Microsoft Offers Free Zune Red 80 As Apology

Microsoft seems to have miscalculated how much people want the Red Zune 80. The Valentine’s Day special offer is going to have a product delay, so many who bought one to share musical love on February 14th will be without the warm embrace of Zune. But Microsoft is making things right…or at least they’re trying.

According to Ars Technica, MS is emailing customers who may not be getting their Red Zune 80 on time, letting the people know that the player may not arrive. In lieu of getting it on time Microsoft is refunding money for the player. But you still get to keep the Zune. So, that means you could be getting a free Zune from this situation. A bouquet of flowers bought with the refunded money and a free mp3 player sounds like a lovely deal to me.

If you ordered the Red Zune 80 you should have gotten an email from Microsoft detailing their plans to make things right. Now the question for me is why they couldn’t have applied the same policy to Xbox LIVE when it went down over the holidays? The offer of a $5 game now seems puny in comparison to this magnanimous recompense.