The "Bring it back to the retailer" response reminds me when I complained to Bethesda that the Physical copy of Doom Eternal I bought ended up being a code for a digital copy of the game - and not even the Steam version, the Bethesda store version (Also I had a problem with their post-launch DRM and crashes frequent/regular enough that I couldn't beat the game). They basically told me there was nothing they could do, they couldn't refund me , or give me a code to the normal PC version of the game - but if I had a problem with the game that I should return it to the retailer I bought it from. A response that was, just, super insulting coming from a company headquartered in the USA.
Has any retailer, anywhere in the world, accepted any return of any opened game in the last 25 years? Like is there some law in Europe that makes such a thing possible in some random region of rural Germany or something? I truly don't understand why any company would train their CSR's to recommend something that they know is impossible. Especially since licensing agreements written by the publishers themselves are the primary reason that retailers can't accept returns on software.
So, kudos for CDPR for at least setting up an option to contact the company directly... just still not sure why they act like wasting a few hours waiting in line to attempt an impossible retail return during the holiday rush will accomplish anything more than further frustrating the customers that they have already burned by shipping a broken product.