I bought some zip wire on eBay that should have been 18 gauge. It seemed a bit undersized so I measured it and it wasn't even 20 gauge. Later I boug ht some 16 gauge zip wire and it was also undersized. Then I realized it w as from the same US supplier. So I ordered 14 gauge wire from them and you know what happened. Now I've got 12 gauge zip wire on order and will see what the gauge is. The 14 gauge wire has the supplier's name and gauge on the insulation, so they can't claim they didn't know it is undersized.
The 14 gauge wire is made up of about 46 strands of 0.006" strands. I meas ured them with a micrometer to be sure I was getting a good reading. Multi plying the area by the number of strands gives and area half way between 17 and 18 gauge. I see an 18 gauge stranded with 41 each of 34 gauge strands which is pretty close to this. So there is no way this can be considered even close to 14 gauge wire.
I put in to return the 16 gauge wire and I simply got a return shipping lab el from eBay with no reply. I guess they know the wire is undersized and s o few return the wire they don't care.
I'm wondering if this rises to the level that the state would be interested in prosecuting? They are in Maryland, so I had the most recent order ship ped there so it could be considered an in state purchase. Once I receive i t I will contact the attorney general and see if they are interested. This one vendor likely is raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe millions on this.