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.Best Buy will be proactively sending out cards to members of the their Reward Zone program and to customers who purchased Performance Service Plans (PSPs) or who made their purchase online. Other customers will need to call (888) BEST BUY and provide a proof of purchase through a credit card or their Best Buy receipt.
“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.”
If you'd like to get rid of your HD DVD player altogether, you're in luck. Best Buy is also launching a new program on March 21st where you can trade in used electronics for gift cards. Full details on this program can be found here.
