WOW! I've just finished reading 22 pages of this thread from start to finish. Apologies for posting on this old topic, but I just cant resist.
I was recently working on becoming a retailer for social media services to customers when I came across this gem of a thread. First of all Kudos to the OP to have the courage to create this thread and everyone (for the most part) for contributing their honest experiences.
Being someone that wants to become a retailer and provide genuine service to my customers, I too am enraged by the monopoly and lack of accountability for providers and especially reseller panels.
Its common sense for a business to own their mistakes and stop them from being repeated. Retailers get the most fucked, customers want their money back, rightfully so if they dont get a service.
The retailer spends money on marketing, providing customer support and then pays for the service. The resellers don't even offer any refund and the most outrageous thing is their responses. They could care less about how they screw the retailers!
In these cases, the retailer loses money on both sides and most importantly start losing his credibility.
What also alarms me is the fact the many people on this very forum still don't get what op is trying to say and defend resellers passing on the blame to provider or others.
If your a reseller or provider and your service is down or not working. STOP FUCKING TAKING ORDERS!!!! its too damn simple.
Don't advertise any service that you can't justify. Adding spammy INSTANT, fast delivery, crap and still people buy this stuff surprises me.
There is only one solution for this and I don't think many people will like it.
THE MAIN RETAILERS OR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PARTICIPATE AND POOL THEIR RESOURCES/TALENT TO CREATE THEIR SERVICE PROVIDER.
This way they can have control of the quality and other people can also find a verified source for these services.
Another main thing to make sure is to only add a few services and keep them up and running 24/7. Its better to have a few quality services than thousands of spammy outdated ones.
I would love to play any part in this project and contribute in any shape or form without any benefits.