Becoming a Reseller
Q: How do I apply for a reseller account?
A: Please visit our Reseller Information page and follow the instructions.
Q: What are the terms of the reseller agreement?
A: The full text of the reseller agreement is available on our Reseller Information page.
Reseller Pricing
Q: What pricing is available for the products I resell?
A: Resellers receive a percentage discount off the product prices advertised on our web site. Initially,
the discount rate is 25%.
Resellers meeting certain modest sales volume thresholds for a period of at least 45 days will be eligibible for additional discounts. Larger organizations (such as datacenters and major dedicated/VPS hosting providers) who anticipate a significant initial sales volume may also be eligible for a greater initial discount. Contact the sales department to discuss your scenario.
Q: Can I use my discount immediately after my reseller account is created?
A: No, your first 3 sales will not receive a discounted rate. This is a non-negotiable policy which is
intended to discourage end-users from submitting reseller applications for individual purchases. You may
contact the sales department after your third sale to request a credit equivalent to the discount you would
have received for the first three sales.
Q: How much can I charge for the products I resell?
A: You may set your own pricing at your own discretion.
Q: How do I pay for my license orders?
A: You may either pre-pay on the Reseller page in your account, or pay after each order. If you pre-pay,
any orders received will be immediately deducted from your balance and marked for approval. If you do not pre-pay
(or if your balance is too low to cover the cost of an order) any orders received will be held in your account
until you submit payment manually. They will not be marked for approval until you manually submit payment.
Q: Can I make a lump-sum payment if I have multiple orders awaiting payment?
A: Yes. On your Reseller page in your account, there is a "Submit payment" option that will allow you to pay
any portion of your total balance owing, and/or pre-pay for future orders.
Marketing
Q: Are there any limits on where (geographically) or to whom I may sell the products?
A: No, you are free to market the products at your discretion, subject to the terms of the reseller agreement.
Q: Are there any limits on how I may market/advertise the products?
A: Yes, consult the reseller agreement for details. It's mostly just a matter of using common sense -- avoiding
spam and other abusive/annoying advertising methods.
Placing Orders
Q: Once I have my reseller account, how do I place orders for my customers' purchases?
A: There are two ways to place orders through your reseller account:
Manual (no programming required): Your customers place an order on your web site through whatever billing/ordering software you normally use. When you receive the order, you manually visit our Purchase Page, select the type of license ordered by the client, and click the Order button. When prompted, select "Add this order to my account", and enter your reseller account username and password to receive your discounted reseller rate.
Automated (some programming required): You modify your billing/ordering system to make use of our Reseller API. Using our Reseller API, you can setup your billing system to automatically place orders using your reseller account whenever a customer makes a purchase from you. More information is available on our Reseller API page.
Q: After placing an order, how does my customer receive his license?
A: If you placed the order manually, the license key will be E-mailed to you and you can pass it on to the client.
If you placed the order through our Reseller API, the key will be E-mailed directly to the customer.
Q: Is the license delivered instantly?
A: At the present time our licensing system is fully automated and will typically deliver licenses within a few
mninutes of receipt of payment. Centova Technologies reserves the right to enable manual license approval at any
time, however, in which case hte delivery time may be up one full business day.
Q: How does the customer download the software?
A: Centova Cast v3 and later can be installed via SSH using a shell command and do not require a manual download.
Consult the Centova Cast installation manual for details.
Q: How can the customer reissue his license?
Your customers may visit https://centova.com/cp/reseller/ and enter
their license key to access the license management interface.
Q: If the customer wants installation service, will you perform the installation?
A: Certainly. Just select the installation option when placing the order and the installation fee will be added
to the invoice with your reseller discount applied. Then you can open an
installation ticket.
Q: Can I do the installation jobs myself and pocket the fee?
A: Yes, certainly, but make sure that you do not select the installation option when placing the order with us,
otherwise our installation fee will be billed to your account. Also, be sure to let the customer know that it's you
not us) performing the installation, so it does not come with our usual guarantees.
Q: I have pre-funded my account and placed an order, but it says it's Awaiting Payment!
A: Orders are processed by our system once every 5 minutes. The payment will be deducted from your balance
automatically at that time.
Supporting the End-User
Q: Will Centova Technologies provide technical support to my customers?
A: You (the reseller) are responsible for providing support to your own customers for most issues. You should
consult the product documentation, knowledge base, and other support materials made available by Centova Technologies
Inc. If you encounter an issue which is not covered by the support materials we provide, you (the reseller) may open
a ticket with our helpdesk and we will be pleased to assist.
Your clients will not be permitted to open tickets with our helpdesk -- you must clearly inform your customers prior to their purchase of any Centova Technologies product that you will be their sole contact for technical support.
Q: What are the guidelines for opening a ticket for a customer issue?
A: Prior to opening a ticket with our helpdesk, please be sure to obtain the product version, a description of
the problem, and step-by-step instructions to reproduce it. You may also need to obtain login information from the
client if relevant.
Note that if your correspondence with the customer is a language other than the ones we support via our helpdesk, you will need to translate the issue report prior to submitting it to us.
Q: What types of customer issues can I open tickets for?
A: We will generally provide support to the best of our ability for any issue which directly involves our
products and isn't explained in our support materials.
Specific issues for which we will not provide technical support include (but are not limited to):
- Issues covered by the product documentation, knowledge base, or other support materials (you will need to search the documentation/KB before opening a ticket).
- Issues with third-party software with which our products integrate. For example, if you are reselling Centova Cast, we would not provide support for a ShoutCast-specific question such as "How do I connect to ShoutCast DNAS with a live source?" For an issue like this, which does not directly involve Centova Cast, you are expected to be familiar enough with the general subject matter to provide your own technical support.
- Issues with the customer's network, server, operating system, or other software not directly related to our product. For example, if the customer's web server will not start, or he does not know how to disable safe mode in PHP, this is beyond the scope of our support services.
Q: Can I arrange to have Centova Technologies support my customers directly instead?
A: This is possible, however the client will need to purchase the product directly from our web site (instead of
yours) using an affiliate code, and you will receive a lesser discount. Contact the sales department for details.
For End-Users
This section is intended for end-users (i.e., customers of our resellers) who may be reading this page.
Q: If my reseller goes out of business or his account is terminated, what happens to my license?
A: If your reseller provided your E-mail address with your order, we will contact you and offer to transfer you to
another reseller (see below). If we have no way to contact you, your license will remain active for the duration of
time for which you prepaid, after which it will be suspended and ultimately cancelled.
Q: Can I transfer my license to another reseller (or directly to Centova Technologies)?
A: If you are on an owned or annual license, this is possible with written permission from your reseller (E-mail
is fine). A transfer fee will be involved. If your reseller is confirmed to have gone out of business, this is
possible without the reseller's permission. If you are on a monthly license, it's probably easier to simply cancel
your license with your reseller and purchase another one through another reseller (or us).
Q: My license is suspended or cancelled! Can you help?
A: You'll need to contact your reseller for assistance. Unless your reseller goes out of business, your reseller
is in charge of your account and we cannot overrule any action taken on your account.
Q: My reseller took my payment and didn't provide service!
A: We hope that this never happens, but ultimately this is between you and your reseller. We will gladly accept
reports of such issues, and confirmed reports may result in action against the reseller's account when appropriate,
however there is unfortunately nothing we can do with regard to your lost payment(s).
Q: My reseller isn't helping me with a particular support issue. Will you help me?
A: Regrettably, we cannot accept support tickets from our resellers' customers. You must go through your reseller
for technical support, as this is part of the reseller agreement and is one of the primary reasons we are able to
offer discounted prices to our resellers.
Q: I'm unhappy with my reseller's service because...
A: We're very sorry to hear that, but unfortunately we have no control over your reseller's business practices.
If you are unhappy with your reseller, please consider purchasing service through an alternate reseller or directly
from our web site.