asterisk users - Mar 2005 - Commercial Asterisk Support? (Digium, etc.)

Hello,

I know of someone that is thinking of spending $20,000 on a new
voicemail system because their vendor is end-of-lifing the system they
have now.  I mentioned that maybe Asterisk could do what they need, at a
much lower cost.  Reliability is, of course, critical -- which brings up
the topic of paid 24/7 support.  If something goes wrong, they need
somebody that can make it work -- anytime, any day.

Obviously Digium sells support services, and I need to contact their
sales team to see what their specific offerings are.

However, I've done some googling, and asking around on IRC, for
experiences with Digium support.  I haven't seen any people reporting
super experiences with them, quite a few so-so experiences, and a
surprising number of negative experiences.  Remarks about them being
snowed under due to holidays also concern me.

So, am I missing something?  Are there a lot of happy Digium support
people out there?  If not, are there alternatives to Digium for
exceptionally-clueful support?

Bottom line: would I be making a mistake to recommend Digium support for
a mission-critical application of Asterisk?

Thanks,

John