I work at a company that uses a large amount of free software.
For much of it, if we find a bug, we either fix it ourselves locally, or go through the normal process of submitting a bug report, possibly submitting our own patch, and waiting for a fix from upstream, while finding some way to work around it or the like.
For some of the software that is central to our business, we have a contract with a company that provides support and development services. If we have a bug that we need fixed right now, we get in touch with them and pay an agreed upon rate to do so.
We don't do this for everything we use, because most of it works off the shelf, or we just replace it or work around it, or the open development process works well enough. But for those things that are absolutely key to our business, and for which there's a consulting company that employs several of the core developers on the project, it's definitely worth it to pay for the support that we need.
For much of it, if we find a bug, we either fix it ourselves locally, or go through the normal process of submitting a bug report, possibly submitting our own patch, and waiting for a fix from upstream, while finding some way to work around it or the like.
For some of the software that is central to our business, we have a contract with a company that provides support and development services. If we have a bug that we need fixed right now, we get in touch with them and pay an agreed upon rate to do so.
We don't do this for everything we use, because most of it works off the shelf, or we just replace it or work around it, or the open development process works well enough. But for those things that are absolutely key to our business, and for which there's a consulting company that employs several of the core developers on the project, it's definitely worth it to pay for the support that we need.