how will my account be 'credited' with a return?

My purchase was cancelled long before it was scheduled to ship and within 4 hours of making the original online purchase. The order was made at approximately 1:00AM Christmas morning and cancelled approx 4 hours later. Six days later, the credit for the cancelled transaction has still not been submitted to the credit card. EF's website and its representative state that credits for cancelled or returned items processing time depends on the bank and should take 3-5 business days. If I wasn't an accountant with extensive retail and credit card processing knowledge, I would say okay, except it's not. In my case, there is no bank involved. The card used was a prepaid AMEX gift card and its balance depends 100% on the merchant(s) actions. When a charge is processed by the merchant, the card balance decreases. When a credit is processed by the merchant, the card balance increases. When I asked EF about the credit status, the representative only parroted the website's misleading statement concerning order credits. The efficiency with which EF's e-commerce system operates is excellent, so the lapse in processing credits for cancelled or returned item orders has to be by design - a management decision to employ business practices that, while not illegal, are an insult to the idea of an EF "community". This was my first experience with EF and, unfortunately, my last. Their inventory and site are impressive, however, their business practices are, well, questionable. Simply put, they are slimy. less