Amazon HD buyers
 

Not sure if this should be in the store forum but figured I'd get more of a reply here because it is about HD. I brought a player from Amazon back in December when they were doing 3 free movies. When the annoucement about Warner came, my player hadn't shipped yet. I debated weather or not to cancel but want ahead.

I was turned down several times for PM when the price drops happened. Best Buy and Circuit City have offered exchange or gift cards. Why doesn't Amazon offer something similer?

Because they don't have to. ;)

Neither did BB; it really was a nice surprise that they did it at all.

For Amazon buyers, you should have been monitoring the price drops over the month or so following your purchase. I goy two credits from them as a result of price drops on the A3 I bought for my Dad for Xmas.

Okay, to be serious, here's a couple of thoughts.

I believe that Best Buy and Circuit City had the idea that if you came to to exchange or pick up a GC, then you'd likely spend money/the GC on items in-store while you're there.

Also, in order to do an exchange at Amazon, you'd have to pay to ship a rather heavy item back in order to do so.

Lastly, unlike B&M stores, Amazon has no worries about customer loyalty, seeing as they consistently beat their prices on most items.

Just my three cents. :)

The reason Amazon isn't doing anything seems clear to me:

You can harass, boycott and complain about BB/CC in person/store... Amazon, not so much.

Wal-mart sold a butt-load of A2's on Black Friday. Didn't offer to buy any of 'em back, though.

CC and BB's offers are marketing plans, based on the dynamics of in-person shopping. Makes them look good, gets bodies into the store with money they have to spend there, and lets them off the hook for whatever hard-selling of HD-DVD may have taken place ("Buying a new HDTV? Then you NEED an HD-DVD to go with it!")

Amazon has nothing to gain from doing this.

Amazon is still selling the players (through 3rd parties, but they are still listing them). And they still have a big inventory of movies.

I bought an A35 in early December. Within a few days the price dropped and they made me return the first one and repurchase even though I know many people were getting price adjustments. By the time February hit and the bottom really started falling out I contacted Amazon twice; once when the prices started to drop, another when Best Buy made their announcement and the response I got was basically "Sucks to be you. More than 60 days old"

Actually it looks like they are.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/...d.php?t=178870

I dont know why you guys had any problems getting price adjustments. It's amazons policy to provide a refund of the difference if the price drops within 30 days.

interesting

I just want to say I love Amazon.com. Their customer service has always been awesome. And any time I had a problem they took care of it immediately.

Toshiba is "crediting" B&Ms for their hardware sales (including online sales). Online sales and no physical stores...you're probably fucked unless Toshiba extends their niceness.

I suspect Best Buy sells a lot of Toshiba Laptops, LCD panels, and DVD players. If Best Buy asked for the head of Toshiba USA to come and kiss the behinds of every store manager or they would yank Toshiba product -- they'd probably consider it. Toshiba could be fronting the $50 for each gift certificate. All those $50 cards will likely generate even more foot traffic into Best Buy stores.

Amazon sells lots of stuff, but something tells me they don't get close to the volume of Best Buy's volume in these items. People just aren't buying lots of LCDs online. Laptops, DVD Players are probably heavily purchased in stores as well.

-beebs

I think it more has to do with the fact that Best Buy + Wal Mart leaned on Toshiba, and said "Yes, we know you took your advertising dollars, but this fiasco made us look like idiots, please do something to fix this"

Plus a $50 GC just generates more sales figures for Best Buy in a period when they are going to need it...and even though they sent out an estimated 10 million or so, its still doubtful than more than a percentage will use it.

I'm guessing Amazon didn't stick its neck out as much, and the typical Amazon customer is probably considered more saavy than a typical Best Buy customer

And you figure a GC at a Best Buy of $50...really isn't costing Best Buy $50. Probably half that or less, depending on what the consumer buys. So, GC's are somewhat better for both consumer and business.

Actually, Gift Cards can be a great thing in small dollar amounts. A $5 Gift Card given away will do one of two things -- discount a $15-25 purchase (and thus likely still make BB some money) or get forgotten and never used (and eventually cost BB nothing more than bits and a piece of plastic). My experience with these, working in mass marketing, showed 30-40% of small GCs are ignored and 35%-40% are used to discount much higher purchases. So, only 20-25% actually impact the profitability of a particular transaction. Generally these GC cost 30-35% of their face value if you do a big promotion.

$50 GCs are pretty big. People will not ignore that much free stuff. And, it's very possible to buy $50-60 dollars off stuff (and not give BB much money). Still, I suspect 50% or more will use this to discount a much larger purchase -- and thus make BB money overall. Most surprising thing is that even at $50, 10-20% of these will never be used.

I am sure BB is tracking all these GCs, thus the organized approached to sending them out (and not issuing them instore).

-beebs

It looks like Amazon heard you...

"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 _____________ 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."

Very nice of them. :)

^When did you get that email? I bought a couple of A3's from them on 2/19.

Holy smokes, just got the same email.

Me too! Hmm, what to buy, what to buy...

Just got mine. Good deal.

Amazon continues to rock. A $50 Amazon GC is worth more than a $50 BB GC, because (a) their prices are lower and (b) you can buy necessities like clothing and food there, which makes it, basically, the same as $50 cash. And no tax for most, and free shipping to boot.

got my email too! happy day!

Got my email too.

I bought my A3 back on Thanksgiving with the 10 movies (5/3/2). After all the credits, etc I ended up paying $52.

With this $50 GC I paid $2 for an A3!

Time to finally buy Rock Band!