers using our imagery, illegally, to sell fake Charley Chau beds and blankets.

Beware of fake Charley Chau Deeply Dishy Dog Beds

We’ve spent over a decade working hard to build Charley Chau’s reputation for  delivering exceptional quality and these unethical copycat traders are literally  tearing our reputation down with their sub-standard copies being shipped all over the world. 

Genuine Charley Chau beds and blankets are made in England with love 

Charley Chau is accredited by Made in BritainA genuine Charley Chau is made only by Charley Chau, and we are accredited by the Made in Britain organisation.

All Charley Chau fabric based beds and blankets are made in England with love. We are proud supporters of British manufacturing and choose to make in England despite being fluent Chinese speakers! If any one could have their products made cheaply in China then we could but we choose not to because we are proud to make our products in England to the exceptional standards that we demand from our sewing teams.

We work with specialist teams in the UK to make each individual component part of our beds from the mattresses and feather pads to waterproof bed liners and outer bed covers. No one single team that we work with makes a Charley Chau in its entirety. The magic happens when each component part is delivered into our warehouse at HQ – we quality check every single feather pad, every mattress, every liner, every single bed cover in person here at HQ. We assemble every one of our beds to order for our individual customers.

We go to these lengths because we care. We care about the quality of the beds and blankets that bear the Charley Chau name and we are determined to deliver only the best to our customers.

Please be careful if you want to order a genuine Charley Chau for your dog  - genuine Charley Chau bed and blankets are only available here on www.charleychau.com or through our Official Stockists.

Previous article Travelling with dogs from the UK to France and other EU countries - legal requirements