Not to be outdone by Best Buy (and perhaps in order to make Circuit City seem cheap), Amazon will be offering $50 in credit to you poor, poor bastards who bought an HDDVD player before Feb. 23, 2008.
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who purchased an HD DVD player from us before February 23, 2008,* you might like to hear about a special offer available from Amazon.com.
New technologies don’t always work out as planned. We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com.** Just use promotional code PROMO CODE HERE when checking out. The code is valid through April 9, 2009, so you have plenty of time to use your credit. Purchases from third-party merchants on our site are not eligible.
In addition, we’d like to share some of our top offers on Blu-ray discs, HDTVs and other high-def technology and remind you that the Amazon.com Marketplace is available to sell items you might not want anymore as you upgrade to new ones. Also be sure to check out our monthly Amazon.com Early Adopters Delivers email to find out about the latest technology.
* On February 23, 2008, the last manufacturer of HD DVD players announced it was ceasing production of those players.
** Offer cannot be used to pay for special-order titles, e-books or downloadable e-content, wireless service plans, gift certificates, gift-wrap, taxes, or shipping and handling charges. $50.00 promotional credit is per HD DVD player purchased prior to February 23, 2008–up to 10 units for a maximum credit of $500.00.
Amazon Handing Out $50 to HD DVD Victims [Gizmodo]
More From Consumerist
-
Target Sends Out Poorly Worded Coupon, Raises False Hopes
-
Amazon Deletes My Feedback About Questionable Marketplace Seller
-
Amazon Marketplace Dispute Leaves Me With No Money, No Navigation System
-
Amazon Lies To Customer, Says Company Doesn’t Set Its Own Prices
-
All I Want Is To Watch Some Football In HD And For Bright House's Website To Reflect Reality
HD-DVD will win the format war. It’s just going through some, uh, setbax right now. Anyone who takes this offer is selling out the revolution, traitors! Viva la HD-DVD!
When are they sending these out and do they apply to the Xbox 360 attachment?
They should be in your inbox already, check your junk email folder
Yeah, I didnt get that email and I did buy an HD-DVD player from them… hmm….
WHERE is buy.com on this???
This might be a stupid question: But once HD DVD becomes an abandoned technology does that mean it can one day be used by the open source community? I’m somewhat clear on the rules about abandoned tech for games, but not certain about how it might apply to HD DVD technology. Like the open source telephony switch that came out, could we one day see an open source community driving down the costs of this high data storage medium? It might never be used by studios but wouldn’t it be great if you could put your home movies into that format? Or any number of things we haven’t thought of yet?
@JamesBenjamin: Ditto.
@Bay State Darren: See, this “format war” is just a Machiavellian scheme by the laser disc industry (it faked its own death!) to play the two sides against each other and rise from the ashes when Bluray and HD-DVD have sufficiently weakened each other.
That’s what I’m hoping anyway, having spent my life savings on the Criterion Collection and all. Well, at least my disc is bigger than yours.
@Bay State Darren: You left your laser disk collection sitting out. Better put it away before the kids use them as dinner plates.
@quail: Right, because somehow the HD-DVD consortium is going to give up its patent portfolio….
@spinachdip: LOL. Personally, my appreciation for movies died with the advent of talkies.
@quail: How can you be clear for abandoned games and ask this question. Just cause a game is no longer supported doesn’t mean you can do anything with it you want. Copyrights last hundreds of years… patents however only last 20, so yes, in 2025 or so HD-DVD can be used for open source, unless Toshiba voluntarily gives it up early to benefit all who want it (unlikely)
Is there a start date – like a date you have to have bought it after? I bought the HD-A2 last June, and no email so far.
I got this email this morning as I bought one of the Xbox 360 HD DVD players. Good deal figuring I got 5 movies along with it.
If you have not gotten it, check your junk mail box. Remember, it is going to be sent to your Amazon email you have associated with it.
I just point out to everyone, Amazon like Best Buy, did not have to do this. They chose to do so, and you can at least respect them for doing this much.
I have no need to get rid of my HD DVD player as it works just fine and plays the movies I currently have.
@nakmario: Buy.com? Probably too busy with their thumb up their ass.
I emailed them using the customer service form on their website and they emailed me within a couple of hours with the code…
-wC
just got the worst buy gift card in the mail today!
@Bay State Darren: I heard a rumor that someone is packaging a combination HD-DVD and Betamax VCR player.
@world-inferno: That’s interesting that you call it “worst buy”, considering that it appears that you bought an HD-DVD player from them in recent memory.
I’ll optimistically assume the purchase was before you saw the light.
I tried to use the code PROMO CODE HERE on my last order, but it no worky.
it never ever pays to be an early adopter. never. no one should ever buy into a new technology with two or more competing formats. sound like some sort of catch 22?
if you think about it, it isn’t. let’s learn from this. studios and manufacturers should have to choose and pick sides, not consumers. let them settle it.
there was no reason to buy into either HDDVD or BluRay early. for all intents and purposes, DVDs did the same thing as the new formats. i bought my BluRay player only a few months ago, after having patiently waited for the format war to blow over.
don’t even get me started on HDTV. all that new bandwidth will only end up being used for more shop-at-home and infomercial channels, just give it a few years. it’ll turn out to be the biggest bait ‘n’ switch of all time.
@Michael Belisle: @prameta1: nah, i was just trying to be hip. i think it’s pretty cool that bb, cc and amazon are even doing this.
Too bad Wal-Mart won’t do this, I could get 50% back
@prameta1:
My early adoption cost me $100 and I bought HD/DVD combo’s for any HD movies I bought. Where is the downside of that? I have an outstanding upscaling DVD player, movies I can watch in HD or non-HD players, and I am out of pocket less than a high quality upscaling DVD player.
I have to agree with prameta1′s initial comment.
It’s definitely nice that Amazon is doing this, but what precedent does it set? This risk always exists with the concordant advent of competing technologies.
Did Betamax folks get refunds? Laserdisc people?
Don’t get me wrong – this is an excellent gesture from Amazon but they may get themselves into trouble with it down the road, assuming other folks will take advantage of it later.
…all easy to say when I waited long enough to get Blu-ray
…oh well.
@nakmario: Dude, it’s Buy.com. They’re drinking your milkshake.
@chrisgoh:
Bestbuy is sending me a $50 GC for the xbox attachment. I would think Amazon would do the same.
@Sidecutter:
I agree, most of our HD-DVDs are dual format, and HD looks damn pretty on our DLP TV.
Will we run out and buy a Bluray? Nah, eventually my husband will cave and buy a PS3.
Awwww, I have some Kafka to buy; I want my e-mail from Amazon.
@shor0814: Seriously. After this rebate, I will have spent $80 on my HD-DVD player, and got a bunch of free movies out of it as well. And it works as an upscaling DVD player. Eventually I’ll probably buy a PS3, so it’s not a terribly huge deal.
Now when is amazon going to discount their remaining HD-DVD players, thats what I want to know.
The Xbox player is included. If you bought one and haven’t received the e-mail, check your Amazon account, as it should be in there.
I called when I heard about this and didn’t see an e-mail, and they told me to check my account; lo, and behold, it was there. This HD-DVD business has turned into a hell of a deal. I wish technology would fail more often!
Thanks Amazon, major bonus points there.
This is why I love Amazon–they are the best, hands down
thanks for this post. my father had bought me the hd-dvd xbox addition for christmas, and he hadn’t gotten this email. he called amazon and he got the 50 dollar credit right away.
@chrisgoh: I didn’t get an email so I emailed Amazon and they set the whole thing up.
It does apply to the 360 attachment.
If you haven’t received your promo code, remain patient. I just received mine at 3:47 CST.
I bought the 360 add-on back on August 28th of last year during the 9 free promotion.
I posted earlier in the thread that I hadn’t gotten my code, and I just wanted to post that it came last night. I’m sure they’re just going in order. I bought mine in novemeber, so they may be just starting, if other people havent gotten their emails yet.
I recieved my code today too. Had actually bought a toshiba and an xbox attachment as a gift; received $100 credit total. That pretty much brings me to what I would have paid for the new dvd player I needed ANYWAY, so I’m a little less bitter
Thanks Amazon–and Consumerist, for making me actually READ my amazon email