I invested in one pre-ICO back in November (Heardbeats), I liked the concept and it seemed like a promising project at the time. Unfortunately they folded recently as they couldn't get the partnerships they needed to move the project forward. On the upside, they did return the original investment, albeit at the current dollar value, so lost almost 50%. However, I did respect their honesty and commitment to returning as much as possible to the early investors.
Another project I invested in also folded a couple of months back, and I received an email from them saying they were going to return the investment. Still waiting for that one.
Anyone else have any experience with refunds (or not)?
You are getting refunds because you had invested in such projects where genuine people were running it and not by any scammer's group. Not all ICOs do that. I have millions of dead coins where the ICO team simply closed their website and disappeared. I lost more than $1,000 by investing in such ICOs. But you seem to be lucky because you have chosen good quality ICOs who at least have the integrity to refund the investor's money in case they fail to reach their softcap. I didn't yet have any such experience.