I ended up switching to a different plugin due to this one being too buggy for me to use. The one issue that drove me away for good was a bug in which the featured image displays in the post regardless of the plugin settings. It was pretty blatant, so I spent quite a bit of time trying to configure it instead of assuming it was a bug. A bug like this one will get caught with a little bit of testing.
After explaining to them that I have since moved on to a different plugin due to their bug, they were unwilling to provide a refund. In their opinion, since they fixed that bug in the next release, I am required to wait for them to have fixed it. Since it was fixed in their next version, they will not provide a refund. The end.
IMHO, they should focus less on how to avoid providing refunds especially when their plugin does not work properly. Instead, they should consider the following from the customer's perspective:
a) Customers waste a lot of time in uncovering bugs in the first place, especially blatant ones where they have to wonder "That can't possibly be a bug. They would have caught that issue.", "It must be something I am doing wrong or a setting I am not understanding". Finally, realizing that this issue was a bug really sucked up a lot of my time. Being that I wanted to finish it over the weekend, I kept persisting with various combinations
b) Customers that switch to a different plugin have just wasted the time learning all of the settings and how to configure your complex plugin.
c) If a customer is NO LONGER USING YOUR PLUGIN solely because your plugin is buggy, give them a refund, especially when it is a bug you have confirmed. Don't expect that they should hang tight until you get around to fixing it as if they are part of your dev or QA team.
I do not mind paying for a plugin if it works and does what it claims. I do not even mind putting in time to learn it, but I hate having my time wasted because the developer wants to treat me like a member of the QA team.