I know they aren't going to keep it...they'd get themselves into a heap of trouble like that. The thing that's ridiculous is that the pedal isn't worth anywhere near that much, they hold a ridiculous amount of money that your average Rock Band player is
not going to have lying around. It would be one thing if they held that much for the entire drum kit (and even that would be a real stretch), but that's far too much money for any other instrument.
That said, it seems like they went ahead and did the express replacement anyway. My pedal arrived in the "empty box" today. I didn't give them any payment information, so I'm assuming that it's a policy to send it like that (in that case, why would they have given me a choice?) or somebody just fucked up. I'm kind of aiming for the latter.
Also, their replacement system is just sloppy. Microsoft, for the Xbox 360 RMA system, sends a box, some foam, a shipping label, and some nice printed instructions that clearly tell you what you need to do. EA sends you a box with some invoices and a paper with shipping information. No self-adhesive labels, no return instructions, nothing. Lame. I should just keep the broken pedal.