Kotaku
OK, folks. We're almost entirely passed the debacle that was HD DVD. But we thought that we'd betterlet you know that Amazon is offering $50 of credit back to those who purchased HD DVD players before February 23, 2008.
But if we're reading the fine print correctly, there are two super cool things about this deal. First, you don't need to give up your HD DVD player. It's simply free money. Second, there is no start date to this offer, so if you bought an HD DVD player from them when the technology hit the market, you should still be eligible for the rebate.
Here's the full offer from an Amazon email.
Dear Amazon.com Customer,If you've purchased an HD DVD player from Amazon and haven't received this email, contact them immediately. Apparently it's good for the Xbox 360 peripheral.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]
Comments
Free money? or a lessoning of the HDDVD debt?
See now I think that maybe buying an HD-DVD player may not have been such a bad idea. I want free money :(
Best buy did this as well ($50 gift cards). Luckily in Canada they didn't specify an end date, so I price matched the 360 drive with another store which was selling it for $40. using the gift card i got I purchased another HD DVD drive and repeated the process until i had bought out the entire stores stock of HD DVD drives. then I applied the final gift card to my original purchase, ending up with 15 HD DVD drives, and $150 worth of gift cards for free.
Fuck, I bought mine on the 24th
The best part is it's good for a full year, so I am saving my $50 for when the black Friday deals hit or when the PS3 has another price drop (you know it's bound to happen).
We're almost entirely passed the debacle that was HD DVD.
Not me, I'll keep picking up stuff as prices continue to drop. Again, it's hilarious how the majority of the venom on this subject is apparently coming from non HD DVD owners.
Only thing that annoys me is I bought my add-on at Circuit City, which is like the only place that HASN'T offered something like this at this point. I like free money.
That's nice of amazon. Unusual, really. Almost outstanding. Thumbs up.
Oh, and for what it's worth, I think Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Amazon have all offered deals like this now.
@CyberG4: Wow, you're obviously an evil genius.
I'm reporting you to the authorities before you come up with a plan to take over the world
"Debacle"?? Geez, the hardware failed to catch on in the industry, but it wasn't that bad.
@Spenze: Well I have given away 9 of the players I got to friends for free (so far), so I wouldn't say evil, genius on the other hand...
I got it from amazon when it was the deal of the day. It was only 75 I think. So 50 dollars back is freaking sweet.
@CyberG4: Reported to GMs for dupe exploits.
I haven't gotten an email from Amazon yet, and I bought the 360 addon in the eligible time period from them.
I sent them an email, but hopefully they're just rolling it out in stages.
You know, it may have been worth it to buy one of those $50 360 players after all. It'd be free after this!
@KaneRobot: Some other details have required turning in your player.
It's so funny. Evenwhen it went belly up, I felt good about buying it, and have been loading up on cheap movies. The $50 refunds have just been like free cash. It just keeps getting better.
In essence, for $129 at Best Buy I received:
1. 7 HD/DVD movies, 3 of which work on regular DVD too as combo movies
2. the HD-DVD drive
3. a bunch of Reward Zone points
4. $50 best Buy gift card
5. Tons of rentals I've gone thru on Netflix for the drive for the same price I was paying for regular movies
6. the opportunity to load up on catalogue movies for ridiculously low prices- lower in some cases than the same movie on standard DVD,
And yet sites like this and all these posters keepmaking me try and feel like an idiot for doing it.
I would've been an idiot NOT to do it.
I didn't get an email from them either and I bought my XBOX 360 HD DVD player August 6, 2007.
Bad ass, just ordered GTA IV with free super saver shipping for a grand total of $9.99.
I knew my Toshiba HD-A1 was still good for something. Bonus: Got an HD-DVD from netflix today, haven't seen one in a while. Man, I'm glad I never bought any discs. I wonder what the hackers will do with the HD-A1, I mean the thing's got a Pentium 4 in it.
I saw a post where a guy got the front LCD to say Gizmodo, but there has got to be better things.
@CyberG4: I'm trying to wrap my head around the math being used here. So you got $150 worth of gift cards by spending $120 on HD-DVD drives? So it was a $30 profit? Or am I reading this wrong. Was the "entire stock of HD-DVD drives" in actuality...3 drives?
@NNTPgrip: Oh man, that's not a bad idea....
$10 for GTAIV. Hard to say no to...
@dowingba:
It does work.
Buy $40 drive using $50 gift card. Net gain is $10.
Get another gift card due to purchase, rinse and repeat.
He'd be making $10 on each drive, so he could have ended up with 15 drives and $150.
All of these HD-DVD deals are great, it's such an easy way to get yourself into the high def dvd market for next to nothing. And last time I checked, they won't stop working since Blu-Ray won. In the last couple weeks I have purchased:
360 HD-DVD Drive w/ King Kong
Shrek 3
Batman Begins
300
American Gangster
Anchorman
Old School
Blades of Glory
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Mallrats
Big Lebowski
For a TOTAL of $160. So the drive and 11 movies for close to the cost of just the drive about 2 months ago. I love it.
@Northernsky: Ah. I'm surprised the store actually let him do that.
Not sure what you'd do with 15 drives, but I hope he didn't throw em up on Craigslist or ebay and try to sell them for $40 each.
If you bought an extra one or two to flip, then fine but
15 drives bought by one person who was trying to get all of the gift cards is a bit much isn't it? Kinda ruins the deal
for anyone else trying to get in on it.
Do the words "hoarding" or "selfish" factor in anywhere?
@MoFuzz: I don't think they're such a hot item that "hoarding" them would do anyone any good. They aren't likely to go up in price any time soon.
I agree that they would not go up in price now, but for anyone else who wanted to get in on the deal legitmately, they are now SOL.
I'm sure it seemed like a great idea at the time, but come on, what happened to leaving one for the next guy?
I bought mine at Circuit City too... they are one of the few companies who hasn't done anything about it (unlike Best Buy and Amazon). I guess Circuit City won't be getting any more cash from me (not like I liked the store anyways).
I didn't get my promotional email, despite buying the 360 drive back in December 2006, so I contacted Amazon's customer support. They were more than happy to credit me $50, so clearly I was within range of the promotion.
I'm thinking of using this to buy Mass Effect PC... since I bought the 360 one TWO DAYS before the PC version I really wanted instead was announced. Feels appropriate.
Sweet. This makes the total $ spent on HD DVD hardware a mere $220 (I bought a used HD-A35 after the format died since the 360 is so frigging loud), with 9 free movies. Not bad! And let me tell you, it's nice being able to get HD movies for $12 when their Blu-ray counterparts are $20-25.
Like I said above I didn't get the email but I did call Amazon and the gave me a code - at which point I applied it and it appeared magically in my payments section as Promotional Code $50.00
Best Buy is doing this too right?
I just got my free $50 from Best Buy yesterday. Yay!
@LittleBigPlaneteer:
Yep. I just got my $50 Best Buy gift card in the mail today. Did not need to do a thing to get the gift card.
Pre-ordered GTA4 for $9. Thanks Amazon!
Jeez. Free money, endless RROD replacements...
360 users are lucky they're basically being rewarded for their questionable investment.
Hmm...something must be in the water. Seems really strange that they would just give out money like this. I mean the retailers can't really be held responsible or account for movie studios jumping ship to another format.
It would make a little more business sense if it was limited to people who bought their players sometime in the last 6 months or something.
Not that I'm complaining or anything...just seems really weird as I wasn't really aware of any big backlash (take for example when the iPhone dropped in price).
@ZildjianKX: @KaneRobot: If I recall, Circuit City had offered people the ability to trade their HDDVD players at full price towards a Blu-Ray player. But no free physical money
So far, my HD-DVD player has been a blood great deal. All told, $140 for 8 movies, the player, and some great movies at fire-sale prices.
@mva5580:
Fuck yeah. I've been racking up on HD DVD flicks since the prices are plummeting for clearance. I'm not feeling any pain at all.
Unfortunately I don't remember where I bought my add-on, so no fiddy for me.
@Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier:"360 users are lucky they're basically being rewarded for their questionable investment."
Then that would make it not so questionable then. Rewards rock.
Amazon.com is not the only company handing out the $50 rebate certificates. I received a $50 gift card from Best Buy in the mail the other day because I purchased the HD-DVD player for the 360. Ah, the spoils of war. :)
@lionkitten: So... your argument is that all of us that didn't buy HD-DVD players are idiots?
@heretrix: You know what rocks even harder? A viable format and reliable quality-control.
@dowingba: since I pricematched another store to get the HD DVD drive for $40, then I got a $50 gift card which I used to buy another drive for $40, leaving $10 on the card. I then got a gift card for the second drive I bought, and used that to buy yet another, and repeated until I had bought all of the drive left in the store. once I did that (having only paid $40 for the original drive, and used the gift cards that I received for the rest) I then asked if I could use my final gift card, and apply it to my original purchase. I didn't actually do it so slowly (one at a time), I basically did it for one or two, then I explained at customer service how I was doing this and asked if they wanted to save both our time and just do the remaining ones in one go, which they did, so in total it took little over an hour. So the bottom line was I ended up paying $0 (ie. walked out with the same amount of cash I walked in with) and received $150 worth of gift cards and 15 HD DVD drives. Hopefully this clarifies what exactly occurred.
@MoFuzz: I would like to point out that I have given most of them away to friends for free and am asking other people I know if they have a 360 and would like one, or know someone who would, and giving them ones for free. My brother gave two to two kids who were at a school he volunteers at. I am not going to be reselling them to make a tidy profit, I currently have 6 left, and was hoping to hang onto 3 (1 to use and 2 for backup should mine, or a friends break). Leaving 3 unspoken for, although I have found some other people I know who may want one for free. Sorry if you think this was unethical, but I looked at it as a way to do a favor to both my friends, and gain a bit of a reward.
@Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier: We get it. You like the PS3. You don't like the Xbox 360.
@Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier: You know what rocks more than all of that?
A sense of humor.
I just got a 50$ gift card from Best Buy for having bought the HDDVD ADD-ON for $50 after the format war ended! So It was free! I got a Player with Remote,King Kong and Five other Movies in the Mail for FREE! AMAZING!
So after the Format War Ended I got
2 HD DVD Players (One is a Toshiba A3) and 29 Movies. All for 278$ Canadian....That's cheaper then a stand alone Blu Ray Player Profile 1.3 with no movies! I'm thrilled! I have my High Definition Fix to last me the next few Years!
P.S- Think about it...just one of my movies is Transformers HD DVD 2 Disk Edition....and it only cost me 8$ I'm laughing!