I think a lot of people don't even realize such libraries are out there, or don't understand that there's a wheel being reinvented. ("It's just command line options. Why would you need a whole library to do that?")
Some of the wheels are also very big and crufty--- I would only link GNU Getopt to a C program if it were a Real Program, either with complex option processing or need for industrial-strength polish. For simple one-offs it's a lot easier to have 3 lines of strcmp(), and Getopt feels like overkill.
Why would they provide email support then at all? I don't think the customer should have to try a dozen or so means of support before finding a way which works.
It's a kind of 'necessity' filtering, I think. It also probably keeps down their call volume by preventing people from calling in with stuff easily solved using other channels.
I'm not saying whether or not it's good practice, but if it leads to the quality of these phone support calls, then I'm all for it.
If anything this post and it's related comments seem to prove email ISN'T working as a support channel, phone is fine though, but it's relatively hidden.
