Reseller Comments/Questions

*Poe* · 03-21-2003, 02:59 AM

Hi,

I was wondering why it is your policy not to let resellers customize the CNC. If you want to encourage resellers to get lots of customers, thereby increasing your own profits, dont you think that is an unreasonable limitation? Simply because this is the only way the clients can change and update things for their sites like email addresses and mailing lists etc... The only alternative, if the reseller does not want the client to access the CNC the way it is, is to make every single requested change for the client themselves.

The reason this doesn't make sense to me is that you state it's our responsibility to make sure our clients write to US for help, and not to you directly. Yet if we were to allow them to access the CNC the way it is, they see the futurequest logo and they see all your service desk and support links. How confusing is that to them, if we say dont use those links? They are wondering why, or they are wondering why they dont just go to futurequest directly for their account then. I am almost positive I read somewhere on your site that you would even go as far as to cancel a resellers account if their customers persist on using the futurequest service desk.

Obviously that means letting them access the CNC the way it is , is hardly an option. What guarantee would I have, especially if i got lots of clients, that none of them would try to use these support links?

And the whole problem would be fixed if you would just allow the resellers a CNC without the futurequest logo or links, even if they can't customize anything else.

It just doesn't make sense to me that the reseller program is made by you, to increase your business, yet you make this obstacle for your resellers to try and get around some how. And i for one have not been able to figure a way around that obstacle yet.

I figure why get a client to join my hosting company, only to log into a cnc and see that their real host is futurequest. And then worry about whether they will write to you for support instead of me.

Can anyone explain to me why this is, or offer me some suggestions as to how I can let my clients manage their accounts without using the cnc? The way it is now I dont see any alternative.

Thanks for reading

**Deb** · 03-21-2003, 07:05 AM

Quote:

I was wondering why it is your policy not to let resellers customize the CNC.

It's not policy but rather resources. We've had a customizable CNC in the works however it does often take a back seat to bringing on new functionality within the servers for everyone (since more demand those things).

The CNC wasn't originally built in a templated fashion and for that reason needs a ton of work to make it function as some of the resellers would like it to. Programming time to do it and the funds to ensure its completion are a bit scarce so the speed of the templated CNC is slowed....

There's a bit more to it than meets the eye, especially, once it is complete, ensuring only the reseller has the access to edit it...

The short answer is.... We certainly plan to offer a templatable CNC and do have on in the works. ETA on completion however is unknown.

Deb
- Wrong Assumption. Correct Observation.

*Poe* · 03-21-2003, 07:04 PM

Thanks for the reply, good to know you're working on it...

Can you tell me what most futurequest resellers do now? Do most of them just let their customers access the cnc the way it is? I can't really picture that .. would be very awkward explaining to the customers

dank · 03-21-2003, 07:07 PM

Quote:

would be very awkward explaining to the customers

Only if your intent is to make them think you're not offering resold services, which I personally think is a very bad idea.

Dan

*Poe* · 03-21-2003, 07:07 PM

Quote:

The CNC wasn't originally built in a templated fashion and for that reason needs a ton of work to make it function as some of the resellers would like it to. Programming time to do it and the funds to ensure its completion are a bit scarce so the speed of the templated CNC is slowed....

wouldn't a very fast, easy solution be to just remove the logo and support links for reseller accounts? I can't imagine it would take much time and resourses just to take off those few things

maybe that is not the solution every reseller wants and they want something customizable but at least that would be a temperary solution cuz like i said i dont understand how most of them are getting around this issue

*Poe* · 03-21-2003, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dank:

Only if your intent is to make them think you're not offering resold services, which I personally think is a very bad idea.

Dan

if it's going to be plain as day to reseller customers that the services are all from futurequest which also offers virtual hosting and their logo and links are all over the place , why wouldn't they all just go directly to futurequest instead then?

**Deb** · 03-21-2003, 07:15 PM

Quote:

if it's going to be plain as day to reseller customers that the services are all from futurequest which also offers virtual hosting and their logo and links are all over the place , why wouldn't they all just go directly to futurequest instead then?

Most of the resellers are also web site designers providing their clients very personalized "total solutions". The clients like to stick with them so that they can enjoy this "all-in-one" type of service. I do believe most know that FutureQuest is the underlying host yet still choose to stick with the resellers for the above reasons. Some reseller's even pass along part of their discounts to their clients making the deal even that much more pleasing to the clients.

Quote:

wouldn't a very fast, easy solution be to just remove the logo and support links for reseller accounts? I can't imagine it would take much time and resourses just to take off those few things

It's unfortunately not quite that simple as there is much more to the CNC even in the areas such as helpful hints et al not to even mention the underlying code that makes it all work. There is the additional issue of trying to figure out "which accounts are actually resold" due to the "funny way" some reseller's handle their accounts.

Overall it's a huge project that will continue to be worked on but again, I couldn't give an ETA for completion. It's also important to note that even when the CNC is offered with various template options, this does not guarantee FutureQuest would be hidden from your clients as there are many other ways they could stumble across the fact that FutureQuest is the underlying host. This is one of the reasons most resellers choose to be upfront about how its all working as to avoid that uncomfortable feeling when the client does stumble across the facts and questions the reseller...

Deb
- The rug only hides so much.