In the email:

I encourage you to view the terms and conditions for promotional gift certificates listed online at the following URL:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200111150

and at that link..

FINE PRINT
15: Promotional Gift Certificates issued by Customer Service agents cannot be redeemed against digital downloads at this time.

That translates to “We do not trust our staff”.

They sent another email:

To compensate for this situation I would be glad to give you 2 options:

1) You can use the promo GC on any other physical orders (ex:any products, books etc).

2) We can cancel the promo and issue you a refund in the same amount on any other order so that you can use it on any digital purchase.

I replied that they missed the ideal 3rd option:
3) You buy the book on the Kindle as you intended as we give you a complete refund.

I am told by colleagues that Amazon Support is excellent.
No, no it’s not.

I posted 2 days ago about a book that I had to buy on paper because of a CD. I left a note on the author’s page saying I was disappointed that I had to buy it twice. No says the author, when you buy it on Kindle you get a url to download the CD files. They don’t say that on the product page.

I went to the Help section and was going to send an email but their “Live Chat” is recommended so I gave that a go. I explained everything and got a “Thanks, we’ll pass that on”. I didn’t get a Sorry. I didn’t get an offer to put things right. My experience was taken, not considered and I was shut up. That annoyed me a little. So I went back to the Help section and sent an email. I stated the issue again and said that I thought the rep would have recognised there was an Amazon error here. I got a reply.

They can’t send a Kindle version ‘without the purchase’. That I find hard to believe – they own everything in that process, they could do this. But I did get given a £5 gift certificate. Price of the Kindle book? £10. So I don’t even get what I wanted. That “half the solution” is almost more irritating than nothing at all. But hey, it’s still a fiver, yes?

This promotional gift certificate does not apply to orders placed through our third party sellers, and it can’t be redeemed against digital downloads, delivery or gift wrapping costs.

unless I want to buy a book on the kindle which is precisely what I wanted to do.

I know some people rate Amazon support. They are not that good from my dealings, not that good at all.