Well I'm sure there's always opposite stories - but mine is I just get tickets answered whenever which is important as I've often ticked at some ungodly hour in the US (being overseas). You get human responses and even when a couple of times it's been outside of Linodes control or responsibility (routing/peering issues) they've been helpful and informative.

Everyone will have their own counter of course but I've been happy with what I've been getting for the money!