At a higher price level!

It's important to write out and acknowledge that people cost money.

This is an assumption that a cost increase must certainly be reflected in increased price. Companies price based on customer perceived value, not costs. Particularly in venture funded SAAS, where the profit margin between cost and price is large. And companies have made little effort to invest in live support; if such an investment was necessary we would expect to see live support costs streamline as the industry of live support sees sudden increase in demand and investment.

People cost money, yes. But when you're distributing that cost across thousands (or tens of thousands) of customers every year, those costs are a pittance. Single digit dollars per year on the outside.

Not exactly a bank breaker for a vast majority of businesses.

> costs are a pittance

That is completely dependent on the support burden at the margins of an additional customer. If your business is high-touch, your business won't scale.

Which is perhaps the problem. Companies should not scale beyond what they ought to (when additional scaling hurts those at the margins).

exactly!

I think the right should be there - but the cost must also be associated with it. For example, there should be a plan for which you pay an upfront cost and get a human.

HN logic:

A) my skillset deserves $300k/y in comp B) I'm not paying another $10/m for my bank just because they'll have to have a human spend a few hours a year supporting me

Cool. What, about $5 a year? Totally worth it.