If Microsoft confirms that it's a bug, your support call will be refunded. They ask for the money up front simply because it can be hard to get the customer to pay afterwards.
Developer products include a number of free support incidents in the purchase price. Again, if a bug is confirmed, you will be credited.
Trying to play an end-around game on Channel 9 is not smart. Microsoft's whole sustained engineering process is oriented around Product Support Services. Go with the flow, don't fight it.
