I've submitted a number of bugs to different tools and sites, and in the vast majority of cases the company involved have promptly got back to me, have thanked

I've submitted a number of bugs to different tools and sites, and in the vast majority of cases the company involved have promptly got back to me, have thanked me for my time, and have informed me of the status of the bug. In the rare instances where my report is ignored, and any attempts to report to a developer (easily found on Twitter) are ignored, I tend to just forget about it. I assume that it gets read, and that eventually it gets fixed. That being said, when you've found a software bug, especially a large bug, the teams treatment of the bug reflects your opinion of the entire company. I noticed that one large website was pushing new registered passwords around in plain text, and I reported this. Six months later, the bug still exists. My opinion of the holding company (which runs a number of popular sites) has dropped significantly. I think most developers are just happy to be thanked, and are hopeful that their report will be taken seriously and fixed as a priority. Gifts are nice, but a fixed bug and a genuine thanks from a real person at that company are much better.