On the trail of the bargain PC

Picture the scene: you unwrap your newly purchased DVD-Rom drive and discover that there's no cable, no manual, no software and the plastic fascia bears the scars of an earlier brush with humanity. Your reaction?

If the drive had been sold to you as new and at full price, you would quite rightly hotfoot it back to the shop and demand a refund or a sizeable discount.

But what if you had been adequately forewarned about the drive's deficiencies? In this case, you might justifiably commend yourself for making a savvy saving.

After all, the drive works perfectly, the physical damage is purely superficial, and missing cables and software can be easily replaced.

Don't shout it from the rooftop of your local computer superstore but the intrepid bargain hunter can track down an abundance of nominally substandard kit that does a full job for a fraction of the full price.

You just have to know where to look. And that, as often as not, is in a big bin at the end of the aisles.

The markdown lowdown
All manner of high-tech items end up marked down. If a customer returns a product without its original packaging, the retailer may take the view that it's easier to sell it off cheaply than return it to the manufacturer for a makeover.

Stock may be accidentally damaged in the warehouse or on the shop floor; products come to the end of their shelf life and must make room for new ranges, very frequently indeed in the computer market; and ex-display models may be horribly grubby from customer pawing but remain perfectly functional.

There's a market for all of this gear if the discount is right, and what the customer sacrifices in convenience or cosmetics is made up for in cold, hard cash.

Cheap heaps
Different retailers dispose of surplus stock in different ways. "PC World has a Bargain Zone in every store," explains a representative.

"Products come from a variety of sources, including damaged or returned stock and managers' specials, like ex-display and end-of-line products.

"If a product with a missing component is sold in this area, this is always marked on the packaging."

Comet has a special clearance website where surplus and imperfect products are auctioned to the highest bidder (without reserve prices).

You may be understandably cautious about buying something sight unseen, but Comet includes a 'Condition Report' with each item that highlights any deficiencies or damage.

Dabs, the online retailer, has an expansive 'B-grade' section where some cracking bargains can be picked up.

A system of icons and open-ended comments ensure that you, the customer, know exactly what's on offer.

When we looked, a year-old used DVD-Rom drive was on sale at well under half price. A good deal?

Well, Dabs offers a 90-day warranty on all B-grade stock, and the chances of a drive suddenly giving up the ghost after months of fault-free service are relatively slim.

We also found an ultra-cheap motherboard but noted the "bare board only" disclaimer and the lack of a manual, software or any accessories.

This would still be well worth considering if you know your way around a chipset but not if you want to plug and play in a hurry.

Dabtastic bargains
Dianne Dillon from Dabs.com explained that the B-grade items consist of product returns to the company, which cannot be put back into stock as new.

"This is due to products returned under the Distance Selling Regulations, which give customers the right to cancel their order after they've taken receipt of goods.

"During transit, packaging sometimes becomes damaged, which of course means we're unable to return items to stock as new and so they are listed on our website as B-grade."

Ms Dillon says that the other main way that stock becomes B-grade listed is when goods have been returned to Dabs.com as faulty or due to missing manuals or cables.

Faults are investigated, diagnosed and fully repaired by manufacturers or their agents before they are returned to stock as B-grade.

She explains: "We don't purchase goods to sell specifically as B-grade on Dabs.com, though our sister site, Dabsxchange.com, does actively source B-grade and end-of-line products for sale via auction to meet buyer demand.

"Of all the B-grade products sold on Dabs.com 99 per cent are in full working order, and this is the rule of thumb by which we decide to list them on our website.

"Very occasionally, products may be listed as B-grade that are not in working order, though if this is the case, we do make it clear. The majority of non-working items are sold at auction on Dabsxchange.com, again, clearly marked as faulty.

"With regard to rights of return when buying B-grade items, as you would expect, they do differ from purchasing brand-new stock - just like buying a vehicle from a used-car dealer for example.

"This is because B-grade stock, like any second-hand item, does not have a manufacturer's warranty. Though customers aren't entitled to return B-grade items under the Distance Selling Directive, we do offer our own 90-day warranty."

Ms Dillon sums up by explaining why B-grade stock is popular, saying: "There is a big demand for B-grade items which are sold at heavily discounted prices and many customers are happy to purchase on the understanding that their rights of return are not as comprehensive as with new goods.

"It is about customer choice at the end of the day and our role is to ensure that customers are given the information they need to make an informed choice about the purchase of any individual B-grade item - we think we've got this right."

Discounts a go-go
Morgan Computers sells new, used, surplus and refurbished stock through its website and stores in London, Birmingham and Manchester.

Again, the savings can be substantial: we noted a refurbished top-of-the-range Pentax digital camera for under £300 (some £150 cheaper than on the high street) and an ex-lease IBM ThinkPad notebook for just over £300 (with no operating system).

Where, we wondered, does all this stuff come from?"We have two main sources," says director Tom Willett. "Manufacturers bring out new models all the time and like to keep older stock out of the usual channels. By selling to us, they maintain some control over how it is sold on.

"Major corporations also replace their equipment every couple of years. We recently took 4,000 Toshiba notebooks from one of the large accountancy firms, spread out over a year."

What of warranties? "We offer a full year's warranty on all new products," continues Willett. "We also offer a three-month warranty on all second-hand products.

"However, as often as not, you also get the remaining portion of the manufacturer's warranty. You could buy a two-year-old Dell refurbished notebook, for example, and still have a full year's manufacturer's warranty left on it."

Morgan also has an auction site but it doesn't carry a vast amount of stock. It is fun though, and there are a few bargains to be had.

We managed to pick up a Palm M100 handheld computer for £37, which saved us around £40 on what we'd expect to pay in a shop.

Happy shopper
When browsing bargain bins, trawling tat tables or sniffing out scuffed stuff, always be sure to check the warranty and terms of sale.

Discounted new goods are virtually always sold with a full manufacturer's warranty, regardless of cosmetic damage or the state of the packaging, whereas second-hand and refurbished goods may come with a minimal three-month guarantee.

However, no matter how shoddy something looks or how cheaply it is sold, you are entitled to your money back if it just doesn't work or if its condition is worse than advertised.

Happy hunting!

Buyer be wary
Not everything lends itself to a great bargain, of course, so don't let thrift get the better of prudence.

An ex-display mouse or keyboard may have been clicked or tapped halfway to hardware heaven by the time you get your hands on it, and you should always steer clear of damage that requires extensive or expensive repairs.

A scanner with a cracked glass plate is fit only for the dustbin, not the bargain bin, and a TFT monitor with more than a handful of dead pixels will drive you to distraction.

Case damage on a printer is probably a sign of floor-droppage - never a great idea in a device with sensitive moving parts - but a factory-refurbished PC may be virtually virginal.

Always check the specifications thoroughly, too. An internal modem might seem a snip at a fiver but it's about as much use as a bicycle in a getaway if it happens to be an old ISA model and your computer has PCI slots only.

Shabby boxes and superficial scratches are hardly worth a second thought, however, so turn a blind eye to blemishes.

The good news is that drivers and even manuals are easy to track down and download from the web: just visit the support area on the manufacturer's website or enter the product name, plus 'driver' or 'manual' as search terms in a search engine.

DETAILS

PC World
www.pcworld.co.uk

Comet Auctions
www.clearance-comet.co.uk

Dabs
www.dabs.com

Morgan Computers
www.morgan.computers.co.uk

Morgan Auctions
www.morgan-auction.co.uk

Trading standards
www.tradingstandards.gov.uk