Chargebacks provide some protection but in the final analysis it really depends on how scummy the merchant is. If they really want to cheat you they will find a

Chargebacks provide some protection but in the final analysis it really depends on how scummy the merchant is. If they really want to cheat you they will find a way: 1. products that never arrive after long shipping delays (NYC camera shops are the masters of this technique), 2. keep delaying shipping the product, then as soon as they ask for a refund say you already shipped it and they will be billed for shipping cost (another classic NYC trick), 3. substituting inferior products (broken 2GB RAM module with a label that says 8GB, how easy is to make an NTFS drive look bigger than it is?), 4. playing games with receipts to make them harder to contest (wrong address, slightly different product), 5. threatening to sue or reveal personal information if you contest, 6. a refund process which involves onerous and never ending paperwork, 7. never send a receipt, cancel the order on the web form "sorry we are out stock" and then bill anyways, stealing money from everyone who doesn't read their credit card bill like a hawk. etc... Or they can just use your credit card to buy something for themselves for roughly the price of the product you thought you purchased.