Yep, there are some very generous developers out there.....and developers with amazing customer service. I was given a $40 gift card by the head honcho of one of the development houses to spend on their site. I have no idea why I was blessed with this gift...other than it was right after my wife came home from rehab following her brain surgery back in 2008. I once contacted a developer to let them know that I had found one of their payware packages illegally uploaded to a site, gave them all the info needed to get the package taken down...and a few days later I got an e-mail back from them with the download links for both the FS9 and FSX version of that package as a thank you from them. I have received a couple packages from another developer...my first two payware packages for FSX. And just today, I was blessed with a free package of a very nice FSX payware package...from the developer.
I have had amazing contact with a couple development houses over some of their older freeware stuff. I contacted them about doing "restorations" to the freeware packages and they were quit to give me the go ahead on those projects. I don't know how their customer service is when dealing with a problem with a package bought from them, but based on my contact with them, I would imagine that it is just as solid and fast.
Anyone of us can find something to complain about in any given package...be it freeware or payware. We all have individual preferences for sound quality, bare metal shine, GPS unit size and location, arrangement of gauges. It is rare that I install a plane that is 100% to my liking...but I don't beat the maker up over things. I am grateful that there are folks out there who have the talent and skills to create the planes that I fly...I'm not about to act a fool toward them just because they covered the pilot's seat in blue cloth instead of the fine butter soft leather that I prefer to have in my cockpits. Enough of that silliness will eventually drive the developer out of the hobby....and the hobby grows weaker each time that happens.
If something is not to my liking, and it is something I can change...I change it. If the thing that I don't like about the package is bothersome enough to me and I can't change it, I simply uninstall the package and go on about my life....this has happened very few times....I usually just learn to deal with whatever it is that is not to my liking and enjoy the package to the fullest anyhow.
That's just my take on the whole situation.
OBIO
