This option would have worked for Mac Balance of the Planet because we have received less than 4 calls per 1000 units. However the intangible costs can be disconcerting. Remember, you are publishing your personal phone number in every box. Our customer service line has gotten calls at 6AM Sunday morning and 11PM on a weeknight. One call came in just as we were sitting down to Christmas dinner with our family.
Random calls disrupt a programmer's thought process.
Master Distributor Paying your master distributor to handle customer service is simple and convienent. Our contract does not allow me to say how much our master distributer would have charged us, but I can assure you that it was not cheap. That's a lot of money. I expected some sort of per-call charge, so that the more calls the service received, the more it would cost. The problem is that I could not find such a service.