Tom,

I agree with you that the Cakewalk ad is misleading. There are many of the more expensive software packages which will no doubt do excellent job of notation. However, in the software world it is often possible to find products which belie their price (I remember Midi Notator a while back, which was an excellent package for the price[free]). So it is not unreasonable on your part to expect a full-featured product for $30.

While you will not recover any of your money by going to the attorney, I know the desire to get at least some kind of justice after being swindled.

You may want to consider going to a small claims court. Here in AZ it costs $16 to file a suit. Before you do that, you should probably write to Cakewalk (and/or Office Depot) and in writing request your money back, appealing to their sense of customer commitment and mentioning that you are planning to take them to the small claims court. While the whole thing will not make you money, especially considering what your time is worth, it will hopefully make sure that the Cakewalks and Office Depots of this world will be less inclined to swindle their customers with misleading advertisements and hostile product return policies.

Good luck,
Alex