I was absolutely floored by the promotion AMAZON.COM sent me earlier this week…you see, I purchased a HD-DVD player from AMAZON about a year ago. Toshiba's HD-DVD format recently lost the war to Blu-Ray and is now obsolete. Soon after NETFLIX and BLOCKBUSTER announced they would no longer offer HD-DVD titles I listed my $299 player on eBay and managed to get $75.00 for it. AMAZON took some responsibility for my 'loss' by offering a largely unrestricted $50.00 credit on anything they sell. An amazing stroke of customer relationship genius, if you ask me. Sure, $50.00 is a lot of money .. but it's going to buy a lot more than $50 in loyalty (certainly from me).
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 DHA8-HKVVYZ-????? 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 e-mail to find out about the latest technology.
This may be a retailing first, viz. offering a customer a substantial credit on account simply because a technology they sold lost out in the end.
Remember when AMAZON was chided for consistently failing to show a profit early on? He who laughs last, laughs best. This great company continues to shine. My hat's off to them!
// lm