> Whatever happened to "caveat emptor"? If you're attending a real estate conference at a Ramada Inn, you weren't defrauded - you're just an idiot.What happened is that "you were an idiot" is not accepted by many any more.
Many people don't expect to pay for their mistakes, even if that means someone else paying instead, and the worst people for this are the sort of people who make a lot of mistakes.
They'll argue, they'll fight, they'll try force a chargeback on the credit card payment, they'll do anything they can to avoid taking the cost of a mistake - if nothing else works they just keep on and on and on and on and on at everyone involved until someone gives them a full refund just to make them shut up and go away (as the admin time arguing back can become more expensive than the refund and taking them to court for harassment is hardly a convenient option). Some will even sometimes try taking you and/or the payment processor to court. Yes the case will probably be laughed out, but someone has to go through all the hassle until it gets laughed out, then (unless you are in a "loser pays" country) counter-sue to get your legal costs back.
And then there is the negative PR they can try to drum up - if they are successful here that can be much more costly than a refund.
Caveat emptor doesn't work if the emptor is a very loud, very persistent, fuckwit with entitlement issues (or just a scammer). Which unfortunately is a large enough segment of the general population to be a significant problem.