What is it about the non-split records that aggravates your constituents? 

How do your constituents even know you have split records? 

We used to track our volunteer’s interests, skills, etc. in RE via their Volunteer module.  Since each volunteer had their own we had to keep them in separate records.  We now use Volunteer Works to accomplish the same task so we are now able to combine these records.  Convio wants us to, in essence, go backwards.

As to how did they know:
We’ve had instances in the past where constituents have been contacted separately because we weren’t aware they were somehow tied together.  Or, they’ve contacted us to obtain an annual listing of their donations and we sent them a listing based on their separate record.  (Because we didn’t know they were tied together, the gift was recorded in the spouse’s name, thereby not showing up on the listing for the combined record.)

As an aside, how do we track a donation which was made under Mrs. Susan Smith but was in reality from them both Mr. and Mrs. Smith?  Actually how would we even know this?  Each record in Convio would have their own Member ID (Convio-lingo)/ConsID (RE-lingo) so we would have to know in advance this was the case.

As to what it is which aggravates your constituents:
We've had constituents call who want the records combined.  To be fair, we've also had a COUPLE contact us which do want to be tracked separately.  Combined seems to work best for us.

 Having a donation in both names would involve soft crediting one record with the gift on another.  All "Thank Yous" would make sure to use the addressee/salutations with both records' names (this is, assuming, you have linked them as Spouses)

Ray,

This sounds more like your organization has in the past had problems with reporting due to inconsistent use of soft credits and lack of knowledge on how to report using soft credits.  There should have been no reason why you could not have given a report to Mr. and Mrs. Smith with both their names on it and all of the gifts from both records.  If you did not know they were tied together then when you do you a) apologize to the donor and tell them that you will fix it but that does not always mean combining the records.  You could just add add the appropriate soft credits and HOH processing and future reports will be "fixed" in the donor's eyes.  They do not need to know the mechanics of how it was fixed.

There will always be times when you must create separate records in RE7.  Based on constituent codes you may use, attributes you may use, event registrations, etc.  Even NetCommunity has this issue with needing separate records so it is not exclusive to Convio.  Also, I hate to break it to you but I have heard that the current test version of RE8 will make separate records for ALL of your current non-constituent records so we all may need to prepare ourselves that this is how we will all need to see constituents in the future - as individuals with relationships and shared giving but not as "couples" or "couple records" as there will be no such thing.