Advice: Recycled Composition

[tenzanosumi.livejournal.com]

Hello A_B. I've got an interesting situation and I'm not sure if counts as being ripped-off per-se, but it's definitely fishy behavior. I'm keeping some details generic for now, but if it's worthy of an A_B post then I'll be specific.

In 2008, I approached a musician at a furry convention that was offering song commissions. I was a fan, so I paid for one. In 2009, they finally produced the finished work but it was not to my liking. They agreed to refund me and in 2010 I received a full refund.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago when I discovered that the artist had re-established themselves on FA. I discover they have an off-FA musician promotion page and I decide to check it out. There was an older album released in 2007 and I decided to listen to it. One of the tracks in that album matched in both tempo and melody. However some of the instrument samples differed (some remained the same) to the one that was offered to me as a finished product in 2009.

In essence, I had been sold a recycled composition and clueless to that fact. It was just by pure luck that I didn't like it and they agreed to refund me.

A_B, what do you make of this? What's your advice?