Woodford said:
It's quite possible that this guy is just a shyster, preying on unknowing wood burners.
If that is the case, he is a bad person, an unethical businessman, and he should be criminally prosecuted for intentionally defrauding his customers.
It's also possible that he has convinced himself that he is selling an actual cord and it would seem so due to the fact that he was so irate.
If that is the case, then he has no business, being in business. If you are selling a product and taking money from customers, it is incumbent on you, the seller, not to cheat your customers, whether intentional or not. The well-known principle is that ignorance of the law is not an excuse. And is it unreasonable to expect that someone in business should have at least a basic knowledge and understanding of their product? Why is wood any different than, say, potatoes? If I buy a pound of potatoes from a roadside farm stand, is it unreasonable of me to be offended if the seller tries to only sell me 14 ounces of potatoes?
My point is that law or not, if you buy wood to burn, it's your responsibility to know what a cord is.
It's definitely a good thing to be an educated consumer. This is how you save money in the long run. But being an uneducated consumer doesn't relieve the seller from the burden (both legal and ethical) of treating his customers fairly. Do you feel the same sympathy for the mechanic who treats an young 25-year old woman who doesn't know the first thing about cars differently when she brings in her car to be fixed, inflating the bill by describing or performing work that is not necessary in order to repair the problem? If that was your daughter, would you tell her that she should just deal with it, and should have known more about cars when she brought it in to be fixed?
Or, to use a different analogy, I know what a gallon is. So do most folks. If I find out that my corner gas station is selling me only 15 gallons when I actually paid for 20 because their pumps are improperly calibrated, it doesn't matter whether it was an honest mistake or not. It's theft. Now, if it was an unintentional mechanical defect in the pump, then it needs to be fixed immediately, and customers who might have been wronged need to be recompensed somehow. If it was an intentional fraud on the part of the retailer, then it's criminal, and law enforcement should be involved. If it was an honest mistake about what actually constitutes a "gallon," then the retailer really needs to get a clue. Punitive fines and monetary consequences will sharply focus the mind, and ensure that the retailer gets it right the next time.
Since I don't think that the wood seller in this case had an improperly calibrated tape measure, we can rule out that there is a mechanical defect in his measurements. So either he's an ignorant seller, in which case he needs to be straightened out, pronto; or he is a dishonest seller who needs criminal prosecution.
What's wrong with saying no thanks and go buy wood from someone that knows what an actual cord is? I just don't see how someone can be so vengeful towards a perfect stranger, whom they approached in the first place and when all was said and done, no harm was caused. It just seems hateful, shyster or not.
In my opinion, if you know that a businessman attempted, whether intentionally or not, to cheat you as a customer, then you have an ethical responsibility to prevent that businessman from cheating other people. If that entails involving law enforcement, so be it. You are obviously not of the same opinion, and I do not take issue with that - different people have different concepts of what is ethical - but I think that in this case, the OP did exactly the right thing.