What does Halacha say regarding buying something with the intention of using/wearing it once and then returning it?

 

Generally speaking:

One may, as long as one makes it patently clear from the onset that he has zero intention of keeping the item.

If it’s a Jewish store it can be a problem of Ribbis.

 

Please see in the following links:

• Halacha2go.com article 86: Return Policy – Buying & Returning
• Halacha2go.com article 96: Return Policy (Follow Up to #68)

 

As for Amazon purchases:

One may NOT purchase from Amazon with the intention to return.

There are typically monetary losses to the seller (who may be even Jewish) by returning the product.

A few examples can include:

1. Return shipping costs are often covered by the seller.
2. Returns are processed through additional resources (like a ‘Returns Department’).
3. There may be lost sales to the seller by not having this item to be sold to another customer that would pay to keep it.
4. Amazon often scores sellers by the amount of returns the seller has.

Those are a few examples of a plethora of issues that a seller may experience, with some potentially overlapping as Ribbis (since the monetary value changes as a result of the return).

 

 

#8415
#17799
#19754