Usually I'd suppose so as well. But there are legitimate ways for the cables to end up cut - think for example wall mounted speakers, where the power & signal cables have been built into the wall. Same with televisions, the power cord may have been originally taken off at the TV end, perhaps a longer cable put through the channeling and reinstalled so you can't simply pull it out. Now when someone is moving for example and want's to sell the gear instead of leaving it behind or having it reinstalled at the new place, the fastest way is to simply cut the cords. Remember that much of the B&O target audience will not touch such installments themselves, they have to pay someone to do it...
Many people also have a peculiar habit of snapping the cords of equipment that doesn't work, and some services do the same for gear that may be electrically unsafe for some reason (and then it ends up at some online auction as "untested due to missing cables", which you can safely assume to mean "doesn't work").