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Comment by eganist | Hacker News Reader

Tangent:

> I’d much prefer to keep those minutes for things like blowing off work for the day to go rock climbing because it’s sunny and I can do that because I run my own company. The less time I have to spend dealing with these customers, the better.

This doesn't really instill confidence in the level of post-purchase support I'd get if I were to buy in. I can easily empathize with the mentality and can even appreciate it if it's intended as humor, but all I see here is "I just want you to pay me."

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Ah, but consider the support lag you get for most products, and the person from whom you receive a reply to your email (and their ability to actually do anything about your issue).

So yeah, you might have to wait until the next day for a reply. But that reply will be to say that your issue has been fixed (by the guy who built the product) and that no further action is required on your part.

People seem to like that. (And a guy can only really climb hard a couple days a week without injury, so it's entirely possible you'll find me in front of the keyboard.)

I appreciate this reply a bit more, though it's worth noting that this approach doesn't really scale all that well.

As you add customers, you'll eventually be stretched thin as you try to cater to different needs (assuming that's your goal—it might not be!). Assuming you eventually bring on other technical folks, I'd argue that you'd want to prevent this same language and mentality from persisting as a part of company culture.

But again, your goal might only be to reach a certain size and live comfortably. If so, then you're probably fine. I suppose my qualm was more with the image conveyed by your language more than anything else.

>I appreciate this reply a bit more, though it's worth noting that this approach doesn't really scale all that well.

That's OK for personal businesses. Not everything needs to be a billion dollar company.

Right, hence my third paragraph:

> But again, your goal might only be to reach a certain size and live comfortably. If so, then you're probably fine. I suppose my qualm was more with the image conveyed by your language more than anything else.

From the homepage:

> We're the sort of enterprise that is often termed a "lifestyle business" by people who feel that a software company should involve Venture Capital, sixty hour weeks, and "disrupting things". I'm sure we'd be doing all sorts of that if we were in the Bay Area, but we're not.

That answers my implied question sufficiently. Thanks!

I feel the opposite. When I hear things like "Customer service is number one at Comcast" it sounds like a hollow platitude, mainly beacuse it is.

I like the honesty. I look at it as that he has automated the most frequent stuff and that his allotment of time can go to further unique cases of customer service. Automated surface breadth allows deepness with finite time.

Well, in context he was talking about replacing something that he did for his customers in a time consuming way with something that was even easier for his customers.

I like support like that. :)

I was a user of S3Stat once. I emailed in about a problem about 4 years ago. Still no reply. I'm not upset at all as it was dirt cheap. But support is not a priority.

Ah, bummer. Sorry to miss a mail, since I do make a point of at least answering them. If you remember what the issue was, and still want to use the service, send me a mail.

I'll try to get back to you within a few months this time.

Zing lol

Not telling you are wrong, but do you really need support if product just works?

Do I ever know if I will or won't need support?

The conditions predicating the technical success of this tool aren't immutable.

You can make a guess that you're unlikely to ever need URGENT support for a logging tool. Let the dude go rock climbing!

I just read it as setting expectations, which is good.

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