Re: Free vs. Paid Support

Posted by tim on Feb 05, 2011; 4:57am
URL: https://support.nabble.com/Free-vs-Paid-Support-tp5528523p5994849.html

As I mentioned before, the advertising model doesn't work for us financially and doesn't solve our core problem of spending time on support that would be better spend on development.  The 1 on 1 support we provide to paying customers drives real development, so this is actually useful to us.  It helps our development be customer driven.  We want to develop features that paying customers want.  Non-paying users are welcome to use Nabble for free but shouldn't expect us to dedicate time to their questions.  I have no problem with losing non-paying users as a result of this.  I just hope that we can continue to develop Nabble so that it increases in value to users and more and more users will be willing to pay for support as a result.

I have to agree with Steve M here...
I understand wanting to develop things customers want... however no one will disagree when I say that when people "Google" for something like this ; the first thing they look for is "free"...  So if your site becomes a Pay site... no one will find it anyway,.. and you'll have NO paying customers.
Second.. if you do have a "free" section.. but as you say no one has time to help people.. potential customers will leave for lack of help.  Common sense says if you can't get some sort of decent support when it is free... NO ONE is going to shell out $100 when they are getting poor service already.
So to me.. (not to sound rude) it seems like you gotta WALK before you can run... and by not providing basic support... you'll try to run and fall on your face.