Best Buy Sends HD DVD Owners Gift Cards
by Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 3/19/2008 8:08:00 AM
Minneapolis — Best Buy will give $50 gift cards to customers who purchased an HD DVD player or HD DVD attachment from its U.S. stores before Feb. 22.
The retailer estimates it will distribute more than $10 million in gift cards through the 100 percent self-funded program.
“The 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 Dunn, Best Buy’s president/COO. “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.”
Best Buy will proactively mail cards to all customers that the company can identify as having purchased an HD DVD player. Those include members of the Best Buy Reward Zone loyalty program and customers who purchased extended warranties or made their purchases on BestBuy.com. The gift cards are expected to arrive by May 1.
All other customers can call (888) BEST BUY to receive their gift cards with proof of purchase through a credit card or their Best Buy receipt, or visit www.bestbuy.com/hddvd for more information.
“The beauty of this offer is that it doesn’t require our customers to give up their HD DVD player,” said chief marketing officer Barry Judge. “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.”
Best Buy also operates a trade-in service at www.bestbuytradein.com. Consumers who wish to dispose their HD DVD players, regardless of where they were purchased, can visit the site to receive instant estimates of their trade-in value, download a free prepaid shipping label and receive an additional gift card as payment for their trade-in.
