One of the pieces of planning software we use frequently to brainstorm and plan out projects is Mindmanger (see our 2005 post here). Recently in September, we upgraded our software to the current version 7.  A couple of months later in November we got a notice that new version 8 had been released. Rather than pay again for a new upgrade only 2 months after the initial purchase we called up Mindjet product support number to see if we could upgrade to the newest version. The support representative tersely informed us that we had missed the cutoff for a courtesy upgrade by a couple of weeks. We don’t begrudge software companies for trying to generate revenue and keep their products current, especially a small company like Mindjet. It would have been nice if they informed purchasers that a new release was imminent to avoid upgrade fatigue. On the service side, because they are a small company, they should display more flexibility in working with companies like ours who are loyal users and want the new features provided in the software upgrades. Instead, because of their lack of service, this is one software product we will no longer upgrade.