HD-DVD Promotion: Customer Service or Legal Precaution?
| posted by Kevin OhannessianOn Saturday I found a surprise in the mail, a box containing five HD-DVDs. When I bought the HD-DVD accessory for the Xbox 360 in December, it came with a coupon to mail away for free films. I sent it out early in January and promptly forgot about it. When the format was sent to its death in February I had briefly wondered what would happen to that promotion.
And here we are two months later. I am impressed that Toshiba and the other companies in the HD-DVD consortium continue to support HD-DVD owners and paid the expense to mail out hundreds of thousands of discs. Toshiba has stated that the company has lost over $600 million on HD-DVD and this is where a bit of that money went. I think honoring the promotion instills good will in a segment of consumers that got the short end of the stick.
Of course, one can look at my unexpected box of discs with a cynical view. The consortium is just giving away obsolete trash that couldn't be sold anyway. And honoring the promotion is cheaper than dealing with a potential class action lawsuit. I personally feel that this viewpoint was part of the decision to continue supporting the promotion, but I also want to believe that doing right by customers was the primary objective.
What is your opinion on this support of a dead technology?
