Just being a devil's advocate:<p>"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?"<p>If you purchased a box with a DVD in it, shouldn't you ... have a DVD drive?<p>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 <i>expectation</i> that they provide you with the software in a format other than the format it came in when you bought it?
<p><pre><code> "I work at a software company and am an engineer by profession
so i know this is technically possible"
</code></pre>
I hate it when people say this. Just because you also happen to work for a completely different company in the same industry, it doesn't give you any insight whatsoever into how things operate anywhere else.
Every time I have ever used live chat it has been horribly slow, obviously outsourced, textbook/flow-chart driven, and almost entirely worthless. I have spent hours upon hours dealing with people who can not communicate clearly from Hostgator to Comcast and had almost every experience end in failure.<p>Similar to the author, when I have called a US-based customer service number and spoken to a representative, my problems are either resolved almost immediately or I receive a very clear explanation of what the issue is (usually at this point it becomes apparent that I've misinterpreted something).<p>Another option that can sometimes work well is tweeting the customer service or brand account. I kind of hate that customer service is being pushed to 140 characters or less but I think the perception of what it means to be "good" at social media results in companies over-delivering or at least being very mindful of customer needs. This has been my experience with Comcast.<p>my live chat example from Comcast: <a href="https://gist.github.com/jfsiii/4450046#comment-712192" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/jfsiii/4450046#comment-712192</a>
I think it has nothing to do with live chat vs phone calls and everything with incompetent/inconsistent customer service.<p>I'd personally prefer live chat to phone call any day - at least it gives me a transcript I can refer to later, quote in emails, etc.
And you cannot buy an external DVD drive why?<p>Granted, Adobe's failure to provide for downloadable installation is pretty pathetic, but there is a workaround.
I bought CS4 a while back on adobe.com and I dont have a way to download it again now (new computer) so I guess its either upgrade to CS6 or go without it. Really makes me rethink buying shit not in physical form.
Do you guys feel like live chat is a bad support medium? Or just that it is easier to outsource badly?<p>I hate phone support, so I'm curious. Phone support is expensive (to run), costs more time for the customer, and often forces you into a horrible DTMF IVR or an at best mediocre voice recognition IVR.<p>Give me web chat any day. Easier authentication, easier info transfer and I can be on hold in a way less intrusive manner so I don't mind wait times as much.<p>To me, unless you're selling me hardware I want you to be a web chat first support company.
I think this is more of an outsourcing/language barrier problem than a live chat problem. I had a similar situation calling an outsourced support arm for US Airways. I called and I just needed to get my voucher applied to a domestic flight and the guy simply could not figure it out.<p>What I did figure out though is that if you press the number for "International" travel, you get someone in the US (Apparently US Airways thinks International traveler support shouldn't be outsourced). She was able to apply my voucher in under 5 minutes.
I've never had anything other than comically bad customer service from live chat systems.<p>I remember trying to renew a domain that was due to expire very shortly (can't remember the company sorry) and getting a nonsensical error in the renewal process. It took 10-15 minutes for the chat person to reply each time and the most conclusive answer I got was "don't know".
If you have another Mac with an optical drive, you can very easily share the drive over your network: <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5287" rel="nofollow">http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5287</a> . Or, rip it to an ISO on another machine and put the ISO (or just its files) on a thumbdrive.
This is aside the point of your blog post, but IMO it is entirely unreasonable to assume that you'll receive a digital download when you've bought a software on DVD.<p>I'm a huge proponent of DRM-free and open software. But think about this: It just happened to be that you were dealing with Adobe, who have the resources to make huge digital downloads available. What if the software on your DVD was made by a small company who can't afford to host multi-gigabyte downloads? When you bought the DVD, it was with an explicit assumption that you could use the DVD in a DVD drive.<p>Finally, yes, customer-service chats suck (except for Amazon - I continue to be amazed by how awesome their service is), and calling a company up is almost always more effective.
Does anyone have info regarding how much it costs to do customer service inhouse versus using a third party call service versus using a third party live chat service? I suspect that live chat is far cheaper.
"I’m somewhat of an Adobe fanboy"<p>So, there is no such thing as "fan" anymore? As in, if you like something, do you have to be a "fan<i>boy</i>" or "fan<i>girl</i>"?<p>Also, nobody understands the difference between "fan" and "fanboy"?