I didn't realise they were officially from Stardock and that was the official answer.

Thank you for the response, I believe its a mistake for Stardock as it has put me off them as previous and happy customer of ObjectDock Plus, Windows Blinds and as we all know Fences Pro lol.

Not everyone has the time to post in forums but there must be quite a few people who have been put off by Stardock's performance when it came to Fences Pro.

BottleTop, many of us that frequent the forums here at WC are ODNT subscribers, have been for some time and in many cases are paid up in advance for years to come. There are many programs  that are part of that subscription. There are some that haven't been updated in years, some that will never see another update, some that were said to have extra features "coming soon",(still waiting), some that did get updates only to break something, betas that seem like they will never go gold, and some that are OS specific. I'm sure other members could point out more. 

Is anyone truly happy about all of that? No, probably not. I have posted my share of complaints in the forums and I'm sure I will continue to do so in the future. Everyone has at least one thing that they can complain about. Yet in spite of that, we renew our subs. Why? Because we believe in the software and trust it running on our computers.. We believe Stardock will give us value for our money with working software, with improvements when possible(not necessarily when promised). We believe when we report bugs, they do get addressed at some point in the life cycle of the product, not when demanded by we consumers, but again, when possible. We believe that new software can and will be developed to to replace old outdated software, or in the case of new OSes, add fun and functionality to them as well while maintaining backwards compatibility with old OSes.  I can actually only speak for myself so "we" is not necessarily all inclusive.

Support has always been great from where I sit. The names have changed since I started here, but the tireless efforts to make things right has not.   The software developers themselves will often answer questions or address concerns personally. Everyone from Admin to Owner wants us to be happy with what we spend our hard earned money on. Stardock foots most of the bill for WinCustomize, making it possible to freely download plenty of content to use to make your PC look and work the way you want it to.

 Far from being "put off" by Stardocks performance, I accept what is for what it is. I find value in what I buy both because of and in spite of that performance. The small price that is asked to help them keep up with the times and keep the wheels turning is money well spent. They earn it.

A satisfied (most of the time) customer.

I understand the need to charge for the new version of fences. What I don't understand is why I can't try out the new features in the beta unless I pay.

Improved typing in the next version. 

BottleTop, I have the exact same position you do. I got ripped off as well.

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I downloaded the free version of Fences ages ago.  Liked it.  Week later, bought it, and been extremely enthusiastic about it.  I've even passed on commentary about it to other people, showed them what it was about, and they went out and did their thing with the application as well.  My wife installs it as part of her seemingly monthly reinstall of Windows (She's a tech, and likes her machine to be a quick response machine... where as I'm more of a tech than her, and I hate reloading. ;)).

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I saw the "coming soon" stuff, but, in reality, I did NOT pay for that.  My philosophy is to never pay real world money for promises.  I pay for what is offered and delivered, not for what hasn't been created.  I pay for services rendered, not services that don't exist.

I jumped on the chance to get into the Beta.  I'll feel rejected and totally pissed off if the $7 I paid for ends up being more than what they sell the full product for though.  Right now, I'm loving the new version.

Indeed it would be appropriate to give the people who payed for fences the update to fences 2, not just a free update, but a free update as an excuse and a solution for the whole updates failure of fences 1.

No means NO

Right, still I felt the need to express my feelings of disappointment in Stardock for turning their backs on Fences 1 constumers, who expected and awaited promised updates, in favor of reselling it as Fences 2. For me it's one of those cases where it is less about the money and more about the message. 

Regards

Jack Fish Zero

Jeez.....all of this over conversation over a $7 software fee???  Its not even one round of drinks at the bowling alley, principles or not.  Have you ever bought anything else as useful as this for such a low price?    Just my 2 cents worth. 

Glad thats cleared up.. now lets watch some football

Agree with BottleTop. I originally purchased Fences Pro in order to create fences of different colors ala the Covey/Eisenhower prioritization system.  That feature should have taken almost no work to implement,  but never materialized.  There is no way I will pay for an 'upgrade' to a product I paid for but never received. 

I don't actually use fences, because this was the only feature I wanted.  I just check back on their site and forums every few months waiting to see that feature become available. 

I actually just gave up on Windows, entirely, and moved to Ubuntu where customizations like this are much easier.