Best Buy offers HD DVD owners $10 million in gift cards, trade in, shoulder to cry on
By Richard Lawler 
posted March 19th 2008 5:47AM
posted March 19th 2008 5:47AM
Best Buy is following Future Shop, Circuit City and others in reaching out to casualties of the format war. In this case, anyone who bought an HD DVD player from Best Buy before February 23, 2008 can request a complimentary $50 gift card for each player. For those too traumatized to even look at their discontinued hardware and software, Best Buy also announced it's adding HD DVD players and media to its Trade-In Center program, starting March 21. No word on how much a player can net you, but once it's updated, check BestBuyTradeIn.com to get an estimate and decide how much holding onto the past is worth.[Thanks, Harmin C.]
Update: Best Buy just issued a press release with additional information about the more than $10 million in gift cards it plans to distribute, and details on how to make sure you get yours, check out the full PR after the break.
Best Buy Stands Behind Customers By Awarding More Than $10 Million in Gift Cards to HD-DVD Purchasers
Leading Consumer Electronics Retailer will Send $50 Gift Cards to Customers Who Purchased an HD-DVD Player from Best Buy in the U.S.
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With Blu-ray declaring victory over HD-DVD in the high definition movie format war, Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer, is giving $50 gift cards to customers who purchased an HD-DVD player or HD-DVD attachment from its U.S. stores before February 23, 2008. Customers will get a gift card for each player or HD-DVD attachment that they purchased. Through this program, Best Buy will distribute more than $10 million in gift cards to customers across the country.
"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. "At Best Buy, we understood and shared our customers' frustrations as they were being asked to choose one format or the other. 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."
Most Best Buy customers won't have to do anything to receive their gift card. As a demonstration of its commitment to its customers, Best Buy will proactively mail cards to all customers that the company can identify as having purchased an HD-DVD player. Members of the Best Buy Reward Zone program, customers who purchased Performance Service Plans (PSPs) or who made their purchase on BestBuy.com should look for their gift cards in the mail by May 1. Other customers who may not be easily identified can call (888) BEST BUY to receive their gift cards with proof of purchase through a credit card or their Best Buy receipt.
"The beauty of this offer is that it doesn't require our customers to give up their HD-DVD player," said Barry Judge, chief marketing officer for Best Buy. "We know that many people who purchased these players have HD-DVD movies that they would like to continue to watch. We're telling our customers they can keep their players to play these movies as well as their older DVDs and use the $50 to treat themselves to anything else in our stores."
HD-DVD players can actually deliver greatly enhanced video performance with standard DVDs by upconverting the video resolution.
Beginning on March 21, customers who do want to get rid of their HD-DVD players can visit Best Buy's Online Trade-In Center at www.bestbuytradein.com. Visitors to the site will receive instant estimates of the value of their HD-DVD players and movies. Those who agree with the estimates can then ship their goods to the Trade-In Center free of charge by downloading a prepaid shipping label and will receive an additional gift card as payment for their trade-in. This service is open to HD-DVD owners regardless of where they bought their player.
For more information visit www.bestbuy.com/hddvd.
I am glad that Best Buy is willing to do something for all those who may have jumped the gun on their HD player format. What did stores do for those who bought Betamax back in the day? I bet next to nothing.
From the Bestbuy website:
Offer excludes HD DVD-equipped computers and laptops, and so-called "dual-format" or "universal" high-defintion disc player models designed to play both Blu-ray disc and HD DVD media.
so this could in turn make a ps3 350$ for some people. i see this only increasing ps3 sales.
That's a fair point Riley. I know some people, such as myself, were waiting for the format war to be decided before purchasing a player. Now that it's been decided, why not add a premier gaming system with it! The PS3 is now an even better value. I am more of a computer geek but I have some friends who own a PS3 and enjoy playing it sometimes. I also think that this could increase HDTV set purchases for those that own a PS3.
I will go buy a discounted HD DVD player. I can still play my DVDs in it. I'm not about to go out and buy a Bluray player so I can buy over priced DVDs. I have a PS2 and don't own one Bluray disc. I already have lots of standard definition DVDs. Of course Bestbuy wants Bluray to be the format of choice, then everybody will be forced to buy a complete new DVD collection. Wow I got a %50 gift certificate.. I will buy some stuff at Bestbuy... most everybody will spend at least twice that once they get inside the store. Its cheaper than advertising on TV and gets more people to come into the store.
I have a Blue Raze VHS Cassette and it plays great after splicing tape back together, can I get a BBGC to buy another VHS?
anybody have any VHS they can give me
Dude, go troll somewhere else.
Dont' waste your time walking into a Bestbuy - Call 888-Bestbuy if you have a receipt and want your $50 gift card !!! - do NOT go in-store. The employees have no idea what you're talking about and 3 customer service representatives later, you're told that you can only do this buy call 888-bestbuy. just fyi.