Yes, they will "attempt to return", this gives them a get-out-clause to say "Well we tried but...", and probably didn't try too hard.
They also said "Bittrex will make all reasonable attempts to credit our users BTG". Bittrex seem to do a lot of 'attempting', but it's about time they actually did something - still waiting for my BTG from Bittrex.

Withdrew all my Bitcoin from Bittrex as I don't think they will give Segwit2x tokens, even if they say they will.