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You shouldn't be surprised that support people are essentially human firewalls, and getting any sort of policy decision or assistance, especially technical, beyond their knowledge base is impossible. Even Apple support is at least an hour of talking with someone who'll read the knowledge base back to you before being escalated into "I did my homework now look at my syslog" territory.

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I work in support, have for close to a decade.

I take at least a little pride in being a personable worker who can read the situation and respond appropriately from the beginning.

Acknowledging the problem and the concerns of the customer is at least the bare minimum and they didn't even do that.

Are you doing tier-1 support for a product that costs less than the support phone call? If not, you are not in the same category.

Product I support is free, my paycheck comes from a non-profit.

And as always, on these types of calls, one should never take a "no" from someone who doesn't have the authority to say "yes". Of course, this has to be balanced with how much the question/problem at hand matters to you.

How do you even figure out who does and does not have the authority to say "yes" an an outsider though.

Ask to speak to their manager, or research executive support or track down corporate salaried employee's contact info online.

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