> Or just buy the damn thing and return if it sucks

...or when the fake charger you unknowingly received catches fire or ruins your phone?

And for that I reference you to the second part of my comment. It is highly unlikely that a highly reviewed, frequently reviewed charger on Amazon will light your phone on fire. As for the second point "what if there is no reviews?" Simply don't buy a charger that doesn't have reviews.

If every charger sold lit users phones on fire they wouldn't be in business for long. The dangerous chargers generally have bad QA and inadequate insulation and separation between the mains and output, so almost all of them will work at first but a few will do nasty things like dumping 120V on the output, either immediately or some time later after the insulation abrades or dirt bridges the gap.

Are you confident enough that a seller who is willing to sell counterfeit chargers is always going to send the same exact counterfeit chargers? I'm not.

No. I am confident enough that if something has over x number of 5 star reviews (500, 1000, whatever makes you feel confident), the statistical likelihood that I will have a bad experience is small.

Well, just return the charred little bits from the smouldering ruins of your house. People today are so entitled.

Returning things sucks.

* It requires a printer, which I'd rather not even have in the house given security concerns and/or planned obsolescence costs (ink carts)

* It requires keeping the original shipping box around for a month

* It requires waiting around for the shipping people to show up, because they can't be trusted to pick up a package left for them.

* It requires waiting days for the funds to reappear.

Going to the damn store, receipt in hand, is actually easier.

> It requires a printer, which I'd rather not even have in the house given security concerns and/or planned obsolescence costs (ink carts)

For the ink cartridge thing, I'd look into a cheap laser printer. I have a Brother duplex model that I paid $80 for new. The smaller packed-in toner cartridge lasted me more than a year, and I don't expect to need to replace the full-size cartridge for years.

I got clothes from American Eagle online recently and then returned part of the order to a store when I had to. It was great, no return shipping hassle. No printer needed, I don't have one either.

I'll defend Amazon on this one: UPS will pick up the order and the delivery person will have the sticker to put on the box. Last month I ordered some Nest Protects from Amazon and one was defective. I filed for a return and the next day had a replacement, plus the UPS guy picked up the box for my return. Couldn't be easier.

Only if your local UPS is friendly and competent - mine is neither. You know those videos where drivers spike packages on the ground, over fences, the ones where they got the nickname "Untied Package Smashers"?

That's happened to me. There's a reason I use FedEx anytime I have a choice :(