Buying CCTV cameras wholesale: what to ask before you commit

We sell wholesale to installers, resellers and businesses fitting out their own sites. What follows is what we would want to know if we were buying rather than selling, and two of the four have nothing to do with price.

1. Is the stock the same next month?

The most expensive thing in an installer's year is a model going away. You have learned its mounting plate, its app, its quirks, and your quotes assume it. A supplier who switches to whatever is cheapest that week costs you more in relearning than they save you per unit. Ask which models a supplier commits to keeping, and treat a vague answer as an answer.

2. Where does a warranty claim actually go?

This is where grey-market stock shows up, and it shows up eighteen months later. A camera imported outside the official channel often cannot be claimed through the brand's service centre here — which means the claim lands on you, in front of your customer.

We are direct about our own position: dotpk.pk does not provide its own warranty. Every claim goes to the manufacturer's authorised service centre, and the product page says which brand that is. We will help with the process. What we will not do is imply a store warranty that does not exist — see the warranty policy.

3. What happens when something arrives broken?

Ask before it happens rather than after. Ours has two deadlines and they are different numbers: report it within 24 hours of delivery, then return the product within 7 days — packaging and product both undamaged. If the fault is ours we cover the courier both ways. The unboxing video is not bureaucracy: it is the only thing that settles an argument about whether a housing was cracked in transit, and it protects you as much as us. Every parcel we send is packed on camera for the same reason. See the return policy.

4. Can they help you specify a job?

The supplier who tells you a warehouse needs sixteen cameras when it needs nine is not cheap at any price, because you lose the tender. Being able to ring somebody who will look at a floor plan and say "put eight here and spend the rest on the gate" is worth more per year than a small discount.

How to start

Tell us roughly what you fit and how often. We will talk about rates on the models you actually use rather than publishing a single wholesale price list, because the number depends on the model and the volume and we would rather quote honestly than advertise a figure that turns out to have conditions.

Browse what we stock: Wi-Fi cameras, IP cameras, PoE switches and intercoms and access control. In Lahore, same-day delivery is usually the part that matters most.