I sympathize with the frustration involved in this experience. It looks like A-String will get their money back.
There are numerous companies that should be avoided. Yamaha/Steinberg is at the top of my list. One empowered guy taking over the reins with the wherewithal to make constructive changes might succeed but I doubt you can bully an entire company into submission with the tactics suggested in these types of threads. Instead the most you are likely to witness is a slow disintegration, and only if you have the time and interest in feeding the fire and watching its progress. That takes a lot of energy and time devoted to scorning something.
It seems that everyone is responsible for exponential sales and had plans to buy something of a given brand until the evil company was exposed. Seriously, it may be true but it comes off as disingenuous making the claim under these circumstances.
With everyone speaking from their computers people are in a constant state of informality. Often they are quick to revert to the slippery slope towards the lowest common denominator. However, once at the bottom it makes it that much more appalling for an employee of a company to stoop low enough to satisfy the bottom feeders.
In theory you justify giving something away that might generate more income as a result but smaller entities cannot afford this. They may not be able to afford to cultivate a decent staff. They probably do one or two things well but have a bunch of flaws in their system. It isn't as simple as generating a mob of haters to sculpt a monument. This often makes the "people" on the other side angry and less willing to acknowledge you.
