Every distributor has the same story: the first container is fine, the second has a model that fails, and by the third the supplier stopped answering. These nine questions predict that outcome before money moves.
1–2: Who owns the brand
Ask for the trademark registration, not a logo file, and ask who is the contracting party on the invoice. If the brand and the seller are different companies, the warranty has two doors to walk through.
3–4: Published numbers and the report behind them
A datasheet is marketing; a type-test report is evidence. For a lock sold from China, ask for GA374-2019 or GB21556-2008, plus salt-spray and ESD records if the product will live near the coast.
5: The platform, not the catalogue page
Ask which firmware and cloud the lock runs on, and what happens if that vendor changes terms. Building a brand on somebody else’s cloud turns a hardware business into a hostage arrangement.
6: The door, in millimetres
Body standard (6068, 3085, cylinder 111 × 53 × 25), door thickness range and cylinder grade. If the answer is vague, your installers find out on site, in front of the customer.
7: Temperature, honestly stated
A chip at 85 °C does not make a tropical product. Ask for the whole-lock rating.
8: Spare parts in year two
Panels, mortise bodies, sensors, battery packs — and how long they are held after a model is discontinued.
9: Territory discipline
Ask in writing whether the supplier sells directly into your market. If the answer is “we will see”, price protection does not exist.
A supplier who has the documents sends them in an hour. One who does not sends adjectives.