clipped from: regbits.info   

While every registrar’s reseller model is different, there are some models that delegate substantial responsibility to resellers, but not all resellers take their responsbilities as seriously as they should.
By way of example, we saw an enormous uptick in complaints about resellers following VeriSign’s migration to EPP in late 2006. In particular, customers complained that resellers wouldn’t or couldn’t provide auth-info codes for .com/.net names and that requests to the sponoring registrar were met with deflection of the matter to the unresponsive reseller. In some cases, even ICANN’s attempts at intervention were similarly deflected.