Thanks for your input Forest. I admit I did not see that "Technical support for health checks" cell in the service level reference chart. That does give me a "moderate" level of satisfaction, however, it may not be as warm and fuzzy as you might think it is for your customers.

For a serious problem that is not 'health check' related (that originates with Amazon), the idea of posting to a forum gives almost no sense of service. However, knowing that the forums are monitored by Amazon technical personel does help a little. May I suggest, if you want people to be more informed about their true basic support relationship, that you specify on the support level grid that the forums are monitored by Support staff? To me, forums have always meant "You're on your own unless you luck out and get someone who cares."  Maybe it would be worthwhile to somehow let people know that a forum has a strong technical support presence. That's the only way they may feel confident it is a viable option for them.

I don't know HOW to do that, I can only tell you how I (and probably a percentage of others as well) perceive a forum as an avenue for support.

Thanks again for your input,

Rick.