Tone - It really is important (Xobni)

Seems to me that it's less about tone and more about providing immediate results to the user. Xobni could just make the extra effort to get possible solutions from their "answer search" or "community forums" and put them on that page.

I'm not sure if very many YC companies focus on user support. My impression is that they focus on improving their technology, adding features, and finding additional funding the most. If one can get a reply within three months from a YC company, they're lucky.

The sad thing is I don't know if anyone can blame them. There's more value in building up one's application than acting like an established company and having three founders doing great tech support. In my experience at least a third of the people who e-mail a startup with questions (especially paying customers) offer their own phone number. They either straight-out say or imply that you can call them and spend fifteen minutes walking them through. Believe me, this is sometimes worth it the first few times you do it, but can be a time sink later on. (Granted, this app targets a subset of adults.)

Also, I don't believe YC funders are picked for being great customer service representatives. I also think that makes sense. Not only is such experience not necessary for early stage startups, but computer geeks are running the show, not salespeople.