British readers may recall a series of very catchy TV adverts from the 1980′s promoting Scotch video tapes – which featured a dancing skeleton in a “home of the future” still using the same VHS tape he had when he was alive.
A very optimistic view that VHS tapes would be around forever – long shown to be false by the advent of DVD’s and now hard drive recorders and even internet streaming of video content. But who knew that at the time?
The core selling point for Scotch tapes was that they were so convinced of their quality, that they would offer the infamous “lifetime guarantee” and would replace any tape which wears out free of charge.
Anyhow, I remembered the video a few months ago – and just last night remembered again, so sent a short email to 3M, the company which made the Scotch video tapes asking, in this era of DVD’s etc what would happen if someone actually did sent in a tape for a free replacement.
To their credit – not only did I get a reply within just a few hours, which is a subtle dig to the (too many) companies who claim that emails take days to reply to, but they actually have a procedure already in place to deal with this situation.
While Scotch itself ceased to sell VHS tapes over 10 years ago – the company will still honour that ages old guarantee and if you past an old tape to them, they will send you a free BASF tape as a replacement.
Now, that is what I call good customer care – not only a speedy reply, but in an age when the VHS tape is almost extinct, the company still holds true to a promise made over 20 years ago.
For nostalgia – here is a copy of one of those famous TV commercials thanks to the ubiquitous YouTube and TVArk.
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i can remember these as an child growing up in the 80′s
and they allways scared me upto 2007 when i saw it on
youtube and i realised it was fake and who was the studio
that made them i thaught it was aardman studios who does
wallace and gromit but i am not sure it was them or not
but the re-record not fade away song in the advert was
originaly a song called not fade away by the rolling stones
in the 70′s but the advert was in the mid 80′s what great memories .
frankie smales
(retro tv advert fan)
I was in the TV/Video trade at the time, and we considered the use of Scotch tape to be ‘abuse’ of a VCR for warranty purposes and warned our customers when they bought the VCR.
The *tape* lasted a long time, but it did so at the expense of the VCR heads, which it wore out at over three times the rate of any other brand leaving a distinctive wear pattern of fine scratches.
If you could imagine what your car would look like if you cleaned it with T-Cut every day you’re getting somewhere close.
Will they still honour the guarantee on betamax tapes ?
Ask them.