Costco bucks this trend though
Could be the same reasons Scam Contractors do "some work" if you hire someone to redo your bathroom, and they take the money and run, that is clear criminal fraud. If they take the money, so some amount of work, then run it becomes a civil contract dispute.
Plausible deniability.
"There seems to have been some..." looks up excuse for the day "... unfortunate mix-up with your order."
Lots of people will just not react, because it's not worth their money and at least they received something.
All you need is a system to authenticate reputable sellers. Instead of looking at the stars on a product and clicking “buy now,” folks just need so ask: do I know this seller? Is this the ACTUAL publisher selling me this book?
I’d rather go into a real shop anyway. Unless it’s buying some hard-to-find item there’s no excuse.
You’re assuming that scams don’t make their way into regular distributors as they try to cut corners and maintain competitiveness.
You already see established brands lower the quality of their products after the first round of reviews online. If found out, they just blame manufacturing. Sorry.
In most ways, buying from a brick-and-mortar establishment is a better choice than buying online.
In my mind we’re talking about what is a better solution to the problem, and it’s that companies WILL protect their IP. If someone buys fake Patagonia, Patagonia loses out on a sale.
Amazon doesn’t own much of anything IP-Wise on their marketplace in the grand scheme. And they don’t care who buys what as long as products are moving. It’s easier for them to just pay out returns than handle the actual problem.
And when you have a dispute with a seller that came through a marketplace, your dispute should be with the marketplace and it is then up to the marketplace to recover the value of the goods from the seller.
Scams are high, but not so high that you won't usually get what you asked for.
"How to verify any claim" has to become a formal subject like math and reading to be taught in stages over several years. It has to have real homework problems to practice different strategies. But in the end, do we come up with different ratings or logic categories to say this particular question is fifth degree hard to get right? Can we identify the elements that build trust? Does it help in poker if you know another player's family? Does it help in voting for student body president if they previously served as class president? Is it better to buy a blender from the same company that made your favorite dishwasher? Can you take a chance on a newcomer if they don't speak your language or have your accent? What if some claim hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal I recognize?
Because they have a warehouse full of ugly misprinted clothes and need to get rid of them. and those clothes still cost (some) money to make or acquire.
and as others have said, not sending anything is wire fraud, and outright scams will catch criminal charges; one more line on an Interpol indictment. Crappy or underperforming goods are a civil issue, and no one is launching an international lawsuit over a $100 item
That slide has already started. I can't buy stuff on Amazon anymore, because I don't trust the quality or that I'm not scammed. Unless I trust the author I'd question buying self published books. There's a number of Chinese website, like Wish, that I don't understand. Why bother shipping an item to a customer if you're running a scam? People order dress and get a plastic Christmas tree... Why even bother sending the tree? Why produce shitty products that break after first use, why not just straight up rob people, seem more genuine and with less environmental impact.
There are whole categories of products that can not longer be bought online and an even larger category that can only be purchased from trusted companies.
The level of scams have reached new heights in the past year and unless we do something to address "A.I." generated content the internet will drown in useless nonsense.