People who have ran other hosting companies have claimed that "the lower the price the more support you have to provide" (because in the low end many users won't have dedicated technical personnel or are just penny pinching and will shift problems to you when possible).

Has that been your experience? How do you cover the cost of support time in general at $2/month. Also is there a language issue as your customers are Chinese and Indonesian?

Luckily, since most of the marketing comes from word-of-mouth, a lot of users have a decent knowledge of Linux / VPS'.

I also make Ruby scripts as well as using a crap-ton of custom shortcuts in Mutt (terminal-based email) so answer support tickets quickly and without a ton of effort.

The occasional ticket I usually get involves some form of client-side/user issue such as a borked Linux package install. Usually I bite-the-bullet and say "We don't usually provide support.. but I would suggest having a look at X or Y on your VPS." 90% of the time the customer fixes it with my guidance and they learn what do to next time it happens. The other 10% I unfortunately say tough luck to and suggest to hire a Sysadmin or I link them to someone who can provide support for cheap setting things up.

Funny enough, most Chinese / Indonesian customers rarely ask questions! Even if they don't speak English well, we can still understand each-other in Linux terms. I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but most Eastern clients countries try and figure the issue out themselves first. Western clients usually open a ticket first, then figure the issue out.