I've never seen such complicated and convoluted upgrade scemes--but E-on doesn't have the monopoly on confusing plans.  I recently bought Poser 9, since I pre-ordered it I got a substaintial discount--but the catch was that you had to buy a voucher far in advance (which was immediately charged to my credit card) and then I had to secure a voucher code.  The voucher code then had to be inputted as a new sale for the software in which it deducted the regular price for the upgrade from your shopping cart.  I didn't understand this weird sceme.  In the past when I pre-ordered software I wasn't charged until the thing shipped and that was automatic with no other action required.  Well you had to use this voucher code by a certain date or you lost your money.  I didn't understand the whole thing and missed the deadline by a day, but after sending a pleading on my knees email to Smith Micro they gave me a new code and I didn't loose my money.  I was, however, ready to dispute it on my credit card as I was not going to pay $75.00 for software I never recieved.  In my opinion I perfered when they kept things simple.