I would not expect the free support options to change for folks like us. Free is great here and people like us will always use this option first.
In our model, we will have free consumer support for manufactures we contract with. This happens to be a part of my background. However,,, Yes, it will be a paid support call if consumer pilot can't get help from the manufacture and not the type that likes reading through every forum post.
Solving the issue of support quality from support pilots who in your example "stayed at a Holiday Inn" isn't that hard. If you don't own a drone, you better be a fast learner and competent in support before you start taking calls for a fee. We offer a 100% money back guarantee if the support issue was not resolved. That might prevent the pilot from taking those more difficult support issues. We have an option for sending the drone in for service as well.
With a consumer rating system in place, the consumer can rate the support pilot after the ticket is closed. As soon as a support pilot's quality star rating drops below 3 stars, the pilot support account will lock down preventing calls further calls until the support issue is addressed. Support pilots will have the option to receive or reject certain types of support calls. Bottom line, if I suck at helping someone resolve calibration issues,,, I'm going to reject those request until I'm good at it.
The concept here is to empower the drone pilot community with skilled support for troubleshooting and filling the gaps that user manual's have. How many times have we all gone to DJI's user manual and found "zero" reference to the issue? It happened to me enough to fund a new company around solving the problem at scale. Now, guys like you will have an option to be paid or support for free. Hope that never stops!
Thanks for the thought provoking comment and hope I addressed your thoughts/concerns.
