Purchased a defective album

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Question

Country: United States of America
State: OregonI recently purchased a music CD (Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe) at a Fred Meyer store to replace the same one I had lost some months ago. After I had purchased it & listened to it, it came to a specific song that normally has an expletive in the chorus. However the expletive had been altered such that, as in typical Rob Zombie radio-edit fashion, the lyric & music sounded "backwards". This totally disrupts the entire flow of the chorus & really tainted my entire enjoyment of the album. I then decided that I would take the CD back to Fred Meyer to return it & just search for the original version of the album elsewhere. However, Fred Meyer had informed me that they can not take it back &/or give me a refund because it had been opened, unless it was defective. I explained that this version of the album was in fact, "defective" because it is not the actual original album that it appeared I was purchasing. I even said that I would be willing to take a store credit for the price of the CD. However, they still turned me away. Now, I actually still have the CD case from the original CD & decided to compare the CD cover from it to the revised version CD cover to see if the original had any "Explicit Lyrics" warnings. If it would have, then I'd accept the defeat & not pursue the matter any further. My reasoning behind this was that if the original had the explicit lyrics warning label & the revised version did not, then the album would really be exactly what it was advertised as being. However, the two album covers are identical, NEITHER having any such explicit lyrics warnings. This means that the revised album I purchased is deceptive in what it is advertised as being. I was expecting the same original album, explicit lyrics & all. So because of this, I want to pursue getting the credit back for what I paid for it, whether that is a monetary refund, in-store credit or even a replacement of the same CD but the original version. The 3rd option I realize is a long-shot seeing how they probably carry the same versions of CDs throughout all of their chain of stores. What rights if any do I have in this case? I want to know if I in fact do have a valid claim before I take the time to pursue this matter up their management chain of command.

Answer

You could try to sue in small claims. A court may not think the word is critical so you would have to explain why it is...