It just came to mind that calling support from a country outside the US is very expensive. Then I thought that Cake could install SKYPE and get support going from there. That way there wouldn't be any costs for support and you can see the person your talking to (or not if cake turns off the webcam). Either way would be a blessing for some on the web.
SKYPE also has group calls.
I believe this would minimize the tensions of some people trying to contact support and help others who cannot afford the costs of calling.
 
Happy 2014
 

i suspect part of the issue at cake's end is having someone available to "man the phones"

There has to be a way to set something like that up, as many web sites have chat sessions available, and I would think a similar notification system might be able to be found.
 
I would think such a setup exists out there for call centers.
 
Bob Bone
 

And online chat. Lots of companies do this successfully.

My recommendation is call-back support. For example, Cakewalk could instigate a few (up to 3 agents) in Europe, and say, 2 in Asia. They don't answer phones, but respond to either voice messages (Google Voicemail), or online ticketing requests. The agents call back the end-users when they become available.
 
This is much like an On-Call rotation. If the over-seas agent cannot close a case, then that agent follows up with expedited U.S. support for insight/training, and then continues to work on the call-back only process with the overseas end-user as needed. If an issue STILL isn't resolved, the U.S. agent On-Call can be scheduled for a conference bridge through Skype or other.
 
I also fully support WebEx as a great tool. Cisco Systems uses this with major success. It significantly reduces support time per-user vs. evaluating individual projects. Waves uses a Screen-sharing solution, and use a schedule-based call-back for after-hours support by the on-call agent(s). This method works very well for the end-user.
 
Another suggestion would be volunteer-based with pay-per-case. For simpler support issues (many which are routine in nature), there's support portals out there where the agents do not work for the software/hardware company. They're users like us, but, if they can solve the problem the end-user pays $29 for the case resolution. This one is forum-based, which allows other users to self-help based on previous cases. It's like a Knowledge-base, but doesn't crop out the dialogue, or try and re-mediate duplicate cases into one that may not match a search.

I like the Skype idea.  Having a few techs employed throughout the globe could be a boon for CW's success by having the best customer service in the "world".  It might encouragel/ more customers outside the US to buy CW products.