A service provider like A&A provides a lot beside just a utility-type internet service like water or electricity. They used to provide static IPv4 address blocks, until IPv4 ran out (choose you sense of the word). They give you IPv6 address blocks as much as you want, VoIP, 3G data SIMs that give you a single static IPv4 address per SIM. My point anyway is that AA support isn't just there for mending things when they break, they hopefully won't break. Someone remarked on kitz that AA's support wasn't worth paying for because she never called tech support anyway. AA are there to talk to to help you expand what you can do with the service and with the kit that you can get from AA. It's highly likely the AA staff know more about <topic> than you do, never mind offshore call centres. There are times when you want to make changes, and AA's staff make that easy. For example, I wanted a larger IPv4 address block, job done in less than five mins.
That's my point anyway, AA offer a very rich service, and many users won't need such riches, in which case fair enough. But it's a mistake to think of AA tech support as just the "mend-it department". They can guide you and can make changes for you very efficiently.
I have also used Zen, tried them for a year at another site, good but not anywhere need as rich as AA's service. I also got a bit fed up with constant "coming soon" from Zen about IPv6, delivery of which which was running about ten years late compared with A&A. Zen - definitely worth a look.