Telling a reseller from the real host before you buy

Telling a reseller from the real host before you buy
Heard this week: a 'managed host' that turned out to be a thin reseller on a platform that just got acquired upstream. Two layers, two acquisition risks. The trace:
— Check the nameservers and IP ownership against the brand you're paying.
— Read whose terms govern an outage — yours might point upstream.
— Ask where backups physically live and who holds the keys.
— Find out if support can touch the server or just file tickets too.
— Price in that a reseller inherits every upstream price hike.
A source tells us resellers eat the parent's drift and add their own margin on top.
Watch this: when the upstream gets bought, the reseller is the last to know and the first to break.