Over the past several years I

Being mercenary, and please take this the right way, I don't care whether you are unhappy with a particular developer, only whether I am happy with that developer. The forums are a good way to put that opinion out, but the burden is only ever on the potential customer to decide for themselves whether to `risk` a purchase. And the reasons behind that choice must have a lot to do with the aircraft or addon, its perceived quality, how it fits into a market niche, all sorts of things above and beyond negative experiences in the past. I'm sure anyone who has bought payware has had some negative experience but if we were to reagrd your model as correct, no payware would be sold, yet it appears to be a growing market.Allcott

A negative experience(s) dosn't turn me completely off. If they release something I've otherwise really wanted I'll buy it anyway. However, where they lose is when I'm sitting on the fence. I have made purchases based soley on the fact that I know and respect the developer even though I'm not sure about the product, i.e. do I really want to buy a C172 even though I usually fly big iron? I'll give it a try. I won't do that with a developer that dosn't have my trust. If they have an aircraft I really want and nobody else does, I'll give it a go, but not otherwise. So yes, there is an "X" factor for me, but difficult to quantify. billg

The late Dr. Deming, a manufacturing quality expert, recognized the great unknown factor of customer dissatisfaction as unknowable, but likely huge. Consider all the formal and informal communication among customers and potential customers that can tarnish or destroy a vendor's reputation. Is it even realistically possible to thwart a skilled and determined pirate? Then why risk alienating ten or five or even three honest customers in trying?On the other side, how much good does somebody like Craftsman Tools do by replacing anything, anytime, no questions asked? Are they throwing money away, or is it bolstering their reputation, building and securing their customer base?

I find the general lack of response to my post interesting. I