It took a while but I just wanted to wrap this up.
Yesterday (April 7, 2010) my credit card finally showed the refund! The amount was, as expected, the price I paid minus the shipping costs.
Here is the the final exchange we had in email leading up to the refund.
My follow up on April 2, 2010:
Hi,
Another week has passed. I’m not sure how you personally regard $2,500. But I regard this as a large sum of money.
It has now been 3 weeks (15 of your business days) since you have received the PC that I returned.
I elected to do business with Cyberpower on the strength of a friend’s recommendation in spite of your B+ rating with the Better Business Bureau ( http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Cyberpower-Inc-13080817 ).
Please respond to this email with your confirmation that the refund in full has been issued.
Marc
With the response being (April 5):
Dear Marc,
According record for RMA under 181144, refund was credited back to your account on 3/31/2010, bank or credit card company will take 2-3 business days to process, if you have any question please email or contact us.
Thank you.
RMA Status
Cyberpower Inc.(888) 900-5180 Ext. 151
I’m pleased that things have finally worked out. It was somewhat disconcerting to have to go around like this to elicit the refund. At the back of my mind I was still holding on to the option to dispute the credit card charge but – looking at the credit card fine print – this option is supposedly one that’s limited to businesses within my physical locale (within about 500 miles). But I imagine in this day of internet purchases, that that anachronism is one that is largely discounted and trotted out by the credit card folks only when they no longer wish to retain a particular customer.