The chargeback mechanism adjudicates over 100 million consumer-business disputes annually, far more than the formal US legal system. It operates as a privately funded, bank-run judiciary with its own rules and low costs, forming an essential foundation of modern e-commerce.

In a striking irony, Los Algodones' street promoters are almost all individuals deported from the U.S. Their fluent American English and cultural familiarity—traits from the country that rejected them—are leveraged as key assets to build rapport and trust with American dental tourists, making them ideal for their roles.

Offer free services to local community figures in exchange for their authentic feedback. Ask them to share positive experiences publicly but bring negative feedback directly to you for process improvement. This dual-purpose approach builds genuine trust and provides valuable operational insights, rather than just generating paid-for praise.

Jim Clayton believed over 80% of legal claims originate from a failure to deliver customer satisfaction. Instead of hiring lawyers to fight, he personally called angry customers or visited homes to fix problems, solving the root cause for a fraction of the cost of litigation.

A merchant named Nani recorded a formal complaint on a clay tablet in 1750 BCE regarding a subpar copper delivery. This demonstrates that difficult clients and service failures are not modern phenomena but a fundamental part of commerce history.

Los Algodones' success is a direct result of a systemic flaw in U.S. healthcare: the historical and ongoing separation of dentistry from general medicine. This division creates separate insurance and high costs, making dental care prohibitively expensive and creating a large market of "dental refugees" seeking affordable care abroad.

By aggregating millions of users, ZocDoc acts as a collective bargaining unit for patients. It uses its marketplace power to reward providers for patient-friendly behavior (e.g., price transparency, better hours) with better visibility, proving more effective at driving change than punitive government regulations.

Los Algodones was deliberately transformed from a party town with 48 bars into a dental tourism hub. The founding dentist, upon becoming mayor, strategically closed most bars, recognizing they undermined the town's potential as a premier healthcare destination and reshaped its economic foundation.

To combat American fears about Mexico, clinics in Los Algodones engage in "performative safety." This includes creating an overwhelming smell of sanitizer, hiring American English speakers to sit in waiting rooms, and ensuring a visible police presence—all to make foreign tourists feel comfortable and secure.