Well yes, you go to court if you can't agree with the merchant on anything. They're the competent authority to settle disputes

When I pay for something, now the other party has the money, that's how money works. If I trust them that little, I should probably be using escrow but this costs extra and so it imo doesn't make sense to pay that fee for every transaction - as one does with this chargeback guarantee thing. Probabilistic societies where you're excluded based on bad odds or credit scores is what you get with that system (I've been on the losing end of that, not because I've ever had any debt (too little money) but precisely because they had no positive data because I never needed a loan, and so you can't pay for stuff in certain countries because they require a credit card)

I guess I assumed that consumer protection laws would mean people could reverse charges more easily than they can here in the US (which we can do easily, albeit as a cardholder benefit, not a matter of law). Interesting.

They're mainly designed to make it so you don't need to. If you buy something, it's going to work; and if it doesn't, the seller is required to make up for that.

I can only speak for Norway, but this doesn't normally mean reversing the charge. It's assumed that, if you bought an X, you wanted an X. So the seller is required to get you an X of good enough quality to actually do the job, and if that isn't what they were trying to sell... well, then they won't be in business for long.

Normally this means repairs or replacement, of course on the seller's bill.

The US seems much more geared to seeing every interaction as... I want to say 'combative'.

And to add to this, if the seller is unable to make the thing work as it's supposed to, either through repairs or replacements, they are of course obliged to give the customer their money back. But yeah, that's not the first resort.

I can't edit this anymore but "obliged" was supposed to be "obligated" of course

You can still do chargebacks if you pay with a credit card from a German or other European bank (experience of course might vary but you can just switch to one that offers better customer service)