Is hiring support staff so expensive that it threatens your business model? Not having access to a human being is an unacceptable business risk for many. I have been suffering a six-month integration / certification process with Chase's byzantine Merchant Services API. It's a parody how awful it is, I mean shockingly, amusingly bad, but I have access to bankers directly when something goes wrong, and so I will suffer it.

Can't you just offer paid, guaranteed support? People will gladly pay for it.