Best Buy gives away $50 to HD DVD owners

[rlpiii]

Should have just given away 10 free HD DVDs to each HD DVD player owner seeing how the player still works, and it's still better than DVD.
They now, obviously, want to just get rid of HD DVDs quickly w/o having to go to the trouble of actually selling them.

[TheMoose]

Best Buy Stands Behind Customers By Awarding More Than $10 Million In Gift Cards To HD-DVD Purchasers

That's a lot of cash to give away for some goodwill!!

[deacongreg]

It is, thats why you really got to give it to them. They are doing the right thing. Like I said a couple weeks ago, Toshiba who should have stepped up to the plate, backed out like a coward. A huge company like that, needs to do a lot better.

[pick2568]

Mar 19, 2008
Best Buy Stands Behind Customers By Awarding More Than $10 Million in Gift Cards to HD-DVD Purchasers


"The DVD format war has divided our customers in a way we haven't seen since Betamax took on VHS more than 20 years ago," said Brian J. Dunn, president and chief operating officer for Best Buy.

I have no problem with Best Buy promoting their store with gift cards to those unfortunate enough to buy the losing format. Hey, it beats advertising dollars wasted on people who aren't interested in HD.

I seriously doubt that Best Buy ever sold a Betamax, they act like they've never heard of VHS.
Some of the choices BB has made make me wish they had gone under like Circuit City and Campo.

[bauer5152]

Originally Posted by Ken S

From The New York Times - March 24, 2008:

________________________________________ ______

March 19, 2008, 12:02 am

HD DVD Owners, Some Stores Want to Make Amends

By Eric Taub

When a line of consumer electronics is curtailed, it’s often the retailer that gets the blame for pushing that “piece of junk” in the first place.

Now that the HD DVD format has gone belly up, stranding consumers with a defunct technology, Best Buy wants to make sure that that doesn’t happen to them. To assuage the feelings of the 200,000 customers who purchased HD DVD hardware or drives from a Best Buy store, the company will announce Wednesday that it is giving each buyer a $50 gift card to spend on whatever they want.

Best Buy’s move follows a similar, but less public, step from Circuit City. Earlier this month, Circuit City began to quietly take back HD DVD players, even if used, granting store credit for the full purchase price. The only caveats: returns must be made within 90 days of purchase. And you have to ask for it or learn about the action on the store’s Web site.

The Best Buy cards, which will not expire, will be sent automatically to most customers who purchased HD DVD hardware by February 23, when Toshiba announced that it was abandoning the format. Best Buy’s list includes those who belong to their rewards program, bought extended warranties, or purchased the machine on its Web site. Others need to show proof of purchase to get their cards.

If you don’t want to keep your HD DVD machine to use as a standard DVD player, the company will even buy it back via its Web site, . In that case, customers can double-dip, getting a second gift card for the sale. (No trade-in prices have yet been established, said a company spokesman).

The HD DVD players typically sold for around $400, though they were heavily discounted before Christmas and then again in January.

“We’re very committed to moving from a transactional to a relationship space with our customers,” said Brian J. Dunn, Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer. “We don’t want to leave customers hanging.”

Promoting the fact that it is shelling out potentially $10 million could be a great public relations tactic. HD DVD buyers are likely to feel less ripped off; and customers, armed with an additional $50 (not to mention the planned federal cash incentive planned for May), may very likely purchase something a bit more expensive than they would otherwise–and do so at Best Buy rather than at a competitor’s.

Best Buy is certainly not the first electronics retailer to try this strategy. Last summer, Apple shocked early adopters when it slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399 barely two months after launch. To atone, the company gave purchasers a $100 Apple Store credit.

Did Best Buy look at Apple’s strategy when formulating its move? “I would be disingenuous if I did not tell you we constantly survey what the industry is doing,” Mr. Dunn said.

Thanks you for the post.

[siddhantkapoors]

The final HD DVD releases in the United States from a major studio on May 27, 2008... HD DVD-ROM, HD DVD-R and HD DVD-RW have a single-layer capacity of 15 GB, and a dual-layer capacity of 30 GB. HD DVD-RAM has a single-layer capacity of 20 GB.