By the way, I would like to add a couple of points:

1) I would imagine that most people getting into RC sales are in it because of their interest in the hobby (at least former interest), and not for the money making potential. Let's face it, selling a balsa airplane cannot be handled with the same dis-interest as, say, trading stocks. To suggest such is a bit naive. This is also something of an assumption when you meet people who deal in this hobby. This "assumption" is one of the things that attracts people to the hobby in the first place.

2) Businesses based around recreational hobbies depend on expanding relationships and repeated business. People get into this and other such ventures because it is fun, and researching/purchasing is all part of the experience. If that experience is not fun, why would a customer do it? As a matter of fact, in this type of business, a lost customer will not only hurt your business, but could also hurt the hobby as a whole when that customer decides he didn't have fun doing it and moves on to something else.

3) You cannot say that even the most novice customer can ever be considered unimportant. It's not like these people are calling Lockheed for advise on building RC planes. Every new customer expands interest in the hobby, and every new flier could be one of those $5k customers down the road. Why do you think that value-priced RTF's are out there? It's there to attract beginners and get them interested in more expensive products later on...this is a standard in most businesses. Bait and hook, plain and simple. Customer service is part of the expense incurred in attacting those high dollar customers.

4) Finally, people do not need to fly model airplanes. To make comparisons with a business such as an IT firm is a gross mis-identification of your customers as well as your product.