I know a couple people who did just this when I was working for Isilon, and did a little field work myself though I was based out of the Seattle HQ and only got

I know a couple people who did just this when I was working for Isilon, and did a little field work myself though I was based out of the Seattle HQ and only got as far as the burbs. Soft touch customer care is a big deal and well worth it for these deals, which can easily run into the millions on a single support contract. You're not paying for the normal, you're paying for plenty of backup in case something goes wrong, and what he brought with him was more that he was familiar with the internal bureaucracy of the company to escalate things - or not waste more time on things that were easy. Honestly, I think this was probably taxpayer money well spent - especially because it wasn't directly spent by the government, but only at its behest. A good support contract is valuable, and sometimes you have to test it on a nothing burger.