"Hi, I bought the VHS tape for this movie, but I don't actually have a VHS player. Can I get a digital download instead?"
If you purchased a box with a DVD in it, shouldn't you ... have a DVD drive?
Of course, it's in Adobe's interests to give you the digital download anyway, since you're a loyal customer ... but should you have an expectation that they provide you with the software in a format other than the format it came in when you bought it?
That's a bit disingenuous. Adobe CS5 was released with both a digital download and a DVD option. In fact, when the digital download was active, you could go purchase the retail box, enter the key in Adobe's site, and download CS5 that way.
But this is all entirely besides the point made in the article: that outsourced customer service is terribad when they don't actually have the resources/training/motivation to fix problems.
From my viewpoint, it wouldn't have been a huge deal if Adobe didn't offer a download version of software purchased on DVD. That's understandable, IMO. What is maddening about this is that the answers you receive may vary based on the support channel you use. That's more than a little crazy, and Adobe isn't alone.
I suspect that for a lot of companies, "Live Chat" isn't as much about helping customers as it is avoiding the costs associated with a phone-based call center. Chat agents can chat with multiple customers at once, because chat users are more tolerant of delays that would drive call in customers to hang up.
This is software. You don't buy the DVD, you don't even buy the software.
You buy the license.
The license isn't bound to a delivery format, and in 2013 downloads are the common delivery formats for anything other than console games. If any party is being deliberately obtuse, it's Adobe.
If you've bought Creative Suite and they've since released a new version, they won't do a cross-grade, so there's a thousand-dollar plus penalty for switching from Mac to Windows (or vice versa, though you could run Windows in a VM).
He mentions that he bought the software when he had a Mac/PC with a DVD drive. Now, he no longer does. Buying a new computer shouldn't mean he has to re-purchase software to be able to install it.
So? Get a USB device or perform an external backup before switching to the new computer. There's nothing more hypocritical than geeks feigning technological helplessness.
The larger point is that it was a customer service issue. If he called and still couldn't get the download link that'd be a company wide issue. To get answers from people just following scripted text is baffling. When a customer contacts you, it's an opportunity to wow them not matter what the issue. "Oh sorry not only can't I help you, here is a script that me, my supervisor and manager all copied to you. Have a good day" I'm glad their call service actually was helpful unlike PayPal's.
This part I agree with - the text chat should have been consistent with the phone support. I posted because I thought a (valid) request for greater convenience was being presented as a case of injustice. I imagine that the text support correspondents were silently thinking 'we didn't make you buy a laptop without an optical drive, did we?'
It's not a great analogy. A VHS tape goes for $5 (Blu-ray about $20), while an Adobe product can be priced for a few hundred dollars. I'm not surprised he expected more.
"Hi, I bought the VHS tape for this movie, but I don't actually have a VHS player. Can I get a digital download instead?"
If you purchased a box with a DVD in it, shouldn't you ... have a DVD drive?
Of course, it's in Adobe's interests to give you the digital download anyway, since you're a loyal customer ... but should you have an expectation that they provide you with the software in a format other than the format it came in when you bought it?