Miriam had finally found exactly the dress she wanted. It was a simple but elegant design from a Jewish-owned online boutique, perfect for Shabbos. The website promised delivery within seven days, and the confirmation email arrived promptly.
A week passed, then another. Each morning, Miriam checked the tracking link, hoping to see progress. Instead, the delivery page now displayed a troubling message: “Package status: lost in transit.”
Concerned, Miriam called the store.
“We see the same update you do,” the representative said politely. “Sometimes, packages resurface. Please give us a few more days until we receive official confirmation from the carrier.”
Miriam waited patiently. A few days later, she called again.
“We’ve confirmed that the package was indeed lost,” the representative said apologetically. “We can either refund your money or send a replacement.”
“I’d really prefer the dress,” Miriam replied. “Please send a replacement.”
“Hmmm, that specific dress is listed as temporarily out of stock,” the representative explained. “We expect to have it back in stock in a month.”
“I’ll have to wait for the dress,” Miriam sighed, “but I must say that I’m disappointed with the service.”
A month later, Miriam reached out again.
“I’m sorry,” the store told her, “But we no longer carry that dress. You can choose a different one from our collection.”
Miriam browsed the site. Most alternatives were noticeably more expensive. After several back-and-forth emails and growing frustration, she finally said, “At this point, I’d just like a refund!”
The refund was processed within days.
Then unexpectedly, a tattered package arrived at her door.
Miriam opened it slowly. Inside was the dress – her initial order. She stared at it, conflicted. After everything they put me through, she thought, do I really need to give this back?
That evening, she showed the dress to her father and explained the entire sequence of events. “I don’t want to be dishonest,” she said, “but I went through so much hassle. Do I have to return the dress – or even the refund?”
Her father listened carefully. “This is a question for Rabbi Dayan,” he replied.
Miriam called Rabbi Dayan and asked:
“Do I have to return either the dress or the refund?”
“Although you initially paid for the dress, a purchase is not yours until it comes into your possession,” replied Rabbi Dayan. “Therefore, when the dress was lost, it was the store’s liability (C.M. 189:1; 198:1,5).
“Had the dress surfaced before you arranged the refund, clearly, you should then have notified the store that the dress had finally arrived and not followed through with your initial request for a replacement or refund.
However, because the store refunded the money, the sale is now completely void. Even now that the dress has reached you, it still belongs to the store and is considered a lost item of theirs.
When the store is of Jewish ownership, there is an obligation of hashavas aveidah. Although one could argue that the dress came into your possession only after the store was misya’eish on it, since they confirmed the package’s loss, it is proper to return a lost item even after yei’ush, certainly nowadays. Furthermore, the package was identifiable. Therefore, you should notify the store that the dress arrived (C.M. 259:5,7).
Even so, once you notify the owner of a lost item that you found it, the responsibility to retrieve the item is his. Thus, if the store wants you to return the dress, they need to pick it up at their expense or cover the return charge (Pischei Choshen, Aveidah 7:[2]; C.M. 267:26).
If you still want the dress, presumably, the store will be happy to sell it to you, but you will have to pay anew for it. Although the situation caused you much hassle and perhaps emotional anguish, you cannot unilaterally withhold their money as compensation.
All this is in the absence of terms of sale that address such a situation. However, if the store’s website has terms of sale that stipulate otherwise, in such a case, those terms became binding when you checked the box accepting the terms of sale.
“Alternatively,” concluded Rabbi Dayan, “if the customer service representative says that you can keep the dress without pay, you may do so.”
Verdict: When a person orders something online, it remains the store’s liability until it arrives. If the item was lost and the money refunded, the sale is void. If it is later delivered, it is considered a lost item belonging to the store; you should notify the customer service department to fulfill hashavas aveidah.