I got this email right now:
Dear marlinchen,
Thank you for shopping at eShakti.com
We confirm having refunded $187.91 to your credit card, towards your order, on 10/17/2012.
The transaction id for the same is [this number]
This refund will reflect in your credit card statement within the next 2 business days.
We request you to kindly confirm the same for our records.
Look forward to having you shop with us again.
Warm Regards
Carol
Your Representative
eShakti.com
So, this sounds pretty good to me. I'll just wait out these two days, and hopefully the money will be there! Maybe, I don't know, just being a total annoyance about it and the threat of the charge back made them refund it to me? Question: they said it would be in my account within the next two days. But, I haven't returned the items yet. What are they expecting me to do?
Just a pet peeve: "Look forward to having you shop with us again." I think I made it pretty clear how I was not going to be shopping with them ever again, when I said as much. Just, really? I don't know, guys. I don't know.