But if HF converted BTC to USD at the time of payment AND/OR used customer funds ..
Again, this has nothing to do with me or any other customer. Whatever they did
after I sent them BTC directly (no 3rd party service) is on them, not me. If they converted to USD, that's their mistake , not mine.
If you paid via Bitpay you will not see a BTC refund in the same amount as paid -- it will be refunded in BTC at the prevailing exchange rate.
If you paid HF directly with BTC then there is a chance you will get a BTC refund in the same BTC amount as paid.
My $.02
And you came to this conclusion based on what exactly?
It should not matter if you paid to a bitcoin address trough BitPay or any other means. You paid in BTC. period.
The merchant can decide what to do with BTC payments via BitPay:
https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-direct-depositMerchants can receive settlement in their local currency with a guaranteed exchange rate, or keep the bitcoins, or a percentage split. If you choose to keep bitcoin, BitPay will forward your bitcoins to your wallet address on file.
HF should not have touched the customer funds until after delivery. However they likely did use those funds to cover NRE so I assume they converted to USD. If they did, that money is likely spent and they are unable to provide full refunds in BTC to all Batch 1 customers that might request one after the missed delivery date.
That does not mean I agree with this (I don't) but this is the reality we will have to deal with. I would not be surprised to see them settle and provide full BTC refunds to select customers that take the legal route, but this will be the minority.