RSSBest Buy offers $50 gift card, trade-in for HD DVD buyers
By Nate Mook | Published March 19, 2008, 12:49 PM
Now that the format war is over and Blu-ray is the only choice for next-generation DVDs, retailer Best Buy is attempting to make amends with customers who bought HD DVD players before Toshiba pulled the plug.
All Best Buy customers who purchased an HD DVD player or HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 earlier than February 23, 2008 are eligible to receive a $50 gift card. The retailer says it will be distributing $10 million in cards, which means 200,000 individuals bought into the losing format from Best Buy alone.
With many picking up the Toshiba HD-A3 during the holidays for just over $100, the offer is quite a good deal -- especially since customers can keep their players and continue to use them for either HD DVD movies or as up-converting players with standards DVDs.
In order to receive the $50 gift card, most customers shouldn't have to do anything. Best Buy says it will locate buyers using the information it has on file through its Reward Zone and service plan programs, or from sales on bestbuy.com. Those that cannot be identified are instructed to call (888) BEST BUY and will need to supply a receipt or credit card statement with the transaction.
Best Buy says customers should receive their cards in the mail by May 1.
The retailer also has an offer for those who want to get rid of their HD DVD players, whether or not they were purchased from Best Buy. Beginning March 21, the company's Online Trade-In Center will provide estimates for how much the company will pay for various Toshiba HD DVD player models. Individuals can agree to the estimate and mail in their players to receive a Best Buy gift card for that amount.
"Now that the format war is over, we hope these gift cards will reassure our customers that we will help them make a smooth transition into the right technology for their needs," remarked Best Buy president Brian J. Dunn.
Although the offer is costing the company at least $10 million, Best Buy is clearly hoping customers will use the gift card to replace their HD DVD player with a Blu-ray player. Since Blu-ray players -- whether from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Sharp or Pioneer -- are priced nearly three times higher than HD DVD players, Best Buy will reap the benefit in the long-run if this happens.
Prices for Blu-ray players have only gone up since the format declared victory over HD DVD, according to figures from comparison shopping service PriceGrabber.
Then there are the few of us who bought Toshiba laptops with a built in HD DVD drive...spent a whole lot more $ than a stand-alone HD DVD player.
Oh well...wasn't really planning on watching HD movies on it anyways...it was simply a "cool" feature.
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BB doesnt owe anything to it's customers. **** em. Anyone who got in on this knew there was going to be one winner, and it seems the winner still is lacking in sales big time.
This may not catch on at all, most people are too stupid to notice an HD picture or give a crap that they are watching one. S-DVD looks pretty damn good.
One good thing came out of this for me, I got Karen Allen to sign my combo disc of Animal House (the inside sleeve) which is now in my glass movie memorabelia case. It's probably the only one in existence.
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It's worth more as an upscaling DVD player anyway, so only a fool would trade it in.
Blu-Ray won't be mass adopted until it's price is $99, just like HD-DVD was.
I think I've said that before though. ;-)
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Its not that people can't notice the picture. Its that DVD's do look really good.
Blu-ray players are expensive. With people defaulting on mortgages and dealing with other economic issues, I think many have more important things to spend their money on.
HD DVD still faced the same issue, but if you compare 1 million HD DVD players sold at say $200 average vs 1 million blu-ray players at $400, the HD DVD player owners would have an extra $200 million to spend on movies.
Why studios didn't look at this and see the advantage there is a mystery to me. Blu-ray has a tough road ahead of it.
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As some see the HDDVD a bad buy, others are eating up this opportunity, simply by picking up HDDVD players along with movies for a very cheap price. Prices for movies have been cut in half, even ones that are still waiting to be released.
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the iphone credits and now this.
no longer do early adopters need to be worried they wont be reimbursed when the worst happens.
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Wow.. that's a great deal! I bought 2 players back in Sept, so that's $100 for me! :)
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How is that a great deal?? Spend $800 on two players that are now obsolete to get $100?
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He probably only spent a total of $300 (this is HDDVD, not your overpriced Blu-Ray). So now he's got two HDDVD players that will still play all the HDDVDs out there and upconvert standard DVDs...and he's getting a free $100 he wasn't expecting. Sounds good to me.
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I used a $50 GC when I bought mine, so it came out to ~$100. This $50 GC back makes the player ~$50. I don't feel bad at all now!
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Its a great deal no matter what you paid, since Best Buy isn't obligated to do anything. Everyone buying either format knew their were risks.
For me though, it was a really geat deal as I bought a $99 A2 for myself and one for my brother-in-law. So I'll get $100 back :)
No to mention the 5 free movies! (I gave my brother-in-law the reciept so he ould get 5 too)
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