I write the FAQs for the company I work for and believe me, they do. Not all of them of course, but I've seen enough visitor stats, search queries (with and without results) and emails to know that some of your clients will go out of their way to look for the answer online before emailing.

Customers will give up if a) the FAQs or help system isn't easily reachable, or b) if the FAQs and help system sucks.

The best thing you can do if "people don't read the FAQs" isn't to trash them - it's to make them better.

That's not what our numbers are telling us. Yes, some folks will never read. But there are plenty of folks who just don't want to go digging through a big ol' FAQ. That's why pulling up matching articles while they type has been so effective for us.

-Evan Hamilton Community Manager, UserVoice

Customers don't read the 40-page FAQ that starts off with "What is a Computer?"

Customers do look at search results, especially if they are written by people with good writing skills.

Part of the problem is that lots of people have no idea what a FAQ is in the first place.