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Amanda Mull has been covering retail for years.
She's tracked the demise of American malls, the explosion of fast fashion brands,
and recently, a growing sense of distrust between customers and merchants.
People feel like they're being scammed left and right.
Sneaky subscription services that are hard to get out of, restrictive return policies,
products that just don't meet expectations.
It's a consumer environment where you feel like you have less and less purchasing power,
less and less ability to like talk to another human about a problem you're having.
So people look for ways to get back at retailers.
One of those ways is something called a chargeback.
Essentially, disputing a credit card transaction.
It is when you go to your credit card issuer and go,
"Hey, there's a problem with this transaction,"
or "I didn't buy that," or "I don't recognize this.
I want you to reverse the charge. I'm not paying for this."
Pushing back on a credit card charge isn't new.
But Amanda found that it is happening more and more and more.
From 2021 to 2025, the rate of chargebacks in the US rose about 29%
and worldwide it rose about 46%.