Register Your PE4? Don’t Download the Complimentary Training Vids!!!

….until you read this.

Precursive: If you register your PE4 online (only), you receive a confirming email that contains a link for a free viewing of two training videos.

Your message may look like this:
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Claim your complimentary benefit today.

Two online training sessions

These videos explore techniques for making your photos look better than you ever thought they could. They’re brought to you by Adobe Photoshop Elements Techniques, which includes Scott Kelby, best-selling author of the Photoshop Elements User Book for Digital Photographers.

These online videos cover topics such as photo resizing, color correction and working with camera RAW files.
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After waiting a few days, when I had some quiet free time, a cup of coffee and a notepad, I was ready to take advantage of the offer. I clicked on the link provided in my email where it took me to the specific web page to view the vids. There was not much there. A couple download buttons and information that they were in Quicktime. There was a FAQ link which I clicked on to see if there was anything I needed to know before proceeding, like do I have to have my macromedia flash enabled in my IE or do I need to disable my IE popup blocker (which usually gives me a panic attack because so many protection-type softwares today have popup protection like Zone Alarm, Ad Aware, and several others). No info like that in the FAQ’s but it wasn’t a waste of time reading them. They gave helpful info about saving the vids should you choose to do so. They explained you could get the upgraded version of QT (for 25 bux) that would allow you to save the vids through the QT screen or an alternative method would be to go to your IE temporary cache where you may find the buffered version of the vids and save them from there.

I then went back to the main screen, again looking for warnings about the requirements for viewing. I saw none. Emboldened, I clicked on the first vid download button. I /think/ I saw a fast flash of a popup window go by but I am not too sure. I was grabbing my pad and pen to be in the ready. When nothing further happened, I thought perhaps I need macromedia flash enabled and in order to do that I needed to close out my IE. I did all that and then re-clicked on the link in my email and it took me back to the vid web page whereby I saw a message that said, "Sorry, but you have already taken advantage of the free viewing." I tried to muffle the voice in my head that kept repeating…crass attempt at making you buy the videos.

Well, this was not completely true. I DID try to take advantage of viewing ONE of the vids but what about the second one? And surely, whatever method Adobe uses to confirm receipt of the comp vids could not be related to bytes downloaded as I didn’t get to download a single byte.

Undeterred, I called the Customer Service phone number to perhaps find out
a) If I could get another email link for a retry and b) What are the system
requirements for viewing the vids? I got to talk to a very pleasant, very knowledgeable, and very empathetic rep by the name of Kim. She was a jewel. She put me on hold several times (short durations) while she communicated with other departments and in the end, it was obvious she had more professionalism and empathy than she had power. The short answer was that I was out of luck because no one there was willing or able to make an exception to a rule. The long answer was the typical customer service answer when they can’t help you which was…"wait 48-72 hours and HOPEFULLY I can change their mind and send you a new link."

Kim also graciously acknowledged that she will forward my suggestion to the web page designing person regarding LETTING PEOPLE KNOW AHEAD OF TIME THE REQUIREMENTS FOR VIEWING THE VIDS AND THAT THEY ONLY GET ONE CHANCE AND DO NOT CLOSE OUT THE WEB PAGE BEFORE VIEWING BOTH VIDS OR YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK.

Whining aside, all I can say about PE4 is WOW! I have used my PE1 for 5 years now and got very excited about some new features such as Magic Selection tool, Magic Extractor tool, Skin Tone Adjustment, Defringe tool, and WYSIWYG font viewer. If I had a nickel for every time I went to my word perfect program to view what the fonts actually looked like, I could have paid for my PE4! It’s all good stuff. I am happy with the product and happy with the service. As for that little weasel who markets the training vids…