In every war, good people get caught on the wrong side. Which is to say, the losing side, because winners are always right. That's how they win. But if you're regretting buying that HD-DVD player, now there's a way to recant your decision... so long as you bought it from Circuit City.
Rumors have circulated for days, but now those happy-go-lucky guys at Gizmodo have confirmed that it's official Circuit City policy to accept returns of HD-DVD players in exchange for Blu-Ray DVD players. This was outlined in an internal memo (that's now gone external) appropriately titled "HD DVD - The End."
"Q; What about customers who may try to return an HD DVD player - even if they have owned it for several months?
A: We do not want to upset our valued customers. For this special circumstance, we are happy to offer an exchange for a Blu-ray player (customer plays any difference in purchase price) - even if it has been several months since the customer made their HD DVD player purchase. If the customer does not want a Blu-ray player, we can issue a gift card refund for their original purchase price. For products purchased in the last 30 days, handle as usual."
We assume "play the difference" is a typo. But we have heard of customers swapping out their HD-DVD player for a Blu-Ray-playing PlayStation 3, so CC's apparently counting anything that plays Blu-Ray in the definition of "Blu-Ray player." CC's memo also states that A.) you can't exchange HD-DVD software for Blu-Ray - you'll just have to eat those costs - and B.) they're going to keep selling HD-DVD players as up-converting DVD units for a little while longer. And you will have to go into a CC store to exchange it, as their online retail streams haven't gotten the memo yet.
But before you head out to exchange your Old and Busted for the New Hotness, you should definitely compare their warranty to a SquareTrade warranty. If it looks like our prices are about half what theirs are, with better, faster service, you can safely assume those aren't typos.
We have no idea why Circuit City's leaving the advertising of this spectacularly cool policy to the blogosphere when it would buy them so much good will from their sagging customer base. Seriously, CC... it's okay to be the nice guy once in a while.
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