Identical wins

Posted on 19 May 2008 at 10:50

 

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Old and new

Some refurbished goods come with the same full manufacturer's warranty as brand new items. In the case of PCs, you may well be entitled to the same technical support as any buyer - in fact, the staff who answer your call may have no way of knowing that your system was bought as a refurb. In other cases, the company that sells you the product may give its own guarantee in place of the original manufacturer's warranty. The warranty period is often 12 months, but may be as little as three, particularly on older reconditioned stock. If you're not sure who's providing the warranty and what's covered, there's no harm in asking.

You might also want to double-check what's included with the item you're buying. All the major elements should be present and correct compared to new stock, but less crucial items that can go astray in the returns process may not have been replaced, such as the odd bit of printed documentation or a bundled software CD. The packaging might show signs of wear and tear, and the machine itself could have minor scratches and scuffs, though you should be warned about anything that's more than trivial.

If your heart's set on something pristine, bear in mind that refurb suppliers often also deal in brand new discounted goods, untouched since they left the factory. Chain stores, for example, may return items unsold if they need to clear space for new stock, or simply because boxes have deteriorated and can't be put on show.

By the nature of the retail business, whole batches of products quite regularly end up in search of a route to market. Perhaps the manufacturer has made more than retailers have ordered; a retailer has cancelled at the eleventh hour, or gone into liquidation with stock in hand; a product line has been discontinued with units still unsold - the list of reasons goes on. Manufacturers regularly ship overstock goods direct to selected refurb suppliers, sometimes in plain brown boxes but with the same bits inside.

At the other end of the scale, if you don't mind a product that's already seen some use, you can save even more. For example, cheap-it.com offers a wide variety of laptops, ranging from 'as new' factory refurbs through to older systems which, fully reconditioned, sell for amazingly low prices. At the time of writing, business machines that would have cost an arm and a leg when new were available from £120 including VAT and next day delivery. At this end of the market you can't expect the latest fast processors and Windows Vista, but you could pick up a well made system that's fine for basic tasks.

Consumers aren't the only people taking advantage of today's refurb deals. One of the largest vendors in the business, Europc (www.europc.com), makes the bulk of its sale to businesses and public sector organisations who come back again and again to buy one PC or dozens. Founder Dale Cumming has seen the operation mushroom into one of Scotland's fastest growing private companies, with a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility where electronic goods arrive direct from their makers to be remanufactured, repackaged and sold on again as good as new.

In fact, most of them still are new. 'We deal mainly in current product or no more than six months old,' explains Dale.

Variety show

It's not only PCs that you can buy this way. Morgan, for example, sell a vast range of peripherals, devices and components, as well as desktop and laptop systems, from their website (www.morgancomputers.co.uk) and showrooms in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Their monthly yellow flyer, available in paper or email form, is packed with cut-price gizmos, making fascinating and all too tempting reading for anyone who's into consumer electronics.