Most of the comments seem to be thinking of chargebacks as simply occurring in cases of theft.

My use of chargebacks has been when I receive particularly sub-par products or services and the merchant refuses any good-faith efforts to remedy the situation.

A recent example would be my threatening to do a chargeback on the second night of a hotel stay if they didn't let me out of the reservation. Why did I want out? In addition to the room being in the middle of a remodel, and thus incomplete in many ways, there would also be a live band playing two feet from the bedroom window into the wee hours of the morning. The manager was insistent that I would have to pay for the second night until I made it clear that I would do a chargeback.

Although the location of the controls might not be great (close to a heat source and prone to accidental activation), the concept in principle is a good one.

I have a ceramic top stove and absolutely love it. It is superbly easy to keep clean. Alas, there are the standard dial controls which are as big a pain as ever to clean and keep clean.

My family and I (two children, wife) recently drove from Seattle to Vancouver for a day trip. We did our research and knew we would need our driver's licenses and birth certificates.

On the way in to Canada the boarder guard asked us for our documents and asked some general questions about where we lived, why we were in Washington, and why we were coming to Vancouver. It seemed like a very friendly conversation and I have no problems with it.

That evening we were coming back to Seattle. The U.S. border guard was both physically and audibly repulsed when I presented him with birth certificates instead of passports. He chastised me on the fact that a year from now a passport would be required. He then turned to go back to his booth and enter some information. As he was walking away he said "It's going to take another 9/11 before you people get it!". WTF?

Of course, he didn't even look at the car or ask any questions, so he would have totally missed anything suspicious had there been anything. :(