I agree - this is not really about the Navadata, although I acknowledge that seems to be the root of recent CDU troubles. I'm also not keen to try new builds and not desparate for new navdata, but like Maurice, I had to go with the new builds and data because of the problems I was having. So it's not about being up-to-date with the latest, its just about having a CDU that works reasonably well (which it does not at the moment).
I've spent many years in the IT game and have run support and help-desks for large organisations - so I say these things both as a paying customer and someone who's been in PMs type of position. The key here is COMMUNICATION. Bugs, builds, fixes etc. are a fact of life that we need to accept and work with, however the most critical thing for the supplier to do is communicate with users, and that is not what is happening properly in this case. Users would be far more content and willing to deal with bugs long term if they were kept informed of known issues and updated with progress on fixing them. Users would be more willing to give constructive feedback and work on beta-builds too.
Having a comprehensive forum where all users and PM staff interact is just plain common sense. In my experience a well organised web FAQ/forum can reduce individual support requests by up to 70% (been there, done that). So it benefits users and PM staff.
I'm not sure that a survey is the answer - but it could be if we get nowhere in the short-term. At this point it would be good if we could just discuss our concerns and ideas openly with PM staff. I don't think any of us want to bash PM - I certainly don't. We need PM to continue, to grow, and to provide reasonable ongoing support ... I'm sure the many users who appreciate the software would actively support that.
