>Who would punish them? The customers?

Future potential employees. If I go on glassdoor and read about this happening I'm either going to

A: raise my rates as I need to keep a larger emergency fund to deal with these guys

B: decline to work there at all

They end up only ever getting entry level kids to work for them. The system sort of works in that regard if you come from a non-traditional background you can work for a year or two at a job like that, skill up and move on.