I just read a lot of the posts on this thread and had to say something. My apologies for drifting off topic.
With all due respect for someone trying to make sense of gear credits and jam points, I just don't get how something that can save you money could not be seen as a good thing. Relating from my own experience, I bought the highest level of gear credits during an IK sale. I was also able to use jam points that IK gives you sort of "free" (for making purchases of course) for 30% of the gear credit purchase.
I first thought $750!, I can't do that! But, I actually only paid about $265 for I think it was 1500 gear credits (because there was a half price sale, at the highest level you get the credits for .50 on the dollar to begin with, and I used jam points for 30% of the price). I've been having a great time all year getting things from the Custom Shop. I recently purchased the Mesa package for 100 credits (that actually cost me only $17). A few days ago I pre-ordered Amplitube 4 for 100 credits (again which actually cost me $17). I still have like 500 gear credits left after having purchased tons of stuff from the Custom Shop all year.
I'm able to make a lot of good use of this because I use Sampletank, T-Racks, and Amplitube. If you want to buy with money and not gear credits, you can still do that and take no advantage of the deals you can get using gear credits. What is wrong with this from a customer's standpoint? I can only think that someone not liking the IK "purchase programs" is misunderstanding something about the use of the Custom Shop, gear credits, and jam points. I think once someone really sees what IK does for customers, they will only see all this as something to take advantage of. I hope I can do this again before IK realizes what they are doing