Hi,
I understand the criticism. I do think that different companies have different ways of approaching this problem. In our case I think it is a little bit more complex than the ordinary application. We are so involved in different techniques, security, server models, client computers which eventually lead to that our application is heavily affected by changes in the underlying system. Perhaps caused by an update from Microsoft.
Another thing, from a developer point of view it could be hard to separate updates of new functionality from bug updates. Maybe this works for larger companies like Microsoft that seldom do any feature changes in an update (their product remains the same) they only "fix" security bugs. I seldom see Microsoft fix any bugs in the operating system itself, only security issues. I have to buy another operating system to get rid of old annoying things.
Even though the complex nature of bugs that can appear I believe we act quite differently when it comes handling the bugs. A bug seldom exists longer than a week.
When you purchase a new license (without maintenance) you will get updates for about a month. We hope, during the period of testing the product (45 days) and a period of using the product after purchase (30 days) that you will find if the product meets your needs.
The added security, of getting one year of updates (major or minor) for only $30 more is well spent money if you are unsure.
As working with support mainly, I understand you and the company. As a smaller company, that we are, we have chosen this path to survive. We hope that most users think that their money is well spent and that we will do anything to help.