Monarchcomputer using customers money as a float, anyone have recent experince

[hardwarephreak]

Look, this thread by its very nature is about a difficult subject, but I hope we can keep it civil becuase I think something very serious is happening over at Monarch.
I have recently noticed quite a few similar posts in several of the forums I frequent, and lately the same thing has been being reiterated over at reseller ratings. The charge: Monarch accepts payment immediately and then sits on your money for an absurdly long time before giving a refund. This has personally happened to me TWICE. I gave them a fair shake, a second chance, and it happened again. I have personally spoken (face to face) with at least 5 people that have had similar experiences at a LAN here recently.

Reseller ratings had this notice up not to long ago:
9/27/2006: We have detected and removed 37 fabricated "Very Satisfied" reviews for this store which were submitted between 9/8 and 9/23. The party responsible for submitting those reviews is unknown. This note will disappear after 30 days.

The Monarch Rep has walked out at OCFourms.

Here are two comments that seem to reiterate the same point:

I will chime in with a completely unsubstantiated claim, back by experience with other businesses. Again, this is a plausible guess. Here's what I have seen with similar scenarios, when an organization goes from great to questionable in a short period of time. Let me restate that these are unsubstantiaed claims and merely a guess.

All the signs point to serious financial troubles. Most likely, they're over-extended on credit or owe suppliers some big bucks; or, there's some mismanagement going on and funds aren't accounted for - I've seen this time and time again with private family businesses. They may have expanded quickly, experienced excellent growth, and can't afford to pay their creditors on time. At any rate, the company is short on cash. Assests may be in the millions, but they're barely liquid as an organization. This funnels down to every aspect of the business, from customer service to shipping to product availability.

I'm making this deduction based on the sudden downturn in customer satisfaction at Monarch, and the fact that most complaints are related to very delayed shipping and the inability of the company to refund money. It's not that they don't want to - it's that they don't have the resources to do so. The smoking gun, to me, is that they're using customer's money as float - in essence, a free loan for an extended period of time. This catch-up game almost never works unless an outside infusion of cash is made available or re-financing takes place.

When a company is having a hard time refunding customer's money or is holding customer funds for an extended period of time, things are bad. The other scenario here is that their customer service department suddenly became incompetent overnight - this is unlikely. Again, there could be some management and control issues not related to finances, but all th signs point to financial trouble. I'm sure these are great people who are trying to do their best, but the wheels are coming off the train right now. The number of chargebacks alone must be making the CC companies think twice about their contract.

And the other:

"Monarch has started in on a very negative trend of "floating" with the consumer's money.

Just one year ago, I would have recommended to anyone to purchase from Monarch. Indeed I made a number of purchases from them, and considered myself one of their biggest fans. This encouraged me to keep an extra close eye on all their offerings, advertisements and sales.

Unfortunately, I got caught up in something that I should have had the foresight to see was coming. In the last 2 months (since early Aug 2006), Monarch has had a TON of clearance sales, or extra good sales, on items that would otherwise cost quite a bit more at other vendors. I usually obsess over checking prices with other places. I had started to question how and why Monarch was able to dump all of these products at such low prices...

I should have paid more heed to my own observations. I ordered two graphics cards at ridiculously low prices from Monarch on 25 Aug. A few days later, Monarch emailed me to say that THEY were cancelling the order because of a lack of available stock. OK, fine, it was out of stock. Sort of silly to charge a person's credit card immediately on an item they neither have in stock nor are able to ever replenish stock with ...

Well, the email stated I would receive a full refund on the entire order that they had cancelled. This would occur within 30 days.

45+ days later ... nothing. No refund. No attempt on my part to contact the company has been successful. I called them -- and you get to leave a voice mail message. I emailed them: No response. I used their web form twice, which it states receives a response within 24 hours: No response. I don't know what the purpose is of having a web form if the business never responds to the entries on that form...

Anyway, as I have continued to watch the "sales" roll in to my inbox during Sept. and now October ... sometimes 2 or 3 clearances announces in the same week ... I was like -- WOW, I get it -- they are doing this to lots of people. They are charging our cards right away, on stock they do not have, and then they float on our money to pay their bills for 30-60 days. This is normally a very bad sign for the health of a company. I hope their doors remain open long enough for me to be able to obtain a refund. My current burn is for $86.57. At this point I do not know if I will ever see it back."

I posted those two comments because these two people seem to have a better grasp of the financial aspects of the situation than most everyday hardware forum posters. Since this is dedicated to computers and gadgets I thought it most appropriate to start a thread here.

Please, again, no bashing or flaming, just a discussion about peoples experiences. Most people only post when they have had a negative experience, that's just human nature. In business they tell you that a satisfied customer may tell one or two people. A dissatisfied customer will tell at least 10. So there is bound to be more people willing to gripe about their problems, but I think something bad is going on over there, and I want to save some people the hassle if it is a bigger problem than just a few isloated incidents.

Edit: There is also a thread over at Anandtech that states that the Georgia Gov.Sonny Perdue's Office Of Consumer Affairs is "Investigating Numerous Complaints, and may take further action soon."(IE: Restraining Order/Shut-Down)

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=1932843

The mods over there have posted an addendum to the OPs post, that the thread CAN be useful if everyone stays civil, and I hope the mods here will help keep this thing in check, as there are a lot of people who can't afford this type of behavior that Monarch has been exhibiting lately.

[C.Norris]

Something is going on with monarch. I too have had issues with them and it sucks to deal with them or should I say not be able to deal with them because they do not respond to email or ans phones.

There was a thread in the hot deals section about monarch and hardOCP not having adverts for them anymore but that thread was deleted, not just locked.

I have seen the threads over at oc forums which are highly entertaining plus monarch is using different handles (see resellerratings forum). Monarch is saying they are innocent with the 37 reviews at RR but it is now clear to me that they are lying due to them using different handles on forums to gain support for them.

[hardwarephreak]

They have great deals on hardware, but the support after the sale is what seems to be sorely lacking. It just seems like things are going from bad to worse. I always wondered why it took them over thirty days to refund, many people having to resort to calling their CC company and disputing the charges. Then I started seeing tons of people whose situations had the same MO. It sucks to see a company fall apart like this...to me it seems like poor management, or company policies put in place by management that are not really desiged to help satisfy the customer.

[Kyle_Bennett]

I am going to allow this thread because I think it is something that needs to be openly discussed. BUT HEAR THIS. Anyone and everyone that decides to call names or rant, or act in a way that is other than proper and civil will be banned permanently. So if you have something to say, I suggest you put on your daddy's shoes and act like a grown up. Childishness will get you banned.

[jebo_4jc]

I feel sorry for them, as I understand business is hard, and I've always enjoyed my experiences with them. But these practices are unexcuseable.

I think Kyle's comments above as well as the sudden disappearance of Monarch ads and the deletion of the thread discussing this fact are likely indicators that HardOCP wasn't getting paid by Monarch either. Things go from bad to worse when a company is in trouble like this. The apparently false resellerratings don't help the situation, and reek of a desperate attempt to try to remedy a bad situation.

Please keep in mind that Monarch employees are likely not to blame here. They are probably being laid off- or worse- not being paid for their work. Again, assuming all the rumors are true, the major mistake here is management over-extending the company and not having enough foresight to slow down a bit once warning signs started to pop up.

Good luck to Monarch, I hope you pull out of this. However I would advise buyers to stay away from them for the time being.

[Astrogiblet]

This is really unfortunate. They have always been a pretty big name. I've never personally dealt with them, but I have seen some of their very good deals. And I've heard friends talk about them before.

I, as well, hope they can pull outta this. The computer industry, especially sales (and online at that!), is a tricky field to be in.

[NACZ3]

I hate to see Monarch going downhill. I have made several of my purchases (MB, CPU, Videocard, Ram, HDs) from them and have recommended them to friends in the past. I haven't purchased anything in about a year from them and a friend/coworker bought his MB/CPU from them about 6-7 months ago without issue.

I haven't looked at any of the OCForums posts concerning Monarch and this situation.

PCPER.com (aka AMDMB.com) still has them on their forums there and a new rep posted in their hot deals sections (although the last post was on 10/17/06).

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=428965

I'm pretty wary of making any additional purchases from them for now. I think it will be a hard road for them to regain the trust of the community. If they cannot regain their customers, then I really don't see how they can recover from all this. I'd hate to see a loss of competition in this area. When I lived in San Diego, Monarch was the only tax free store with prices similar to or below that of Newegg and ZipZoomFly which charge tax in CA.

[pigpen]

hmmmm, feel bad for the customers who have gotten caught up in this. Hope everybody gets their money back. Just read through the reseller ratings and most of the recent comments have a common theme.

[Konrad]

This really saddens me, as they just had a contest on the Hot Deals forum and I won, and they gave me some really cool stuff.
But if any of the things you are claiming to be true are true, then it could mean Monarch is about to lose its throne.

[ClearH2O]

I had a similar situation when the 7900 series was launched in March of this year. I ordered a EVGA 7900GT CO for a not the best price but it was instock, verified with a phone call. My bank account was charged immediately and days later still no word on shipment. I called and was told that they were out of stock even though the web site still showed instock. I canceled my order and was told that I would receive a refund in about 30 days. I called to notify them that unless they were paying interest on these funds that this is unacceptable for services not rendered. After a week or so of e-mails and phone calls I contacted my banks fraud department and lo and behold my money was back in my account the next day.

I would be curious to see if they are commiting any accounting fraud by not recording cash received for services not provided as a liability (unearned revenue). If they are a public company all anyone should have to do is file a request for their financial statements and look for unearned revenue in the current liabilities portion of their balance sheet along with an audit of their revenue recognition practices. This should show with out a doubt, assuming GAAP is followed, if they are using customers money to "float" the company.

[strikeout]

i just ordered a 7950gt from them a few days ago for a damn good price. FedEx says nov1 and i hope everything is good. I always wondered why they charged $35 bucks for stuff that should come free like (like customer service/return policy). I have ordered in the past from them without any probs so hopefully this will be a continuation.

[hardwarephreak]

i just ordered a 7950gt from them a few days ago for a damn good price. FedEx says nov1 and i hope everything is good. I always wondered why they charged $35 bucks for stuff that should come free like (like customer service/return policy). I have ordered in the past from them without any probs so hopefully this will be a continuation.

Please let us know how things go.

[strikeout]

fedex dropped it off today. I guess for me it can be a worst case scenario. A clearance PNY 7950gt from monarch. So far things are looking good. Next post will be from my rig(using mac right now). Im not gonna OC but i am gonna try to put a AC silencer on it. If all goes well it will a good $240 shipped well spent.

I really want to see monarch succeed. Im tired of newegg and their damn CA tax. Tired of their damn UPS shipping. Tired of them in general. We need someone based out of cali to offset newegg.

*just got done playing some CS:S and FEAR Combat on my new card/2007. Looks damn good and smooth. I'll do some benches later on. Right now off hand, I thought that a bigger monitor(2007 from generic 17") would kill my fps. Now with the card its like pushing pixels and not breaking a sweat.

[Astrogiblet]

fedex dropped it off today. I guess for me it can be a worst case scenario. A clearance PNY 7950gt from monarch. So far things are looking good. Next post will be from my rig(using mac right now). Im not gonna OC but i am gonna try to put a AC silencer on it. If all goes well it will a good $240 shipped well spent.

I really want to see monarch succeed. Im tired of newegg and their damn CA tax. Tired of their damn UPS shipping. Tired of them in general. We need someone based out of cali to offset newegg.

*just got done playing some CS:S and FEAR Combat on my new card/2007. Looks damn good and smooth. I'll do some benches later on. Right now off hand, I thought that a bigger monitor(2007 from generic 17") would kill my fps. Now with the card its like pushing pixels and not breaking a sweat.


lol. Your bashing a well known, VERY highly regarded company for following tax laws? And they ship fedex shipping too, ya know?

[jcll2002]

They have great deals on hardware, but the support after the sale is what seems to be sorely lacking. It just seems like things are going from bad to worse. I always wondered why it took them over thirty days to refund, many people having to resort to calling their CC company and disputing the charges. Then I started seeing tons of people whose situations had the same MO. It sucks to see a company fall apart like this...to me it seems like poor management, or company policies put in place by management that are not really desiged to help satisfy the customer.
ive had GREAT support from them! I RMAed a few things to them and they fedex overnighted them without me asking. they also bumped me up from a 7900gt to a 7950GT for free :). Ive had great experiences with them.

Also, no california tax :) unlike newegg :(. Thats why i go to monarch before newegg whenever i want to buy something expensive.

[Astrogiblet]

Also, no california tax :) unlike newegg :(. Thats why i go to monarch before newegg whenever i want to buy something expensive.


Isnt that highly illegal? Or maybe they just pay the tax for you in order to have something over Newegg. Maybe thats why they are in financial trouble. They have all these California buyers that they are having to pay hefty tax for. Or the IRS cracked down on them for not charging tax to Cali people.. Hmm...

[synergyo1]

Isnt that highly illegal? Or maybe they just pay the tax for you in order to have something over Newegg. Maybe thats why they are in financial trouble. They have all these California buyers that they are having to pay hefty tax for. Or the IRS cracked down on them for not charging tax to Cali people.. Hmm...


Californians pay tax for Newegg because thats where their warehouse/business is situated (Cali). Same goes for Monarch. You pay tax if you are shipping a Monarch product to Gerogia (i think thats where they are located?). I pay tax for products purchased from Dell's website because they have stores in my state.

Regardless, if a business has a physical entity within your state then expect to pay tax.

[jcll2002]

Californians pay tax for Newegg because thats where their warehouse/business is situated (Cali). Same goes for Monarch. You pay tax if you are shipping a Monarch product to Gerogia (i think thats where they are located?). I pay tax for products purchased from Dell's website because they have stores in my state.

Regardless, if a business has a physical entity within your state then expect to pay tax.
correct

[Astrogiblet]

Californians pay tax for Newegg because thats where their warehouse/business is situated (Cali). Same goes for Monarch. You pay tax if you are shipping a Monarch product to Gerogia (i think thats where they are located?). I pay tax for products purchased from Dell's website because they have stores in my state.

Regardless, if a business has a physical entity within your state then expect to pay tax.


Yea, I knew this. For some reason I thought he said monarch was in cali and he still didnt pay cali tax.

[Frank4d]

My last purchase at Monarch was a PSU. It showed as being stock and they immediately charged my credit card. When it didn't arrive after about ten days I sent Monarch an email. No response. So I sent another email. Again no response. A few days later my PSU showed up, but it took about two weeks.

[Lethal]

Californians pay tax for Newegg because thats where their warehouse/business is situated (Cali). Same goes for Monarch. You pay tax if you are shipping a Monarch product to Gerogia (i think thats where they are located?). I pay tax for products purchased from Dell's website because they have stores in my state.

Regardless, if a business has a physical entity within your state then expect to pay tax.
True, dat. There's some kind of "minimum presence" requirement for a business to have to collect sales tax in a state. That doesn't mean only just where the headquarters or warehouses is located. When you buy from outpost.com, you pay sales tax on orders from any state where they have a B&M Fry's.

For the record, California income tax forms "require" you to report out-of-state internet purchases on which you did not pay CA state sales tax. You are then supposed to calculate this into your return so you can pay CA state tax on said purchases. Will you get busted (audited) if you don't? I'm by no means a tax expert, but at this stage of the game, I don't think they have the resources to determine that you didn't voluntarily report this info.

But I do seem to recall an article about another state (I want to think it was someplace like Michigan?) that subpoenaed records from an out-of-state internet (American Indian?) cigarette sales site and then billed in-state residents for sales tax on their out-of-state tobacco purchases.

Seems like it will only be a matter of time before the states start acting in collusion on these matters.

Edit: Found an article (http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2052) on the Michigan cigarette tax situation.

[jcll2002]

im 16 lol. would i even have to report that?

[GreenMonkey]

Thanks for the heads-up on this, folks. It does sound disconcerting. I'll be sure to think over any monarch orders accordingly until reports change.

[hardwarephreak]

It seems that some people at least are still getting their orders on time without issues.

[jcll2002]

ive had no problems with refunds with them nor purchases. Ive had the best service ive ever had from a company in terms of tech support and the entire process.

[strikeout]

lol. Your bashing a well known, VERY highly regarded company for following tax laws? And they ship fedex shipping too, ya know?

well what the hell is the benefit of an internet company anyways from a B&M store in cali? There are lots of small businesses that run warehouses that will let you do a local pickup. For example SVC sells good accessories for dirt cheap like yate loon fans for $3.99 and old style CM stacker for 89.99. I could call on my lunch hr and pick up it up after work in less than 10 mins ( one street down in san jose ca)

newegg on the other hand, i pay 8.75% tax, wait 2-3 days, pray UPS doesnt play hockey with my package or pay more for Fedex. All for $10 cheaper?

when i first made my rig(first rig ever) i got 85% of it from newegg including the monitor. Prolly $1200. So with tax i paid 105+ shipping. I got my case there so shipping was huge like $50+ for all the components. I think i had like 3-5 shipments even tho i ordered at the same time. On the other hand, i had a friend do 85% of his stuff from monarch. He got some nice stuff at the time like a 7800gtx whent they were still $450 etc etc. I think he spent 2k overall. How much did he spend on tax? 0. how much on shipping? very little because they had free shipping on a lot the stuff for the holidays. Both of us havent had major probs, both of us have gone to lans and pwned in BF2. Niether of us missed out waiting for parts.

so all in all, monarch to me is 'true' e-tailor while newegg acts like a B&M with a website similar to outpost. I'll only buy something for either newegg or outpost unless its super hot where shipping/tax/price are all at rock bottom prices.

[arcturus]

Monarch CSR banned at ocforums:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=483249

[arcturus]

How can [H] learn from this?

Clearly when a vendor is sponsored by a site and is permitted to advertise, it's reasonable to expect that the site in turn has an implied responsibility to its members to assure that the vendor is living up to its end of the bargain.

As this is a higher standard, member criticisms, especially those that show a consistent and repeated nature, need to be resolved in prompt fashion, not in knee-jerk reaction such as thread deletion or member ban. It looks pretty hypcritcal for members to be banned only to discover their complaints were indeed justified and the vendor is pulled.

Perhaps a sponsored vendor subforum might be in order. After all, poor service by the vendor makes the site look bad too. On the other hand, successful resolution in a public forum is seen as a great characteristic, a company we'd like to deal with in the future.

[zooraf]

Over the past 14-15 months, I have purchased 2 raptor drives, at least 12 sticks of DDR, DDR2 and DDR ECC memory, an Athlon 64 cpu, an Athlon X2 and a higher-end fan from Monarch. I have never experienced any problems with shipping or billing.

One of the DDR2 chips sent was defective and Monarch refused a return/exchange - asking me instead to turn to the manufacturer because I didn't buy Monarch's service contract. Kind of a pisser, but no big deal and resolved itself in a week (with the memory manufacturer) at no charge to me.

I know I could have fought it (cancelled the charge to my CC for the stick, etc), but business is a two-way street. You help them out, they help you out. I do most of my shopping at directron, tigerdirect, or monarch picking vendor by lowest price. At one time or another, I have heard negative reviews about all of these vendors but I personally have never had any experiences that would make me doubt their honesty or trustworthiness.

Whatever problems Monarch may have, I hope they are resolved because I like their product offerings, prices and service.

[Jasonx82]

Monarch is horrible @ returning money.. its always 5-6 weeks + from my personal exp. :o

And they have a credit dept. that never picks up, its always a voicemail. :mad:

Other then that monarch is good as long as they have the item in stock and you dont cancel:)

[Zoogle]

So it seems the moral of the story (at least ATM) is that you want to make sure you want to buy it before laying down the dough, lest you want a long refund period. Note, if you're with a nice credit card company, you can ask them to flat-out negate the charge to your card if a refund is taking a long time. Fire up those credit disputes and let your credit card company do the dirty fighting for you.

[TheBluePill]

I have seen a lot of companies like this come and go over the decades. Holding customer money is really the first sign of problems. The worse case scenario is what happened to the customers of NC based "thezeb.com" a couple of years ago. They were very much like Monarch. Great prices and stellar customer service for a couple of years. They were not a houshold name, but all of the folks that were in the hobby knew about them and ordered regularly. One day they started a MASSIVE clearance sale with some top dollar products going for as low as 50% off and over a million dollars worth of items being put on ebay as well.

The Sell went through for several weeks on the web site and the auctions concluded. Everyone was so stocked over the sale in the community. Then no one received anything. Nothing at all. The phones were disconnected and they were gone! These people had advertised all over the web and sponcered many large events. They were "trustworthy" and then bam... Gone. Several weeks later everyone received a letter from bankruptcy court stating that they were listed as a creditor to the company or taht they had paid "thezeb.com" for services and products not received. There was nothing anyone could do. The Bankruptcy was discharged and everyone lost their money (that didn't get it back from their CCs). TheZeb's onwers, since they filed bankruptcy got away scott free.

Beware of the warning signs folks...

[schizo]

The moral of the story is to always use a credit card, not a debit card and certainly not paypal. If you use a creditcard you're 100% protected. Frankly I don't know why that guy let them stall for 31 days, after a week I would have charged-back.

[mwarps]

well what the hell is the benefit of an internet company anyways from a B&M store in cali? There are lots of small businesses that run warehouses that will let you do a local pickup. For example SVC sells good accessories for dirt cheap like yate loon fans for $3.99 and old style CM stacker for 89.99. I could call on my lunch hr and pick up it up after work in less than 10 mins ( one street down in san jose ca)

newegg on the other hand, i pay 8.75% tax, wait 2-3 days, pray UPS doesnt play hockey with my package or pay more for Fedex. All for $10 cheaper?

when i first made my rig(first rig ever) i got 85% of it from newegg including the monitor. Prolly $1200. So with tax i paid 105+ shipping. I got my case there so shipping was huge like $50+ for all the components. I think i had like 3-5 shipments even tho i ordered at the same time. On the other hand, i had a friend do 85% of his stuff from monarch. He got some nice stuff at the time like a 7800gtx whent they were still $450 etc etc. I think he spent 2k overall. How much did he spend on tax? 0. how much on shipping? very little because they had free shipping on a lot the stuff for the holidays. Both of us havent had major probs, both of us have gone to lans and pwned in BF2. Niether of us missed out waiting for parts.

so all in all, monarch to me is 'true' e-tailor while newegg acts like a B&M with a website similar to outpost. I'll only buy something for either newegg or outpost unless its super hot where shipping/tax/price are all at rock bottom prices.Are you saying you don't pay cali tax at a B&M in cali?

[hardwarephreak]

Monarch CSR banned at ocforums:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=483249


I had that posted in my original post, however I changed it becuase it seems to me like he left under his own terms, and they (the OC forums mods) just disabled his account.

[Scroatdog]

Sad to see, really. This could not come at a worse possible time for them as well, with Black Friday and the Holiday Season steadily approaching. Retaining customer refund money over an unreasonable amount of time is bad business, period.

Whatever is going on there, I do not think we will ever know. Monarch's sales have grown over the last year and a half. This may be a management problem. If we had access to information such as total credit sales that were due to be refunded, and the time frame in which the refunds were withheld, it might bring to light accounting procedures that are designed to deny refunds and carry the sales on their books until monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual financial results are due. With little/no accounts payable on their books, it can do a lot for their bottom line on paper.

I personally haven't had a bad experience with Monarch. I've made two purchases with them and was pleased with the products I received.

To them I say good luck, as it is we customers who benefit by having substantial choice when it comes to online [H]ardware purchases. More choice = more competition = lower prices. Unless you're an early adopter in which case you pay through the nose anyway... :p :p (guilty!)

Now, we need Kyle to step back further from the [H] network and open [H].com - his own online retail outfit. :D (I'll speak to you later about my consultant fees Kyle. LOL)

[jaspur]

Just stumbled onto this thread. I was wondering what other people thought about Monarch. I just cancelled an order for a CPU cooler last week and I called verify that it was being charged back to my credit card. The rep said that it would be about 30 days. I thought that it seemed like an awful long time. Makes sense now.

[AssMan]

The first order I made from them went great.... They shipped it out fast and the prices were good. After that I realized I needed a new PSU and the site said it was instock but it never shipped and they wouldn't reply to any of my e-mails. after two or three weeks I e-mailed them asking them to just refund my CC and they did that pretty quick and I got the PSU from Newegg.

I ordered an Opteron 165 after that and it took a while to ship and they didn't keep me updated on the status but I did get it and a good price on it. I was kinda surprised it came though.

After hearing all this I don't think I'm gonna be shopping at Monarch at all anymore. Sad to see Monarch go downhill like this.

[the miser]

I live in Georgia and have never been to Monarch (mapquest says it'slike 20 minutes away). Do they sell parts b&m in addition to online? If they do, do they honor online pricing?

[aZn_plyR]

Well when I shopped there, things went smooth, but slowly compared to the mighty newegg.


They took awhile to ship, I had to call. The $20 heatsink I bought needed a signature, which was very frustrating for me, but that's thier policy so I shouldn't complain about it.

Overall it was a good experiences, besides the shipping policy. ( signature required in person ) And a little slow shipping.

From reading this thread, the bad things seems to only happen to items of great value that are limited. etc.

[Rogue4mula]

because of the signature required garbage, I have not and never will buy from them

[aZn_plyR]

because of the signature required garbage, I have not and never will buy from themlol, THE ONLY REASON I did not jump on that opteron 165 deal. But driving half an hour to the nearest fedex warehouse isn't that bad... :)

[NeoGohan]

I used to buy a lot of stuff in the past 5 years off Monarch. And everything was perfect. Last time I bought from them was like 4-5 months ago or whenever they were giving away free Age of Empires 3 to people with 3 invoices from them.

I'm very sad that they are getting a bad rep now especially because of their high status in the past. I hope things get better for them because I would like to buy from them again but then these stories make me think twice. =\

[The Gonz]

Talk about praying...

I jumped on the opty 165 deal 2 days ago. Pretty good deal for an OEM part. Nothing stellar so maybe I will actually get it.

I received an e-mail stating that my order was received blah blah blah and it will take 2-3 business days to process. Sounds like that one guy in the receiving dept. needs a day off, just not until he gets my order finished.

Anyways I will keep everyone posted on this experience. I have used Monarch in the past and always had good times with them. But my loyalty lies with my wallet first. I also have a good repor(sp?) with my CC company so any funny business and I am firing up the speed dial and talking to Ted the Chase Mastercard customer rep.

But all in all, regardless of how good this experience may or may not be I will be blacklisting Monarch until (1) They get their act together or (2) They disappear.

[Roberty]

I live in Georgia and have never been to Monarch (mapquest says it'slike 20 minutes away). Do they sell parts b&m in addition to online? If they do, do they honor online pricing?

Yes, you can go there and buy directly. They do have a storefront. As far as I know they do honor their online prices and sometimes run "local" sales as well.

I've bought several times from Monarch without ANY problems. That said, I have not bought anything lately so I don't know how they are doing in the last month or so. Hopefully they'll right the Monarch ship and get past this.

[Dew]

The last thing I bought from Monarch was the eVGA mATX SLi board in March(I think). I guess I was lucky and made my last order before things went downhill. Sucks that such a respected company went that bad, that quickly.

[jonathonball]

I've only ever purchased one thing from Monarch: My X2 4800+ for $299 the day after the price drops; the transaction went smoothly and I received my purchase in working order in a relatively timely manner. I say relatively because they did give me a minor hassle because I put down Apt 555 and the credit card company had it written down as #555, but one e-mail fixed the problem and my item shipped. (and no, that's not really my apartment number :rolleyes: )

I only mention this because everytime I read a monarch thread like this; I feel like I dodged a bullet.

[NordicRX8]

The only thing I have ever ordered from Monarch was an OCZ Powerstream PSU. That was over a year ago. CC was charged immediately, took 3 days for the order to be processed and then it shipped. Other than the "process time", everything went smoothly.
Was getting ready to order a CPU from Monarch when C2D hit and AMD prices dropped... then I started reading about all the problems... I went elsewhere for my CPU (newegg. in stock, order charged and shipped same day, delivered in 2 days instead of 3).

[Ockie]

Yeah I've had a long wait to get a refund and they also sold me something that said it was instock and then tell me it's actually backordered. I refuse to shop from them as they are quite shady.

[digitalxdna]

ordered a eVGA 7800 GTX from the back in february, and had no problems from ordering to delivery. but reading around in this thread and in other forum, it seems that my order was before monarch's customer service went to hell...

[niranjan162]

i just recently ordered a opty 165 from them. They said there was a problem with my card and billing address which was the same as the shipping. So i emailed them a couple days later they responded and a couple days after that i recieved it. Works fine. I dont know if they did it on purpose but they bumped me up to 2 day shipping for free, which was nice

[Tolyngee]

Back in Jan/Feb I decided to put together a "mega" game system (or whatever). 7800GTX SLI, FX-60 CPU ($1K+ at that time), etc.

Due to their great word-of-mouth, I had been thinking about ordering from Monarch for probably close to a half-yr. It was not an impulse buy, nor did I just stumble across their website. (Until the dual-core FX-60 appeared, I was about to do a dual Opteron set-up on some Tyan motherboard... for those thinking "the fx-60 hadn't been around for six months..."))

I ordered it on-line, and was surprised to see my CC's # pop-up on my cell phone... Wonder what they want? It was their fraud dept. wanting to be certain I had indeed placed this order ($1,900 if I rem right) with Monarch. I kinda brushed it off, didn't ask them any questions, and just told them "yes, I did." They just wanted to be certain.

Now, I was so excited about getting the computer that I didn't want this to be any alarm in my mind. But in my previous 15+ yrs of ordering on-line/etc, this was only the second time my CC's fraud dept had contacted me. (The previous time was also a situation that in the end ended up not being so great, with me having to re-contact my credit card company for assistance... In a nutshell, the place I ordered from kept charging me and charging me for an item until they hit my credit limit... At which point the charges started being denied, at which point the retailer said they would not send me my order as my card was denied... Their were MULTIPLE good charges on my card, just they didn't know what they were doing... My CC company even offered to call the retailer with the multiple good approval codes, but the retailer said they would just wait until all of my charges cleared off of my card... Needless to say, never ordered from them again...)

Well, I think about a week went by (it was an order for a barebones system, takes a few days to assemble and test...), and somehow I came across some threads in some forums about Monarch might not be using quality parts in their builds, and maybe parts fail... Couldn't be certain on this, but it made me a bit antsy... I was only saving maybe $200 from just going to my local shop that always does great work for me...

So the day came when I was expecting they may be shipping my order (per their time schedules on their website...) I wanted to see about maybe speeding-up my shipping...

Well, they hadn't done a darn thing yet with my order. Then, they didn't even seem to know what my order was (although I had my order # in all contacts I made to them). Then they started sending me e-mails with the wrong name. They don't know my order, now they don't seem to even know who I am?

Since I was antsy anyway, I decided this was a sign to just cancel my order. I received a few "are you sure you want to cancel?" e-mails. It seemed multiple people in their own office were getting mixed-in with something there.

Anyhow, I did (sorta) receive a "your order has been cancelled" ack., but then nothing.

I don't rem how long I waited (maybe a week, maybe two) before I contacted my CC company. (I didn't want to contact them too soon and have them say that I haven't given the retailer time to comply or something...)

My CC company was able to pull-up the charge in question. They also mentioned before I could that it had been flagged by their fraud division. Before I could get my full story out, they told me to just file a chargeback and "let us handle it."

I'm kind of wondering if "Monarch" was already a flag for them?

I must admit, at least I did get some communication (and quick at that) from Monarch about stuff (until I cancelled, anyway)... But ALL of the communcations from them were terribly confusing...

My impression was that the place was being run by a bunch of HS computer "freaks 'n' geeks"...

In the end, I do have to say I was really surprised by my experience, considering the excellent word-of-mouth about them up 'til that point...

[itsmikey]

I purchased an Opty 165 from them during the huge opty coupon days.. No problems whatsoever. Took a few days longer than most places, but I expect that.

[Tolyngee]

http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75350&page=4

It seems "Shawn" from Monarch is now attacking RR and how they come to their ratings figures! :rolleyes:

[saturnine2]

Monarch is horrible @ returning money.. its always 5-6 weeks + from my personal exp. :o

Over 2 months IME.

I've posted my story here a couple times, do a search if you really care. One thing I don't recall mentioning though was the fact the the Monarch Deals guy that posted here outright lied to me several times about my refund over the course of two weeks.

I do have to give them credit for the product packaging though :)

[Ryokurin]

I've had decent luck. But I typically go to their store directly since they are about 10 miles away from my house. I will admit however that the last time I went in there around August or so the vibe there just felt much different. It was in a way I just couldn't put my finger on. I really do hope that they get whatever it is fixed as in the Atlanta area most of the shops are shady or crappy. You can see this in all the lawsuits that Microsoft has put on the local stores here in the past year for piracy.

[Tolyngee]

I must admit, at least I did get some communication (and quick at that) from Monarch about stuff (until I cancelled, anyway)... But ALL of the communcations from them were terribly confusing...


After reading mroe about Monarch, and re-reading my old e-mails, I came to this conclusion (also posted on another forum):

Actually, looking back at my e-mails from earlier this yr, I change the story I mentioned earlier at hardforum about Monarch. I now wonder if all of my e-mails were from a single person, just trying to continue the confusion surrounding my order. And them getting my name wrong? I now wonder if call me "Billerbeck" may have been some odd way for them to take a cheap shot at me?

The way Shawn's acting really, really makes me wonder... At the time they seemed just completely disorganized... But maybe it is organized manipulation!?!?!?

[khuyakuya]

lol. Your bashing a well known, VERY highly regarded company for following tax laws? And they ship fedex shipping too, ya know?
eh a highly regarded company for sure but less highly regarded as of late than it once was. one of my biggest complaints of newegg, which is a recent thing, is the individual item shipping charges. i remember back when they had a total shipping charge. but now they do it individually and im telling you, on a lot of the things they ship, they are NOT paying nearly as much to ups to ship those products as they are charging to ship them. for example i just bought two usb flash drives. together they were incredibly light and took up VERY little space. i paid ten dollars for shipping, five dollars a piece. lets say i had bought six of those drives. i know for sure it wouldve costed much less than ten, probably 8 to ship the drives, when i end up paying 30. its like the egg is charging people who buy the less expensive products to make up for them offering free shipping on the high value products. they really should cease this per product shipping scheme.

[khuyakuya]

How can [H] learn from this?

Clearly when a vendor is sponsored by a site and is permitted to advertise, it's reasonable to expect that the site in turn has an implied responsibility to its members to assure that the vendor is living up to its end of the bargain.

As this is a higher standard, member criticisms, especially those that show a consistent and repeated nature, need to be resolved in prompt fashion, not in knee-jerk reaction such as thread deletion or member ban. It looks pretty hypcritcal for members to be banned only to discover their complaints were indeed justified and the vendor is pulled.

Perhaps a sponsored vendor subforum might be in order. After all, poor service by the vendor makes the site look bad too. On the other hand, successful resolution in a public forum is seen as a great characteristic, a company we'd like to deal with in the future.
Quite Fucking True. Basically, not saying anything on this matter even though you advertised Monarch to us looks VERY bad on [H]ardocp too. So as grown adults, it'd be most responsible if you shed light on this Kyle. whats going on with the recent removal of Monarch advertisements and Monarch deals in the hotdeals?

[khuyakuya]

The only thing I have ever ordered from Monarch was an OCZ Powerstream PSU. That was over a year ago. CC was charged immediately, took 3 days for the order to be processed and then it shipped. Other than the "process time", everything went smoothly.
Was getting ready to order a CPU from Monarch when C2D hit and AMD prices dropped... then I started reading about all the problems... I went elsewhere for my CPU (newegg. in stock, order charged and shipped same day, delivered in 2 days instead of 3).


as someone said earlier, i do think their poor service is mainly on their big items. the ones that they actually use to acquire ur funds so they can float on lol

[Met-AL]

eh a highly regarded company for sure but less highly regarded as of late than it once was. one of my biggest complaints of newegg, which is a recent thing, is the individual item shipping charges.

Yep. It stops me from buying little items from them. They stick them all in the same box and the total weight is still under the mininum weight on UPS's rate table, but you still pay for each one to be shipped. Not cool.

[khuyakuya]

Yep. It stops me from buying little items from them. They stick them all in the same box and the total weight is still under the mininum weight on UPS's rate table, but you still pay for each one to be shipped. Not cool.
i think its VERY unethical for a company to profit off of the shipping and handling. too bad there isnt a law against it. cuz i know for fucking DAMN SURE NewEgg is cleaning up on Shipping and handling.

[magoo]

As for all of this.......its too bad Monarch has problems, perceived or otherwise.

It certainly isnt [H]'s problem. Any company can advertise anywhere, as long as they pay the bill. It appears Monarch is gone from here, so one must assume they couldnt pay the bills or simply pulled their advertising to save money.

As for NewEgg......I agree pricing individual items and sticking with it when multiple items are ordered is a bit extreme. However I ordered a bunchof stuff last month and the shipping was much less than what the individual items would have added up to, so I think they're fixing that slowly.......but I have to cut them some slack......they have to pay people and all that packing material aint free.

[QuimZ]

I don't feel even slightly bad for monarch and the situation they've put themselves in, if they don't have a safetey net, then close the doors. You can't stall people out and hold onto their cash like this and stay in business. I've seen multiple threads on different forums about them holding onto $2k+ of their customer's money, in my eyes that's unexscusable. Whether you got good service in the past or not, that's dirty business. I'd never trust them with my money after this debacle. To be quite honest, I can't understand why some people defend them.

And as far as newegg it made me sick seeing them go to UPS as the default carrier, they lost some business from me because of that. Everytime UPS comes to the door with something it looks like the box went through a war..like 10 people took turns giving it a blanket party.

[w1retap]

hrm.. never had any problems with Monarch. I've probably ordered over $25,000 or more worth of merchandise from them over the years for work and personal use. They always pick up the phone when I call and they take care of my RMA pretty quickly. I just did a RMA last week and already got it back this past Friday. Shipping is also quick for me. I did a pre-order on my 5000+ mobo combo, and I got that within 7 business days. I just did another order on a X2 3800+ mobo combo for work, so we'll see how that goes. But up until now, I have zero complaints and I actually favor monarch over newegg for most of my purchases. The only thing I have a complaint about with monarch is that if you want to ship to something other than your billing address, you have to have your credit card company approve the transaction and add the new shipping address to your billing address. That is clearly stated in their terms and conditions though that you agree to before you purchase. Some people just don't read, then they blame the company for their mistakes.

[valve1138]

Such a shame, I've ordered several things from them through the years and always had zero problems. I didnt even mind the sig required crap on their shipments.

Looks like I'll have to avoid them.

[C.Norris]

The problems are NOT with their policies. The problems are spelled out in numerous other posts mainly that they are not refunding money for many people. Be it that those people canceled their order or if Monarch canceled the order, the common theme is that people have to waste time trying to contact Monarch, be lied to, then have to do the CC charge back thing.

What is most fascinating to me is Monarch seeding threads or review sites to improve image rather than fix their problems.

I have had 2 orders with them in the past and neither one went great. On my last order, I was lied to by Monarch, plus tried to contact them but was unable to do so because they didn't reply to email or answer phones. I did not submit a review at RR so their current 4.7~ out of ten score for the last 6 months is not due to me but rather Monarch.

[khuyakuya]

i dont know where i got my cpu and mobo from. i thought zipzoomfly but then i checked my order history with them and there is no sign of it on there. then i checked my newegg order history and saw no sign of it on there either, so its POSSIBLE i ordered my mobo n cpu from them but i cant remember. if i did, it was hitch free but i cant remember so bleh

[Mav451]

This is why I love places like [H]. The transparency of information. I'll definitely inform my friends about this and recommend them to go elsewhere.

[hardwarephreak]

Check this out:

Reseller Ratings forum (http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75350&page=5)

See the post by areyoukiddingme about half way down the page...

Then go here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=483249

Go down the the first post by areyoukiddingme...then look at the post just below him made by jcll2002...its the same post by two different people in two different forums.:eek:

Tell me something isn't rotten in Denmark :rolleyes:

[jcll2002]

lol im just some guy on a bunch of different forums.

I just posted in a few spots telling people MY experience with monarch, seeing that so many wont buy from them unless "good" reports come in.

EDIT: WTF? I never posted that on reseller ratings! Thats not me! Thats really stupid and annoying.

EDIT2: that seems to be the second monarch alias. damn, thats really stupid.

[Mav451]

lol im just some guy on a bunch of different forums.

I just posted in a few spots telling people MY experience with monarch, seeing that so many wont buy from them unless "good" reports come in.

EDIT: WTF? I never posted that on reseller ratings! Thats not me! Thats really stupid and annoying.

EDIT2: that seems to be the second monarch alias. damn, thats really stupid.

If that's true, maybe you can get OC Forums to show what email that alias was registered under.

[synergyo1]

lol im just some guy on a bunch of different forums.

I just posted in a few spots telling people MY experience with monarch, seeing that so many wont buy from them unless "good" reports come in.

EDIT: WTF? I never posted that on reseller ratings! Thats not me! Thats really stupid and annoying.

EDIT2: that seems to be the second monarch alias. damn, thats really stupid.

busted?

[jcll2002]

busted?

yeah, ill contact a mod @ ocf

[hardwarephreak]

It all just seems to me that monarch's owner or employees are willing to go to any length...

How can anyone trust a company that is soo unethical. :confused:

[jcll2002]

heres a post at that thread from silversinksam, an overclockers forum mod

http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1129897&postcount=115

[hardwarephreak]

There is a slight problem in that post, which in a minute (once I register over at OC and reseller ratings) I will post about over there as well.

Here is a the problem...the OC mod posting in the forums over at RR had this to say about the various repeat postings under different names

What this clown Areyoukiddingme did was find this ORIGINAL post (http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=4757933&postcount=8) by jcll2002 dated 10-25-06, 07:59 PM

And then on 10-26-2006, 01:19 AM Areyoukiddinme cut and pasted jcll2002's post and posted the EXACT thing here verbatim (http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1129393&postcount=87)

OK here is the problem...he got it backwards...

The Areyoukiddinme post ocurred at 10-25-2006, 07:19 PM on RR Forums. Then jcII2002 posted the same thing over in the OC Forums at 10-25-06, 07:59 PM. So something still isn't right...It appears that jcII2002 copied the post, not the other way around.

Hmmmmm. Interesting, very interesting.

[jcll2002]

i didnt fucking copy anything. this is really starting to piss me off.

i bet your time zones are off or something because theres no way he copied what i said.

[ribs1]

i think its VERY unethical for a company to profit off of the shipping and handling. too bad there isnt a law against it. cuz i know for fucking DAMN SURE NewEgg is cleaning up on Shipping and handling.

It does not bother me at all, as long as I know how much the total is before I send my money. The only thing that is unethical is hidden charges. If you think the shipping is too much than you shouldn't buy the product.
Ribs

[hardwarephreak]

i didnt fucking copy anything. this is really starting to piss me off.

i bet your time zones are off or something because theres no way he copied what i said.

It (time zones) might be the case, but someone else pointed that out to me, so it can't just be me. And please don't take any of the above as pointing the finger at you...because that's not my intention...my intention is to call out every last unethical mofo that has to do with monarch :D

I belive the mod from OC, it seems like you just got caught in the middle. And for someone who hasn't had a problem with them in terms of sales/service, you HAVE to be loving the $hit they are draggin your online handle through.

[jcll2002]

yeah it really is starting to piss me off. Honestly, I would never try to start a "conspiracy." I'm just a 16 year old kid who bought some hardware from monarch and ended up getting fucked up the ass, excuse my french, by one of their reps.

As you saw in my post, I loved buying from them. I'm going to call the owner on his cell (yes i have his number) to tell him what has happened because this is absolute crap.

[hardwarephreak]

Forgot to mention that for some reason I have no posting capabilities over at RR forums. Email has been dispatched...the RR forums seriously needs some mods, can't find anyone over there to help me out :)

I did register over at OC and sent a PM to Silversinksam, as he can go a long ways to clearing this up.

[hardwarephreak]

I'm going to call the owner on his cell (yes i have his number) to tell him what has happened because this is absolute crap.


You should call him now...it's 12:04 his time. My bet is he isn't sleeping, he is probably just posting on one of the many forums he is registered at, using one of his many aliases. :eek: :D

O.K. that was wrong, but I could resist. Has anyone EVER heard of this kind of crap happening? Seriously, could someone imagine the CEO of newegg doing this?

[khanable]

Monarch had a contest here in the forums a few weeks back about designing a hornet. Best designed for each price class wins a geek goody bag.

Needless to say, I won.

The Monarch rep contacted me and asked me to do him a personal favor.. and I accepted. He asked me to post in a thread and explain how Monarch is turning themselves around and how I've had positive transactions and shit like that.

Did I do it?

Yup.

Did I get shit added to my goody bag?

Yup.

Would I buy from them?

Nope.

Edit: Any company that asks me to lie for them will never get my business. But I'll do it for more goodies!

[Merc]

Posted this in another forum on my recent attempt at purchasing a Opte 165:

Just spoke to Monarch, after 30 minutes on hold (strike 1), and the story is that the opte 165 and 170 chips are out of stock, although not listed as such (strike 2) and may be in on 10 November. They should ship shortly thereafter. I sent two emails to Monarch asking about the status of my order and never received a response (Strike 3). You're out Monarch.

I am not in a hurry for this chip, just leisurely starting a second build but this type of service turns people off big time, especially when you have Newegg, Performance PC and Xoxide, among many others, out there competing against you. I cancelled the order and will take a shot with Newegg. They WERE shipping some great stepping and hopefully they still are. The Egg's return policy is better anyways.

Just thought I'd let you all know what the story is, especially the guy that has been waiting since 23 October with no response from Monarch. We'll see how the cancellation goes. I gave Monarch a shot which was a mistake. Great price and shipping but not worth the $15 I saved off the Newegg price.

[jcll2002]

You should call him now...it's 12:04 his time. My bet is he isn't sleeping, he is probably just posting on one of the many forums he is registered at, using one of his many aliases. :eek: :D

O.K. that was wrong, but I could resist. Has anyone EVER heard of this kind of crap happening? Seriously, could someone imagine the CEO of newegg doing this?
its not the ceo/exec of monarch who is doing this, its just one of their reps. Though Ive had great experiences with them before, unless they really pull some shit for me, i will never EVER buy from them again. unless ofcourse like i said before they do some great stuff for me.

[hardwarephreak]

Monarch had a contest here in the forums a few weeks back about designing a hornet. Best designed for each price class wins a geek goody bag.

Needless to say, I won.

The Monarch rep contacted me and asked me to do him a personal favor.. and I accepted. He asked me to post in a thread and explain how Monarch is turning themselves around and how I've had positive transactions and shit like that.

Did I do it?

Yup.

Did I get shit added to my goody bag?

Yup.

Would I buy from them?

Nope.

Edit: Any company that asks me to lie for them will never get my business. But I'll do it for more goodies!

Wow. Just freaking amazing. Thank you for the post, it is some back story that not many people would see otherwise. I still couldn't help but laugh though when I read your post :D

[jcll2002]

what kind of extra stuff did they give you anyway?

[hardwarephreak]

its not the ceo/exec of monarch who is doing this, its just one of their reps.

How do you know this?

I dont get this though. If I employed a rep like that...they would be fired. And look, I have fired/let go many people before, and it isn't fun. I don't care if it is my best sales guy, you do something unethical, something that tarnishes the image that I, along with their co-workers bust their butts to maintain, and you can say goodbye.

If it is a member of his staff and not he himself, could he find out who it is? Most certainly, and it would be very easy to do.

Regardless of that though, his employees are a direct reflection of his business and it's policies and management. And in turn that is a direct reflection on him as the business chief executive officer. Did you read the entire post over at OC? The parts where the official monarch rep gets involved are painful to read, and someone even posted that almost all the responses he gave were canned. I just can't, at this point, see why I should give anyone affiliated with Monarch the benefit of the doubt.

EDIT. Yeah, what kind of stuff did you get?

[hardwarephreak]

I have been having some back and forth discussions with Silversinksam over at OC. Took a couple screen caps of what I am seeing as far as the dates go and sent them his way. He sent me a screen cap of what he is seeing. Since he is a mod, and I am just a lowly forum member it must be something on my end (guessing the time zone crap). There was a discrepancy in the time (which Silversinksam has now fixed), but it still had Areyoukiddinme posting 20min after jcll2002.

If you read the thread over at OC, Silversinksam didn't take any crap from monarch so he has my respect :D

[Silversink]

Reseller ratings had this notice up not to long ago:
9/27/2006: We have detected and removed 37 fabricated "Very Satisfied" reviews for this store which were submitted between 9/8 and 9/23. The party responsible for submitting those reviews is unknown. This note will disappear after 30 days.

The Monarch Rep has walked out at OCFourms.

.

Just a few things I will mention, the Monarch Rep left OCForums and then came back when more problems surfaced, I helped one member owed $2196.69 that had a return number provided by Monarch, but for whatever reason, Monarch held his $2196.96 for well over three weeks.
I finally stepped in and hounded Monarch for a week and they finally returned his money, but mind you this member also initiated a credit card chargeback, it's possible Monarch just didn't contest the chargeback when the bank investigated, this is why he possibly got his money when he did.

Monarch seems to have a pension for making some customers initiate charge-backs if they want to ever see their hard earned money again.

When the Monarch Rep came back to OCForum, we banned him and all aliases he had, he sings a nice song and dance, but he was more trouble than he was worth because he didn't answer the tough questions presented to him, instead he side-stepped the questions of how and why some customers that had legitimate issues with money owed to them, some for weeks, some for much longer where just not getting refunded, he made more excuses than anything else, he just didn't want to explain anything, he did however manage to blame ex employees and pass lots of blame, then he started talking about everything but the issues, he even started talking about God. So since he was mostly innefectual we got tired of his song and dances and we just threw him out. We figured, this is how they treat some of their customers, why not treat them in kind.
The Monarch rep claimed he helped 32 Forum members with Monarch related issues, by our count he only helped roughly less than 10. But here's the rub, let's say for a moment the Monarch Rep stated the truth and he did help 32 people, I'LL TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, THIRTY TWO ISSUES IS TO MANY.

I've handled vendor issues for OCForum for many years and NEVER have I seen 32 issues all in a short time from any vendor. So if he did help 32 people, that would mean that Monarch probably has major issues and the scope is larger than any of us realize.

What Monarch should do, is rectify the issues that they have in house to get their reputation back.
Monarch has been sending me e-mails all this week telling me he is deeply saddened by MY lack of decency and other BS. Then he goes on and on babbling about OCForums leadership being the way it is.

These people at Monarch are delusional, I'm helping members with legitimate issues with Monarch and Monarch has the balls to tell me I have no decency.
The fact is, Monarch is seriously going downhill fast, my decency has no correlation to them treating some customers like dirt. If I'm a indecent staff member for trying to help people wronged by Monarch, then so be it, I'm indecent.
Monarch should look at their own decency and just look at Resellerratings.com, LAST TIME I LOOKED, THEIR SIX MONTH RATING WAS 4.76

All one has to do is read the VERY UNSATISFIED evals to see just how decent Monarch has been in the last 6 months.

Silversinksam
OCForum Staff



PS, Another Forum member contacted me that he is owed a refund from Monarch just a day ago, Go figure.....

[hardwarephreak]

Silversink, thanks for posting here. Your sentiments are echoed by A LOT of people, which is why I started this thread. I have experienced this treatment from monarch personally to the tune of over $5000. It got resolved, but it took over a month. I could go on, but my story mirrors countless others already posted, so it would be somewhat redundant.

Until I saw the thread and what went on over at OC, and what is continuing to go on over at RR, I didn't think to start this thread here at the [H]. When it was mentioned that the [H] had dropped Monarch from their list of advertisers, I have to be honest, I didn't even notice, as I did my best to just ignore them. We don't know what happened (why they got pulled), and maybe we won't ever know, but it just keeps getting worse for them (Monarch). If I had any spare time (I work waaaayyy too much) I would investigate this further, but at this point I just want to get as many peoples personal experiences out in the open. That way people can make as informed a purchasing decision as possible. I mean $2196.69...there are a lot of people that can't afford to have that kind of cash in credit card limbo for over a month. Luckily, my personal experience didn't pinch me, but it did leave a really bad taste in my mouth.

[jcll2002]

Silversink, thanks for posting here. Your sentiments are echoed by A LOT of people, which is why I started this thread.

Luckily, my personal experience didn't pinch me, but it did leave a really bad taste in my mouth.
Took the words out of my mouth

@ some other poster-

You're right. I don't KNOW that it is one of the execs, but knowing them all (or most of em) I really don't think they would do that. Why isn't the guy fired? Maybe they don't know about what is going on which i strongly intend to do this Friday (yeah yeah i have school). Frankly, I'm 16 and even I know that something smells funny over here. I haven't directly tasted it for myself, but i can smell it coming.

Thanks SSS, I really appreciate once again your kindness and your effort to set things straight.

[arcturus]

Wonder if there's other hardware sites still carrying the Monarch
ad banner.

[Ju-No]

And I know, because I used to work there, this isn't speculation. I'm not saying anything bad against them because I'm disgruntled or anything, it's more as a public service.

I would advise against placing an online order, the website saying In Stock doesn't necessarily mean they have the item. I owuldn't even trust a phone call to check stock. The phone staff has been trimmed back, and they're known to be, how shall we say, deceptive.

I'd have no problem buying in store, as you get your item right away.

What went wrong? A number of things I'm sure though most of my ideas are just thoughts tossed around by the lowly employees.

I honestly liked the people I worked with there, but they had serious problems. I don't want to say anything too specific publically about what I did which would identify me (at least until Monarch's doors are closed).

[nigerian_businessman]

And I know, because I used to work there, this isn't speculation. I'm not saying anything bad against them because I'm disgruntled or anything, it's more as a public service.

I would advise against placing an online order, the website saying In Stock doesn't necessarily mean they have the item. I owuldn't even trust a phone call to check stock. The phone staff has been trimmed back, and they're known to be, how shall we say, deceptive.

I'd have no problem buying in store, as you get your item right away.

What went wrong? A number of things I'm sure though most of my ideas are just thoughts tossed around by the lowly employees.

I honestly liked the people I worked with there, but they had serious problems. I don't want to say anything too specific publically about what I did which would identify me (at least until Monarch's doors are closed).

In no way am I trying to discredit what you've just said. For all I know you could be speaking the truth and honestly it wouldn't surprise me in the least. However I find it curious that you just joined today and this is your first and only post.

[Ju-No]

I was a little bored at my new job and decided to do a google search for "Monarch Computer Sucks" and came across this post. I know MCS used to advertise on HardOCP, so I wanted to see what people were saying.

I thought I would drop a line and say from an insider's perspective that the allegations made in the thread were true.

If you have questions as to my validitity, I'll answer them as best I can (without revealing who I am publically). It might seem strange, but if Monarch's owner is a little nuts. A nice guy, but a little crazy. In PM form I don't mind, but I don't want anyone there who made read these forums upset at me. In your professional life it's best not to burn any bridges, as the saying goes.

[hardwarephreak]

I agree..it's never wise to burn bridges, especially if you are working in the same industry. There is a great deal of information that various people wish they could disclose, but can't at the present time. I have a feeling once things come to a close, more people will come forward. I appreciate your posting...yours along with others such as khanable and silversink are doing a lot in terms of making people aware of problems that they either didn't know about or didn't want to think was possible.

(That was a fun post to type on the good ole sidekick....gotta love thumb typing)

[3xch4ng3]

I was a little bored at my new job and decided to do a google search for "Monarch Computer Sucks" and came across this post. I know MCS used to advertise on HardOCP, so I wanted to see what people were saying.

I thought I would drop a line and say from an insider's perspective that the allegations made in the thread were true.

If you have questions as to my validitity, I'll answer them as best I can (without revealing who I am publically). It might seem strange, but if Monarch's owner is a little nuts. A nice guy, but a little crazy. In PM form I don't mind, but I don't want anyone there who made read these forums upset at me. In your professional life it's best not to burn any bridges, as the saying goes.

You're standing on a pretty rickety bridge with a can of gas and a lit match

[MrGuvernment]

30 days to return money to your CC is BS.

i have had B&M stores do it on the spot with the same swip machine they used to take my money with so i am sure these online joints could do it faster... but they rather keep you cash and make some interest off it.

[Ju-No]

You're standing on a pretty rickety bridge with a can of gas and a lit match

I don't know how I'm suppossed to prove I used to work there.


I remember when they changed it to 30 days in the Terms and Conditions so the phone staff would have a little bit more time to brush people off about not getting refunds. The only refunds that really get issued are when people talk to Sterling and raise enough hell.

How desperate are they to hang on to funds? When Core 2 Duo's were put online for pre-order they made the pre-orders non-refundable. Man did that ever piss people off.

[Abyss of Borg]

I ordered a OEM 939 Opteron 165 about 3 weeks ago. I've gotten no status updates or anything. I guess I might as well wait to see if they do eventually ship because it would take about year to get a refund I've heard. I emailed them a couple times with no response. The status of the order page has been just weird. When I ordered it said only one left, then it said "hot item" ships in 5 days, last it said "usually ships in 7 days," now the item page isn't even up. I just hope I get it and but definitely this experience has put me off forever. At the time the only reason I didn't order from newegg was because they were out of stock, I regret this a few days later and even right now they are in stock there.

[Spazilton]

I am going to allow this thread because I think it is something that needs to be openly discussed. BUT HEAR THIS. Anyone and everyone that decides to call names or rant, or act in a way that is other than proper and civil will be banned permanently. So if you have something to say, I suggest you put on your daddy's shoes and act like a grown up. Childishness will get you banned.


Question to you Kyle, I had to leave the forums for a few months. What officially happened with Monarch and the contract they had with your company?


On another note, I find this truly funny that everyone is finally seeing Monarch for what they really are. I remember being called many un-nice things by both the Monarch Rep, and lots of members of this forum when I spoke out against them, numerous times. I even had people calling for me to be banned.



Here is one of my later posts in August..
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1029806263#post1029806263


I have been saying this for a long time about Monarch, Its nice to see people are figuring out this for themselves now.

[hardwarephreak]

I ordered a OEM 939 Opteron 165 about 3 weeks ago. I've gotten no status updates or anything. I guess I might as well wait to see if they do eventually ship because it would take about year to get a refund I've heard. I emailed them a couple times with no response. The status of the order page has been just weird. When I ordered it said only one left, then it said "hot item" ships in 5 days, last it said "usually ships in 7 days," now the item page isn't even up. I just hope I get it and but definitely this experience has put me off forever. At the time the only reason I didn't order from newegg was because they were out of stock, I regret this a few days later and even right now they are in stock there.

I would seriously doubt ANY place that states they have AMD processors instock (especially AM2). There are such severe allocation issues (mostly due to Dell is what everyone in the channel is assuming). I'm not saying it's impossible, just call first.

[AuroraProject]

I had this happen to me in February 05. I had ordered a motherboard with my MasterCard and entered my work address as the ship to, the CC company had the address on file. I get an email from Monarch sayng they can't verify the shipping address and they will be cancelling the order, I ordered from Newegg instead. It took 5 weeks and many, many angry phone calls to finally get my money back from them.

[C.Norris]

Monarch is getting stranger and stranger. Check out RR fourm, the rep over their is getting a little bizarre and they are resorting to acting like they have legal power with stuff. Seems like they are in intimidation and bully mode now but I don't believe Monarch has any legs to stand on now.

[geeford]

I used to purchase alot of items from Monarch at the local store and would have to wait 1+hrs to pick up a part. I remember one time ordering a couple of standard parts and watched the WHOLE Mission Impossible 2 movie on dvd that they had playing at the store before the parts came out of the warehouse....Everytime I picked up parts at the local store, it would take at least 30 minutes before the parts came out. I don't buy local anymore.

Now I know this is about online ordering so I decided to buy a keyboard from Monarch since ZipZoom was out of stock on that keyboard. I ordered it on 10/31/2006 and it showed it as in stock at the time. I called three days to check on the order status and it still says in warehouse for processing. I finally called again yesterday and they told me that it was out of stock and they haven't had any luck getting more in stock. They have not notified me once of any changes whatsoever or it being out of stock....

I cancelled my order yesterday 11/09/2006. I could not handle this BS anymore. I am thinking of calling my CC right away just so I can get my money back ASAP....We will see how long this will take.....

[Abyss of Borg]

Well I just got an email back and it says they no longer have 939 CPUs and telling me I'll have to cancel. I sure hope I can get refunded. I'm kinda pissed that it took them 3 weeks to email me and tell me they no longer had them.

[hardwarephreak]

Well I just got an email back and it says they no longer have 939 CPUs and telling me I'll have to cancel. I sure hope I can get refunded. I'm kinda pissed that it took them 3 weeks to email me and tell me they no longer had them.


My guess is that you won't see your money for another 3-4 weeks. Which would put the total length of time that they have "used" your money at almost two months...if standard projections hold true ;) .

[MrWizard6600]

yeah thats exactly what this company needs. regular prices, half decent stock, and just a big loan. if monarch starts chargning 1-5% ill betcha they wont lose to many people.

i have delt with monarch once and i loved it.

[hardwarephreak]

yeah thats exactly what this company needs. regular prices, half decent stock, and just a big loan. if monarch starts chargning 1-5% ill betcha they wont lose to many people.

i have delt with monarch once and i loved it.

Charging that low of a margin (1-5%) probably was a part of the problem...you have to sell A TON of stuff at that margin to pay the bills. On the other hand, some of the other online retailers charge that low, and you have to be competitive to stay in business. I have been told that low prices are often subsidized by the manufacturers in the form of backend advertising dollars. Also some stuff is grey market items (resellers import items that are sold @ a lower cost in asia for example where people aren't expected to pay what the average U.S. customer will)

[AdamNesvick]

I used to work for a company, Central computers, when they accquired OCZ technologies, I worked with Ryan Peterson, CEO of OCZ, personally. I have seen the same tactics by a failing business. Inability to keep stock and get orders out, Taking forever to issue refunds (as a CSR this pissed me off to no end, because I got the nasty ass calls).

I mean, shit, I know that when the money went in from the previous days orders, I would go get a Cashiers check to give to UPS for a COD totalling 60K, this was every day, razor thin margins.


I have and always have had the utmost respect for Ryan, and am happy that he has been sucessful. I just didn't feel to highly for the other two owners, and left under not so nice terms. I wish I still had my pics or the RMA pile in the floor (20' x 10' x 5' tall) of everything from cheapie cases to $400 CPU's.

Monarch seems to be doing the same thing, and frankly, I doubt they will ever come back from it.

[hardwarephreak]

And it just keeps getting better and better, check out some of the latest reports on RR.

There have been at least 7 complaints since Veterans Day. :eek:

[Xilikon]

Personnally, seeing them dive that fast mean we would see him RIP shortly. No business can survive while using those kind of tactics since word of mouth is the most powerful advertisement we have on the internet.

[jcll2002]

i feel bad. i really do.

[hardwarephreak]

i feel bad. i really do.


It's hard to feel bad for a company that had 12 bad reviews since 11/9. And were talking all 'very dissatisfied' reviews, with warnings to "stay away from this company".

I was looking over those reviews, and I had to wonder about all of the steps that Monarch Management has supposedly taken to ensure that this won't continue to happen. But it still does, which means you can draw only two logical conclusions:

1. They have implemented the changes, yet the total mismanagement of the company still results in poor customer service (people are STILL complaining about not being able to get through to anyone on the phone, or get responses to their emails.)

or

2. Monarch management are just a bunch of liars. Which is a pretty blunt statement, but when someone tells you they have done something, yet every shred of evidence says otherwise...

The owner of Monarch is still insisting that nothing is wrong and that everything is fine, all the while people are still getting screwed...

OK I just had a moment of clarity...everyone remember as we were rolling into Baghdad, and the Iraqi Information Minister was having press conferences saying "I triple guarantee you, there are no American soldiers in Baghdad" (actual quote), and then you changed the channel and you could see tanks in the streets of Baghdad :D ...it is almost amazing the similairites between that guy and the owner of Monarch who seems to be in the same amazing level of denial.

"I triple guarantee you, there are no problems here, please place your order with confidence" :rolleyes:

[jcll2002]

nah, i called the owner(his brother at least). he knows that things aren't doing so well.

I only say i feel bad because

1) i've "known" the upper management of the company for a few months and have grown to like them

2) I had good experiences but I too just recently had problems with them with credit. I did RMAs through them. They would always overnight packages and never had me pay shipping. The only thing is it took me 1.5 months to get a credit on one of my RMAs. I have another RMA i just recently shipped out the 28th of october. I sitll havent gotten a credit on that.

Long story short, I am starting to notice a difference in the company.

I asked him if I could get deals on the p5b deluxe, and e6400 but he interestingly said that they cant sell them to me because they are focusing more on just the systems, not on parts. (only a select few components they stopped selling through parts).

[hardwarephreak]

1) i've "known" the upper management of the company for a few months and have grown to like them


Well, people can be likeable, and bad at business at the same time. I have let go people I liked personally, yet they just couldn't perform in terms of their job.

I just have to call someone's ethics into question when they mismanage other peoples money. He probably didn't intend for things to get so out of control, but it appears that temptation got the better of them, and they bit off more than they could chew. It's not like they have a monopoly on this kind of thing, it has happened before, and on a much, much larger scale (poor ethics, bad judgement).

Enron, Worldcom just to name a few. People went to jail for what happened there.

[hpaco]

well I feel very bad about them too, I sell high end computer hardware in mexico (we get the oldest and cheaper stuff via local retailers).

I bougth them for almost two years until they stopped taking international credit cards about 7 months ago. I bougth 8000-9000 in computer parts to them and never ever had any problem, to bad bussines didn´t worked out for them. :(

[Merc]

Ordered a 165. 1.5 weeks later, no chip and no response. canceled the order and guess what, no refund yet.

[dR.Jester]

Um, question.

Why doesn't anyone contact the State Attorneys office where they are located and have them investigated. Sounds like what Monarch is doing, is quite criminal.

http://www.ganet.org/ago/

[Nazo]

Interesting thread. Definitely worrying that they've sunk to such lows. I just wanted to say one thing though. The reason I do no business with Monarch whatsoever and have not done so for probably over a year now is due to a really bad experience my dad had with them a while ago now. Around the time the Venice first came out, he decided it was time to upgrade to Athlon 64 -- especially with all the good hype going around the Venice like how cool it ran and all (in fact, he'd decided he wanted to try playing around a little with overclocking for once.) So he orders I think a board and CPU both at once on Monarch. Several weeks later, he realizes something is up because still nothing has arrived and even allowing for major shipping issues it's obvious that something is wrong. So he tries to get in contact with them. They just give him the runaround and he never finds an exactly straight answer for maybe another week. Finally someone manages to get through them and finds out that they apparently had no stock of Venice chips even though they said they did before and they'd been delaying all this time while waiting for the chips apparently (geez, I guess a little forewarning is asking too much?) So they convince him that they are sending one very soon and he gives up for a bit longer. Well, a week or so later a box FINALLY arrives that says Monarch Computer on it. He opens it up, and lo and behold, a shiny new Newcastle (939 variety.) He just decided to give up the fight right then and there and to this day his CPU runs just barely cool enough with no overclocking. They also gave him this big runaround about the cooling saying that they can't support the use of third party heatsinks and while they would sell them they would not install them, then when it arrives we found the third party heatsink installed (ok, that's probably a good thing since it saved him the trouble, but, quite frankly part of his heat problems might have been related to the low quality heatsink compound poorly applied when they did this since my dad didn't bother to check. Just seems to me if they are going to make such a big deal about it then do it anyway, they could at least do it right the first time.)

Hold on, I have a point believe it or not. What I'm getting to here is that they've had issues like what have been described earlier for quite a while. They seem to have stepped up this particular kind of problem more, but, considering how it existed even that long ago I'm inclined to wonder if there might be a possibility that they aren't really so much worse off then before. Anyway, just throwing it out there. From what I'm reading on here, it seems there's no way they don't have troubles, I'm just wondering if maybe they've had issues for quite a while and this practice is nothing new on their part. Either way, they converted me to a newegg buff after that whole experience. When I order a CPU on Newegg, they send me what I ordered and no later than within a week of the order even allowing for the shipping companies deciding to hold onto things for a few days sometimes to ensure that I get what I paid for (eg the cheap service, lol.) I've built whole systems for people using online bought parts, and I can't afford a little stunt like what Monarch pulled on my dad.

BTW, do chargebacks cause a lot of inconvenience -- maybe even costing the company that you had to do this with a fair bit of money? I was just thinking, what if a bunch of people order some dirt cheap item -- say a fan filter or something -- and then refund it before it fully processes? If they refuse to refund your money within a reasonable time and you have to use chargebacks to get it back, $1 here and there doesn't mean much, but, a bunch of $1s adds up in a hurry -- especially if it's costing them extra. No, I'm not trying to get them overthrown or something, just if nothing else it might get their attention back to reality where it belongs.

[murphyd311]

I ordered it on-line, and was surprised to see my CC's # pop-up on my cell phone... Wonder what they want? It was their fraud dept. wanting to be certain I had indeed placed this order ($1,900 if I rem right) with Monarch. I kinda brushed it off, didn't ask them any questions, and just told them "yes, I did." They just wanted to be certain.



Just to start off, I've never dealt with Monarch so I'm fairly unbiased, although after reading this thread that has changed a bit.

CC fraud departments flag large purchases, or purchases that would be out of the ordinary for that particular customer. I.E. You live in the US and you start getting multiple charges in Canada, or something of the like. Or maybe you're a guy who all of the sudden racked up $700 at Victoria's Secret...

I got a call from my credit union the first time I charged over 500$ at one time because it wasn't the "norm" for me.

I don't believe (once again I'm not positive) that it had anything to do with Monarch.

[pettybone]

I never bought anything from them because I thought that thier web site was poorly constructed. I feel that web sites that put alot of detail into thier own web site can usually be trusted or at least trusted once. That and word of mouth is how I base if i'll do buisness. Before people highly regarded monarch. When they did that really dumb aprils fools joke on the H web site I was completey turned off to them all together.

[hardwarephreak]

Monarch is getting out of the parts business all together, whether or not that means, they will eventually get out the of the business remains to be seen. If things continue the way they have been going, it's only a matter of time.

I also saw over on RR forums that they no longer offered up a system to Maximum PC. Which is kind of odd, considering that is the aspect of the computer industry they would be focusing on.

[elphyne]

i ordered a barebones system from them over a year ago and a few other orders for parts and things around the same time and had been impressed by how fast they had shipped it out and havent had any issues with the computer so far

but i ordered a mobo combo from them 2 weeks ago and havent heard a word from them.. considering they claim for their combos to have "all inventory in stock" i just dont see why it would take them 2 weeks when they claim to "ship in "3-5 days" and after reading all this and not having gotten any e-mail from them when i asked what the status on it was about mid week last week i'm wondering if i should just try to cancel my order :(

any idea if its too soon to call the credit card company to try to get them to hurry up the process of refunding the money?

[SKy042]

I saw this starting back in december/jan timeframe around when the Opty 146's got popular monarch had problems with inventory/shipping and refunds for un-fulfillable orders and wildly fluxtuating prices. where things would vary $80+ in one day for no apparent reason.

The 30 days to refund is really a BS move and dangerous. I recently lost $120 bux to an online retailer who insisted it took them 30 days to do a refund...guess what by day 40 their doors were closed and they forwarded their phones to an entirely new company.

Also the person who posted about thezeb.com I've always wondered what happened to them I bought a ton of CDT gear from them years back.

[sleepeeg3]

ExcaliberPC did the same thing when it went under. Fire sales all around. Some people got theirs, some didn't.

[jesuscakes]

The problem with Monarch is that a bunch of idiots work for them lol. My stepdad has gone to their main office here in GA many times and he said that everyone there is extremely clueless. He also said that it's like they got too big too fast and don't know what to do now hence the poor customer service. They will get you the product just don't expect much as far as time and customer service goes lol.

[hardwarephreak]

i ordered a barebones system from them over a year ago and a few other orders for parts and things around the same time and had been impressed by how fast they had shipped it out and havent had any issues with the computer so far

but i ordered a mobo combo from them 2 weeks ago and havent heard a word from them.. considering they claim for their combos to have "all inventory in stock" i just dont see why it would take them 2 weeks when they claim to "ship in "3-5 days" and after reading all this and not having gotten any e-mail from them when i asked what the status on it was about mid week last week i'm wondering if i should just try to cancel my order :(

any idea if its too soon to call the credit card company to try to get them to hurry up the process of refunding the money?


I would call the credit card company, tell them your story and start the charge back process.

[Nazo]

The problem with Monarch is that a bunch of idiots work for them lol. My stepdad has gone to their main office here in GA many times and he said that everyone there is extremely clueless. He also said that it's like they got too big too fast and don't know what to do now hence the poor customer service. They will get you the product just don't expect much as far as time and customer service goes lol.

Could be. The thing is, usually when this kind of thing goes so far, the only thing that can save them is an acquisition from a big company that can step in and fix them it seems like. And I'm not sure anyone has shown any kind of interest either.

Unfortunately either way right now the customers are being screwed over. Even if it should somehow be fixed later (which I have my doubts about) that's going to hurt their image for a long time now.

[burnin8r]

i suppose i ll add in my 2 cents:

i made a $20 purchase with monarch recently. The items i ordered were advertised as having free shipping, but when added to your cart online, a shipping charge appeared. i decided to call to advise them of this problem, and they sent me a credit card authorization via email. i completed the purchase order with my cc #, and sent it back.

after about a week and a half, my card had not been charged. I sent an email asking for an update. the next day my card was charged, but i got no response to my inquiry. i sent another email detailing the order of events and how my card was charged after i reminded them that i had placed an order 2 weeks ago, but i still had no shipping info. i then got an automated email a day later stating my order was sent us postal service with no way to track the package.

i got my shipment maybe a week after that. for the record, i had placed an order with newegg a day after my monarch order and had my package in 2 or 3 days. i had planned on ordering an OEM opteron 165 and the swiftech heatsink + some thermal paste when they were on clearance, but there was no way i was making a $200 order after the way my $20 order was handled... i havent looked at monarch's site since then.

[sxotty]

I just wanted to add that I never like monarchs web layout, but I did greatly appreciate their CS and general way the dealt with a customer. I had a foxconn motherboard that died I bought there and the CSR helped me dig out when I bought it and got me a pdf of the receipt since I lost all records of it. They were very helpful when I was incompetent. That was a while ago though.

Recently I purchased a dual core opteron they said was in stock, Then they said out of stock then they did not want to cancel now I am waiting for a refund. I knew it might be an issue before hand, but I wanted to give them a chance as I used to love them. Ah well.

[sxotty]

eh a highly regarded company for sure but less highly regarded as of late than it once was. one of my biggest complaints of newegg, which is a recent thing, is the individual item shipping charges. i remember back when they had a total shipping charge. but now they do it individually and im telling you, on a lot of the things they ship, they are NOT paying nearly as much to ups to ship those products as they are charging to ship them. for example i just bought two usb flash drives. together they were incredibly light and took up VERY little space. i paid ten dollars for shipping, five dollars a piece. lets say i had bought six of those drives. i know for sure it wouldve costed much less than ten, probably 8 to ship the drives, when i end up paying 30. its like the egg is charging people who buy the less expensive products to make up for them offering free shipping on the high value products. they really should cease this per product shipping scheme.

Another thing newegg has done recently is not display warranty information on products they sell. That is so they can try and sell you the extended warranty. It is very frustrating and I think I may quit buying from them as well. The situation is poor all around I think ZZF said they shipped my order 4 days before they actually shipped it for example.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148140

Look at that hard drive what is the warranty? Is it 5 years like seagates often are? Is it 90 days? Is the consumer going to be screwed? Who knows.

[hardwarephreak]

I just wanted to add that I never like monarchs web layout, but I did greatly appreciate their CS and general way the dealt with a customer. I had a foxconn motherboard that died I bought there and the CSR helped me dig out when I bought it and got me a pdf of the receipt since I lost all records of it. They were very helpful when I was incompetent. That was a while ago though.

Recently I purchased a dual core opteron they said was in stock, Then they said out of stock then they did not want to cancel now I am waiting for a refund. I knew it might be an issue before hand, but I wanted to give them a chance as I used to love them. Ah well.


Did you leave the refund up to Monarch's accounting dept or did you go through your credit card company. It would be nice if you could post back your experiences if you are letting Monarch handle the refund. Of course if you are and you originally submitted for a refund a week ago and still haven't heard anything then you may want to make the call to the CC company.

ZZF has screwed up some rather high dollar purchases from me (mostly orders over $5000 (SCA hard drives), and they always tell me that they needed to verify the order details before they ship, but no one ever calls or emails, then the orders sit for days). I used to order with the knowledge that I would need to call the following day to make sure the orders shipped. Now it has changed to avoid them for anything I need in a week, and if I can get the stuff elsewhere for under $50 more, I just do that

[awdark]

How disturbing. During the opterown craze, I bought a 146 + Mobo
Shipped 1 week later but didn't bother me much. Cussed them out for dropping the price drop of $40 before shipping (like 3 days after my order) got credit for a Zalman.

6 months later Asrot board blew, wanted RMA. Assrot said talk to seller, Monarch said talk to assrot. Trashed the board bought a used one here for $40 I <3 you guys lol

They sound horrible now...

[Jasonx82]

Still waiting on refund.... since Date of cancellation 8/18/2006 lol :D My moneys in limbo somwhere with monarch/amex

[hardwarephreak]

Still waiting on refund.... since Date of cancellation 8/18/2006 lol :D My moneys in limbo somwhere with monarch/amex


I had a dispute with them and had used an AMEX. It's funny, when I talked to Amex about it originally, I asked the guy if I had to talk to anyone from Monarch again (did not want to at all). They said nope, and you will be getting a written copy of everything that we send/receive from them. Saw a few pieces of paperwork about it and then one day the credit shows up on my accout. (9 weeks after the initial request)

[elphyne]

so called monarch up bout my combo order, they told me the mobo i wanted was out of stock.. said they should be getting more in soon or i could get a different mobo :rolleyes: i asked them to cancel and they asked if i wanted to just have the processor shipped.. i turned it down, they told me i had to send an e-mail to cancel the order, so i hung up, sent the e-mail, and called the credit card company just to make sure someone gets my refund back. called monarch back later and they said that they received the e-mail bout cancelation and that it should have the money refunded in a couple of days. whether the credit card company had already set things in motion to speed up the refund process or not, i dunno.. but we'll see if i manage to get my refund in the next few days or not. if they had at least informed me that items were out of stock and there was a delay i might be more understanding, but hearing nothing from them and not getting any replies to e-mail doesnt make me wanna give them more of a chance :mad:

[Jasonx82]

Honestly i feel really bad for monarch.. Even though they become shit they were once good. I hope they get there act together.. :(

[jcll2002]

im getting fuxored. They owe me $500. Ive called and emailed them so many times. Is there any way I can get help without dealing with my CC company?

[Jason_Wall]

Since you're close with the upper management by your own admission, how about giving them a call? If the upper management can't get it done, then the only alternative is to go to the CC.

[jcll2002]

^^imma give him another call and i will go to the CC company if he cant help out. I find it absolutely rediculous that he has either been

1) unwilling to help me out
2) cant help me out which is impossible because he is the brother of the owner...
3) is avoiding my problem due to much bigger problems his company as a whole is having.

[hardwarephreak]

What i would do is call your CC co. first. File a dispute. Then call them. Because I F'n guarantee they are not going to do anything for you. Then as a parting note on the phone you could say "well I knew you weren't going to help me out, so I called the CC co before I called you and filed a dispute. Man and I continually gave you guys chance after chance too" Then say thanks and hang up.

You could also end it with "you are going to have a hard time pulling this shit on your bankruptcy lawyer, as they like to get paid with the quick fast." - :D

[schizo]

Charging back transactions is REALLY easy. The credit card company is on your side, and the merchant has literally no recourse. It will go extremely smoothly. Just do it.

[EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

I would like to add, I have never done business with Monarch since I dont live in the states and I feel for all parties involved as its shit to lose money and its shit to have a business go under. I have read this whole thread and the links to some other websites and for the most part things are civil, well in this forum at least :)

But I am appalled at some other website's, their admins and mods who added more fuel to the fire. They should of acted with more constraint and level headedness instead of making the situation in that thread worse, you are after all Admins and Mods who are looked upto and in a position of influence.

If I was the Monarch CSR in that forum I would be glad that I got banned for the simple fact that the admins were makin a total hash of it, well that thread anyway, I dont know about the whole forum as I have never been there, but atleast the Monarch CSR couldnt continue argueing against not just members but also admins and mods which in my personal opinion should never of happened in the first place. Admins and Mods have a duty to keep the forums clear of crap yet they induced alot of it.

I think lesson's can be learned for both Monarch and OCForums as I personally think that however much Monarch is at fault, OCForums Admins/mods were reckless and showboating.

1 particular admin/mod springs to mind.

It should of been dealt with the same way as the mods and admins here have dealt with it. They have not got involved unless it is to delete posts from crappers, thats the way it should of been dealt with...

Also one of them says that a company has 32 customer problems is too much, you name any company that has had under 32 customer problems in said companys entire trading time ? EVERY COMPANY has customer problems and they go way past the 32 number, so its foolish to say that 32 problems is more than enough, as it isnt feasible to keep every customer happy all of the time. Admittedly 32 is more than any company would like but it is very unrealistic to think that every company who trades in the computer business will only have X amount of customer related problems in their lifetime.

Now what I have said above is my own personal opinion, It isnt meant to insult or offend anyone, it is just my observation of the situation and as such I have nothing against both Monarch and OCForums, but I will also say that if it is true that Monarch are indeed using customers cash to float the company whilst knowing their would be zero chance of the customer getting their order or if they are using the cash and knowing it will take a couple of months for the customer to get their items or a refund then that is WRONG and should'nt be happening in any circumstances.

I have faith that Monarch doesnt want problems like this to happen as it can only end up with the loss of the company in the longrun, so I feel that they are trying to do things right but just are not able to do so for whatever reason and internet gossip isnt going to help them any.

I Sincerely hope that Monarch gets out of the hole that it is in just now, as from what I gather from previous posts/threads Monarch was an excellent company at one time.

Thats my tuppence

[digitalxdna]

Also one of them says that a company has 32 customer problems is too much, you name any company that has had under 32 customer problems in said companys entire trading time ? EVERY COMPANY has customer problems and they go way past the 32 number, so its foolish to say that 32 problems is more than enough, as it isnt feasible to keep every customer happy all of the time. Admittedly 32 is more than any company would like but it is very unrealistic to think that every company who trades in the computer business will only have X amount of customer related problems in their lifetime.

true, but...

32 problems in a very short period of time is a bad sign.

[hardwarephreak]

The OCForums admin had quite a few problems that he was trying to resolve for his members. I think he just got sick and tired of the Monarch rep posting one thing (i.e. just PM or email me and I'll take care of things) and doing another (i.e. not doing a damn thing, and just repeating the whole "were making improvements" mantra)

Look if you were running a forum, and you let a rep from a company come in a advertise to your readership, to essentially make money from a highly targeted audience, and you authorized him to be there. Then he turns around and starts to bend your readership over and does nothing even when you step in...sorry, you are WAY too lenient.

[EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

Their is Monarch reps on these boards and I dont see Kyle or whoever else giving them a hardtime in public.

Regardless, thats my opinion and it isnt meant to flame anyone, its just a observation that I made and what I think, as mentioned by me above, my post wasnt meant to offend anyone and I dont think it has, but I just think that instead of Admins and mods argueing in public with a company rep, It should of been taken to pm and the thread locked, but still open it to post updates on when and if the dude got his cash back. As the actual rep was willing to help people, he even posted that if anyone has problems then for ppl to pm him and he will do his hardest to try and resolve them.

To me that seems fair enough, he doesnt own the company I dont think, so he can only do so much but at least he was willing to try and help people and for that thread to turn into a shitfest with admins and mods I personally think thats despicable.

As I say, thats my personal opinion however wrong it maybe, but it just boils down to the fact that admins of forums should know better than to argue with company reps in public, especially if the rep was invited to that website or the company pays for advertising on such website which I dont know if it does or not, a PM and a locking would of been a lot better IMHO

[Nazo]

As for the whole 32 customers thing, I'm kind of wondering just how short this period of time was? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Monarch since I think they are up to some very shady practices (and remember, 32 people you see on forums = far more off the forums or on other forums you don't visit) just they do a lot of business in a short period of time, so 32 may actually be a small number if you're talking about too lon of a period of time.

Personally, I think they're about to go out of business, and the only capacity I will miss them at all in is the fact that it's always bad to decrease the amount of competition in a market.

Another thing newegg has done recently is not display warranty information on products they sell. That is so they can try and sell you the extended warranty. It is very frustrating and I think I may quit buying from them as well.
Well, they still seem to be the fastest, cheapest, and most reliable of all the places I've bought from over the years. They've also been pretty good about returns and such and I haven't had to dispute any RMA requests so far. I do find it annoying that they've removed waranty information -- I hadn't even noticed they did it until you mentioned that, but it does seem a bit dirty. All I can think of is to follow the manufacturer link when in doubt I suppose. Kind of a pain to have to do that, but you probably don't have to look up the waranty on everything I guess (for example, who checks the waranty on a soundcard?) Overall, I'm still much more satisfied with Newegg than the others though. Lol, they even screwed up and sent me a flash drive I ordered with the cheapest possible shipping options so quickly that it arrived early the next day (yeah, UPS screwed up too since I swear that it's normally their policy to hold an item at a sorting center to make sure you don't get it too quickly if you use the cheapest, lol.)

[jcll2002]

The OCForums admin had quite a few problems that he was trying to resolve for his members. I think he just got sick and tired of the Monarch rep posting one thing (i.e. just PM or email me and I'll take care of things) and doing another (i.e. not doing a damn thing, and just repeating the whole "were making improvements" mantra)

Look if you were running a forum, and you let a rep from a company come in a advertise to your readership, to essentially make money from a highly targeted audience, and you authorized him to be there. Then he turns around and starts to bend your readership over and does nothing even when you step in...sorry, you are WAY too lenient.
yeah SSS @ OCF has been trying to help me. (but im a minor, so he cant apparently)

[hardwarephreak]

To me that seems fair enough, he doesnt own the company I dont think, so he can only do so much but at least he was willing to try and help people and for that thread to turn into a shitfest with admins and mods I personally think thats despicable.


Monarch Rep has been banned here as well I believe. The Monarch Rep that posted over in OCForums was in fact the owner of the company...There is talk of him going back and forth with the Rep/GA400 about several customers.

Did you read the reps responses...canned. And they were the same responses given on several forums.

Check this out, can't say I am too shocked by this:

http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75350&page=10
I wish I had found these posts a few months ago.

I went to Monarch to buy a custom computer. I chose the "Breva 2" with a core 2, and SLI, just as they had suggested.

43 days later and multiple phone calls (always on hold 30 min+) I received my new "MCS Breva 2 Custom Dktop w/SLI".
I opened the box and take a look inside, I see 2 7900gtx GPUs but I don't see the SLI bridge, I also don't see the ordered PSU, or Sound Card.
Hmm, they must have forgotten it. So I called back and Matt told me "np, we'll send the parts, just plug in the bridge and it'll work".
So I look up some details about my new system and find out that the Intel 975x MOB doesn't support SLI. I called Matt back and he puts me on hold for 15 min, comes back and says, "Ohh that system doesn't support SLI".
I mention that I selected exactly what they suggested on their website for the "MCS Breva 2 Custom Dktop w/SLI" and that they have a step for checking the compatibility of a system in there process, he says "I donno how that happened".
So I talk to Matt again and ask him if I send it in will he fix it, and he says "our RMA system is down". I call him every day for a week and he continues with the "RMA is down" excuse.
I finally get fed up and tell him to take it back and give me my money back, he says "there's no way I'm getting my money back", and he told me if I sent it to them "they would not receive it".
I tried talking to Nikki because she was one of the people who seemed like she would help me but she is no longer employed by monarch (after I talked to her not 30 days ago).

I contacted my cc company and have a claim of fraud against them pending.

I don't know if their going bankrupt or what but at this time I don't trust them at all.

[Nazo]

Scary to think that resellers may actually get low enough to try to cheat such a system. But I guess it wouldn't be too surprising.

So it seems the moral of the story (at least ATM) is that you want to make sure you want to buy it before laying down the dough, lest you want a long refund period. Note, if you're with a nice credit card company, you can ask them to flat-out negate the charge to your card if a refund is taking a long time. Fire up those credit disputes and let your credit card company do the dirty fighting for you.

The moral is don't trust them period. A lot of people are complaining about never receiving an item at all and having to eventually cancel it just because it won't ship (whether due to not being in stock or just due to idiocy, depending on the product.) Even those that do sometimes take forever to get shipped. Not to mention those cases where they did want an item, waited around for it and realized after a while something was up, so checked only to find out that it was canceled against their will without even informing them. Either way, it may not be a question of being sure you want it ahead of time or something because you may still not get it even if you are sure that you wanted it and you may still have to do a chargeback in the end.

[hardwarephreak]

^^imma give him another call and i will go to the CC company if he cant help out. I find it absolutely rediculous that he has either been

1) unwilling to help me out
2) cant help me out which is impossible because he is the brother of the owner...
3) is avoiding my problem due to much bigger problems his company as a whole is having.


Any update on this?

[General Crespin]

Posted at the official Monarch forum at 10:47AM EST today: (http://www.monarchcomputer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38278&postcount=16)

One of their techs today said that Monarch was being bought out. I have no clue if that is true or not but it could only be a good thing.

Don't forget the salt, but still...

[jcll2002]

Any update on this?
ill keep you updated guys.

@ above poster... lol @ him being banned

[Lethal]

@ above poster... lol @ him being banned
Someone managed to save one of Mindreaper's deleted posts from the Monarch forum and posted it over at Reseller Ratings.

http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75350&page=13

[Met-AL]

Their is Monarch reps on these boards and I dont see Kyle or whoever else giving them a hardtime in public.

Exactly. I got the same feeling about OCForums as you after reading through all that stuff.

I didn't order from Monarch myself because their website is junk. I think I may have ordered something way back in the day, can't recall, but like I said, their site is junk. Retailers should take a lesson from sites like NewEgg or Tiger. Real easy to find what you are looking for and to narrow selections down by just about any property.

[hardwarephreak]

Thanks for the link Lethal, but for those of you too unmotivated to click a link :D I have included it here. I still recommend everyone to go over to Reseller Ratings and check the entire thread over there.

Let me tell you a sad but true story about Monarch...

In February of this year i had a motherboard that died on me. It was an ASUS A8N SLI-Deluxe motherboard. So i call Monarch tech support. I worked for Dell tech support for several years and i am an assistant network administrator now for a large financial firm, so i'm no novice to computers or their problems. So i'm speaking with the tech and i tell him everything that i've done and that since the motherboard starting dying, my video cards and been hitting temperatures as high as 238 degrees. I agreed with the tech that we should replace the motherboard first and see if that rectifies the issue with the temperature on the video cards.

So the tech sets up and on-site visit and mails the part to me. The part arrived in 2 days but i didn't hear from a tech for another 3. By the time i heard from the tech i was tired of waiting and had replaced the motherboard myself. Well, that didn't rectify the issue of the video cards hitting excessive temperatures so i called Monarch back to let them know that both of my video cards (NVIDIA 6800 GTX's) were still overheating. I was speaking with a different tech this time but i told him of everything that had been done previously and he agreed to send me new video cards. He sets up an on-site service and mails the parts to me as well.

So, i receive the new video cards and i open up the box and there are 2 NVIDIA 7400 video cards in the box. I was like "WTF is this crap?!" So i call Monarch and ask them why they sent me these cards instead of identical cards? (The 7400 cards are a major downgrade from the 6800's by the way) The tech tells me that NVIDIA is no longer making the 6000 series cards and that Monarch has none of my cards in stock and had to replace them with "comparable" cards. This is where everything starts to go downhill. I explain to the tech that a 7400 card is not comparable to the 6800 cards and that this needs to be resolved. He tells me that it is a comparable card and refers me to BFI's technical support (the card manufacturer).

I decide to jump through their hopes just so they couldn't say that i didn't listen and follow their tech's instructions in case something goes wrong. So i call BFI tech support and i tell the tech everything that has happened so far and when i tell him what the Monarch tech said about the 7400 being a comparable card he actually starting laughing. No a chuckle, not a haha, i mean a full room shaking belly laugh that by the time he stopped laughing he had me laughing just because he was laughing so hard! So we start comparing video cards. We compared my old 6800 card to the new 7000 series cards and he determines that the 7900 OTC's would be a comparable card. I thanked him for his time, and i also got his name and number before i disconnected the call.

So i try to call Monarch about this video card issue. After 2 days of TRYING to speak with a tech i finally reach one. I explain the issue with him and tells me that the BFI tech should never have told me what he did about the cards not being comparable or that there was an issue with the 7400 series cards and SLI. He says that he'll speak with a manager and call me back within the next day or 2.Meanwhile my computer will only function with 1 video card in it and i'm really getting upset (putting it very nicely) that i can't play WoW and attend raids with my guild. I agree to his calling me back and go on about my day. Well, 4 days later i still had not heard back from the tech OR the supposed manager so i call Monarch AGAIN. This day i called Monarch a total of 7 times, got put on hold 7 times, got disconnected 5 times. I was livid. For the next week i tried getting a hold of a manager in their "tech" department and amazingly enough, EVERY time i called and asked for a manager, i was told that they were either in a meeting or out to lunch!

Finally i get in touch with a manager and i was so mad i was physically shaking from my anger. I explained to him everything that i had been through over the course of 3 weeks and the issue with the video cards. He looks through my call records and sees how many times i've called in and he tells me that i will receive the 2x 7900 OTC video cards by tomorrow morning (this being 4 in the afternoon already). He didn't lie, sure enough i had those cards at 7:30 am. He had also set this up as an on-site call as well and the technician called later on that day to set up an appointment. By this time i had replaced all the components in my system and told him to come on out and pick up all the pieces, good and bad.

So the tech shows up the following day at dinner time. I gave him the 3 boxes of parts, 1 motherboard, 2 NVIDIA 6800 video cards, and 2 7400 NVIDIA video cards. He writes down my system information and fills out his form and asks me to sign it, which i did. Then he left. My wife and son were present and watched as all this took place so we're all thinking that FINALLY my computer is fixed and i won't have anymore problems.....WRONG!

About 2 months later i get a call from a Monarch tech asking me where are the old parts are and i tell him that the tech came out and picked them up and advised him to look up the company and the tech who did the call and hung up. Now, having worked for Dell tech support i know how things are SUPPOSED to work and i also know that the tech has to validate his repair with a signature from the customer in order for the tech AND the tech's company to get paid (at least they do for Dell). Time goes by and i didn't hear from Monarch again so i'm thinking everything is cool. I should have known better.

I got married in June and my wife and i went to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon. When i arrived home and went to turn my computer on it wouldn't do anything at all. I could see the green light on the motherboard but not even the fans move when i hit the on button. So i call Monarch again , this is on Monday the 17th of July and speak with a technician about the power supply. He tells me that he'll set-up an on-site service and send the power supply to me. So 2 days past and it's now Wednesday the 19th so i call and ask where my power supply is and the tech says that they had to switch companies in the Nashville area because that company (don't know the name of the company) wasn't returning the parts to Monarch and that now they need my credit card information so they can charge me for the parts that were never returned from the past 3 on-sites PLUS charge me for the power supply before they will send it out. I was getting more upset with every passing second the tech was speaking. So i ask the tech how much those 3 on-site parts were going to be and i was told (and later confirmed) $2,109.00! PLUS another like $98.00 for a new power supply. I told him that there was no way in hell that they were going to charge me for those 3 on-site calls and asked to speak with a manager.

I was transfered to a manager named Tracy. She told me about this change in the companies and she apologized for the trouble but she said that she looked in my log and she see where they TRIED to charge those parts to the credit card i used when i purchased the computer (which was no longer active THANKFULLY!) She gave me the same spill as the tech about needing to charge me for those prior on-site parts and i told her no. I told her that the technician had come out and picked up the parts and that my wife and son watched him do it and that i wouldn't pay for their failure to properly enforce their contract with a subcontracted company. I tell her that she may charge my credit card for the power supply and i understood that the charge would be reimbursed once the old part is received and i started to give her my credit card information. After she gets all the information she tells me that they're going to charge those on-site visits to the card as well as the power supply. I told her that if she charged me for those parts i would call the credit card company and stop payment on that AND then contact my attorney for possible legal action. Well, mentioning LEGAL action was the wrong thing to say! She said something to the affect of "Sir, since you have mentioned legal action may be an option against Monarch, i have to refer this matter to the legal department for resolution." Now, remember that this was on Wednesday the 19th.

By Saturday the 22nd i had a letter from a Monarch attorney stating that since i failed to return the 3 on-site parts totaling $2,109.00 and repaired my own computer, instead of letting "a trained and certified Monarch technician" do the repairs, i violated Monarch's Terms and Conditions and my warranty was hereby canceled. BOOM! I had purchased a 3 year ON-SITE parts and labor warranty and it was even 15 months old and now it's canceled!

So, i type up a response to the Monarch attorney letting him know that the parts were given to the contracted Monarch employee at the time of the repairs. I printed out a copy of the terms and agreement (kept a copy for myself) and asked him to point out WHERE in the Terms and Agreement that it states a customer can not repair his own system? Also, if a customer "repairing" their own system violates those Terms and Agreement, why do Monarch technicians as the customer if THEY (the customer) want a technician to come out and do the repairs OR does the customer want to do the repairs themselves? I sent the letter out certified mail and contacted my attorney.

After 2 months of no reply from Monarch, i contacted the Georgia Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint against Monarch. The BBB said to give them 8 weeks to try and resolve the issue. So, at 8 weeks i call the BBB and they said that they had contacted Monarch on several occasions and they never responded to the complaint.

So i fired off another letter to them telling them that they had 10 business days to respond to this letter and correct the canceled warranty or litigation would follow. I got the receipt back in the mail, waited 12 business days just to be sure, then i had my attorney file a complaint against Monarch, which is still pending.

So all of you out there who want to buy from Monarch, the best thing i can tell you

[Manny Calavera]

Thanks for the link Lethal, but for those of you too unmotivated to click a link :D I have included it here. I still recommend everyone to go over to Reseller Ratings and check the entire thread over there.


Wow !!! what a soap opera !! Thank the tech gods I have never bought anything from them ever !! I am amazed at the troubles that poor man has been forced to go through.I truly
hope he gets justice and his money back as well as damages.That one story above,has destroyed them forever in my eyes....

[swatbat]

Someone managed to save one of Mindreaper's deleted posts from the Monarch forum and posted it over at Reseller Ratings.

http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75350&page=13

Nice find. Yea I hope that guy comes out good in the end. Personaly I would have done the same thing to them.

[Spazilton]

Wow! I sure as hell hope he wins his lawsuit.

[rpjones68]

Now there is a class action suit going against them that was on their forum for about 1 minute before it was pulled, quoted below. Posting in case any involved want to join it:


"ClassAction Lawsuit
Does Monarch have your money and not providing what you paid for? Anyone that has money being held by Monarch or has been damaged since 9/1/06 can join a class action lawsuit to punish them for their abuse and borderline fraud. email "mcbirnie@yahoo.com". Looking only for customers that have been ignored through emails and phone calls while Monarch tries to keep as much cash in their accounts through their due diligence. This is abuse and borderline fraud and they need to be punished accordingly by some attorneys."

[topcat989]

I want to let everyone know that they need to keep an eye on whatever credit card accounts they have used with monarch.

Here's why:

I've ordered from them 2 times, the first around feb of this year, the second around july. The first shipment came fast, the second was slow shipping, but since i was not in a hurry, I forgave them. Then about 2 months ago, (late august) I was checking my checking account online, and I noticed a $500 charge from Monarch made about a week before I was going over the account. (I used my debit card for monarch purchases). I was going WTF!? and was about to go ballistic since of course I had not bought anything from them for almost 2 months at that time. A quick check showed no other unusual charges so I didn't think i had an ID theft problem. I awoke the next morning to call and scream bloody murder, before the call completed I noticed that the $500 charge had been credited back to my account that day. Monarch didn't just delay a refund, they made a completely unautherized charge on my account. So they basically "borrowed" $500 of my money for 6 days.

This may have just been an "honest" mistake unrelated to the floating issue. But what really disturbs me is that I feel that making an unauthorized charge is more serious then a refund delay, and that fact that it was essentially an immediate withdrawl of my cash from my checking account, instead of a credit charge, it could have put me in a really bad spot like bouncing checks. Luckly that didn't happen, but still....on that a vowed not to use Monarch again. :o

[w1retap]

Look

Ok, everyone may know me here as being a big Monarch guy. I've always said I've had no problems and ordered tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff over the years from them, all without any problems. Its true. Except, on my most recent order, I'm having a problem. I ordered a CPU/Mobo/Memory combo for work ONE MONTH AGO and it still hasn't arrived. I called them, emailed them, etc. They moved it "to the warehouse for processing", yet nothing has been done about it. My boss at work is going nuts lol. He's like "WHERE THE HELLLLLLLLLLL IS MY MOTHERBOARD?!?!?!" :D :p I've been calling and emailing them the past 3 weeks, and so far, no progress.

After all my YEARS of Monarch ordering, they finally did me wrong, and I will not be ordering from them any further. I can't get them to ship this motherboard combo if their life depended on it. Well, it looks like that's what I'll be doing all day today at work. I'll be calling Monarch phone support and waiting on hold for 5 hours for nobody to pick up. Its basically like all the Monarch employees disappeared off the face of the planet and nobody is working there. I've seen 2 person run businesses recieving dozens upon dozens of orders per week ship out items faster than them. It honestly isn't that hard. There is something seriously wrong going on with Monarch. They never used to be like this. I will take this as far as it needs to go to get my CPU/Mobo/Memory combo.

[jcll2002]

Look

Ok, everyone may know me here as being a big Monarch guy. I've always said I've had no problems and ordered tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff over the years from them, all without any problems. Its true. Except, on my most recent order, I'm having a problem. I ordered a CPU/Mobo/Memory combo for work ONE MONTH AGO and it still hasn't arrived. I called them, emailed them, etc. They moved it "to the warehouse for processing", yet nothing has been done about it. My boss at work is going nuts lol. He's like "WHERE THE HELLLLLLLLLLL IS MY MOTHERBOARD?!?!?!" :D :p I've been calling and emailing them the past 3 weeks, and so far, no progress.

After all my YEARS of Monarch ordering, they finally did me wrong, and I will not be ordering from them any further. I can't get them to ship this motherboard combo if their life depended on it. Well, it looks like that's what I'll be doing all day today at work. I'll be calling Monarch phone support and waiting on hold for 5 hours for nobody to pick up. Its basically like all the Monarch employees disappeared off the face of the planet and nobody is working there. I've seen 2 person run businesses recieving dozens upon dozens of orders per week ship out items faster than them. It honestly isn't that hard. There is something seriously wrong going on with Monarch. They never used to be like this. I will take this as far as it needs to go to get my CPU/Mobo/Memory combo.
same position here. i recommended them for a year and no more.

[Nazo]

Crap. Let's not start with big annoying flashy colors, ok? The moment we start doing a lot of that, this thread is degraded to a quality level not suited to this forum.

That said, w1retap, if it's really your boss and they are truly being so useless, cancel it and order the board from somewhere else. I'd say Newegg, but, ZipZoomFly or anywhere else you like would do, just so long as you actually get what you need. I admit that when I say cancel it, I'm talking about adding a lot of trouble since, as this very thread will tell you, people are having serious troubles getting their money back from cancellations or returns but it's better to risk paying it out of your own pocket than it taking way too long to arrive or never arriving at all if we're really talking about your boss here (though honestly I'd feel bad making anyone I was building a system for wait so long when they expected their system sooner.) That's my personal opinion anyway, and after this long of no progress I would have already done this. I guess it's getting a bit beyond the subject of the thread, so I'll be quiet about it now, just saying for your benefit is all.

[geeford]

I noted my issues with Monarch on page 6 already but I wanted to let everyone know after 8 days waiting for my item and then deciding it was not worth the trouble, I called my CC and disputed. Call took 5-10 minutes roughly and the within 3 business days, it was charged back. Don't waste your time calling Monarch back, go straight to your CC and more than likely, it should be taken care of.

[w1retap]

Crap. Let's not start with big annoying flashy colors, ok? The moment we start doing a lot of that, this thread is degraded to a quality level not suited to this forum.

That said, w1retap, if it's really your boss and they are truly being so useless, cancel it and order the board from somewhere else. I'd say Newegg, but, ZipZoomFly or anywhere else you like would do, just so long as you actually get what you need. I admit that when I say cancel it, I'm talking about adding a lot of trouble since, as this very thread will tell you, people are having serious troubles getting their money back from cancellations or returns but it's better to risk paying it out of your own pocket than it taking way too long to arrive or never arriving at all if we're really talking about your boss here (though honestly I'd feel bad making anyone I was building a system for wait so long when they expected their system sooner.) That's my personal opinion anyway, and after this long of no progress I would have already done this. I guess it's getting a bit beyond the subject of the thread, so I'll be quiet about it now, just saying for your benefit is all.
I wish it was as simple as you say. We paid with a certified check, and it has already been cashed. I cannot get a hold of them to get the money back. They won't answer the phone, or won't answer email. I just called again 5 minutes ago, and it says they are closed, although this is supposed to be their hours of operation. We can't 'waste' more money without guaranteeing that we will get the first $550 back. Our budget isn't big enough to just go out and spend a grand here and there to hope to get the money back from the first transaction.

edit: Also, I posted the 'look' in the same color as intellitxt. ;) :p It shouldn't jump out at you any more than when you accidentally mouseover 8 bajillion hotlink popups as you scroll down the page.

[Mr Fox]

As I was the Harbinger that Identified these issues upon Anandtech and other forum's I can tell everyone here that while my Campaign to get the word out was met with shill action, and obvious hostility from the usual malcontents....

Monarch Computer became totally disfunctional today, as no Phones were being answered, and even Tech Support was Dead.

We can only hope that the New Ownership is better aligned with their customers. They are at the bottom of a huge sand pit...

It was sad to watch Richard "Trey" Harris run the place into the dirt...

I was trying to warn the Buying Public.... that this was not flying straight..... Even Forum Moderators were wondering what my Agenda was.... I stuck to my Guns.... and it now appears that Kate Smith is stepping up to the Microphone as we speak.....

G'Night Ladies and Germ's

R.I.P. Monarch Computer


If it Isn't Broke, Leave It Alone !!

Mr. Fox

[Rhinohelix]

ugh, I am one of those on the hook for 500+ dollars, part in credit from an RMA and part in goods. I just got an email the other day that my stuff was about to be shipped and my credit card would be credited the balance. As of today I have neither my stuff or my other money back. I was thinking that I was just about to get clear of this whole mess and now it seems that is not going to happen. I guess if I can't get anyone on the phone, I will have to start the dispute process. Better to cut my losses now, I guess.

[jcll2002]

ugh, I am one of those on the hook for 500+ dollars, part in credit from an RMA and part in goods. I just got an email the other day that my stuff was about to be shipped and my credit card would be credited the balance. As of today I have neither my stuff or my other money back. I was thinking that I was just about to get clear of this whole mess and now it seems that is not going to happen. I guess if I can't get anyone on the phone, I will have to start the dispute process. Better to cut my losses now, I guess.
same exact thing happened to me...

"oh they might actually send me the money"

a month later

"im an idiot *calls CC company*"

[General Crespin]

I'm seven days short of two months, but yesterday I got a shipping notification for my card reader. :p RMAed it.

[hardwarephreak]

As I was the Harbinger that Identified these issues upon Anandtech and other forum's I can tell everyone here that while my Campaign to get the word out was met with shill action, and obvious hostility from the usual malcontents....

Monarch Computer became totally disfunctional today, as no Phones were being answered, and even Tech Support was Dead.

We can only hope that the New Ownership is better aligned with their customers. They are at the bottom of a huge sand pit...

It was sad to watch Richard "Trey" Harris run the place into the dirt...

I was trying to warn the Buying Public.... that this was not flying straight..... Even Forum Moderators were wondering what my Agenda was.... I stuck to my Guns.... and it now appears that Kate Smith is stepping up to the Microphone as we speak.....

G'Night Ladies and Germ's

R.I.P. Monarch Computer


If it Isn't Broke, Leave It Alone !!

Mr. Fox

Not only was there heat from other forum memebers, but there was also pressure from Monarch on forum admins/owners to squelch any posts even remotely talking bad about them...even if it was a legitimate gripe.

[Jasonx82]

I finally got my Money back ($586.67) after about 4-5 months i dont even remember. No Thanx to monarch, American Express gave me the credit! AMEX FTW! :cool:

[LordBritish]

I ordered once from Monarch and they screwed me.

I had to file a dispute claim with my CC - i got the money back but I don't approve of their business practicies.

Basically what happened is that they charged my CC for an item that they didn't even have in stock even though their website didn't mention anything about it being out of stock.

What kind of BS is that??

For one, if an item is out of stock , it should say "OUT OF STOCK" on the website.
I also understand that $hit happens and sometimes the web is not in sync with inventories and sometimes it happens. But if it does, don't charge the customers CC !! Just send a polite email explaining the mistake. If they had done that, i would have understood and ordered someplace else. But to charge a CC when you dont have the item to begin with is rediculous !!!

[hardwarephreak]

Talked with someone today, and while they can't comment on anything "officially," they have heard that monarch has a good bit of debt lingering with some of the national distributors. While I can't prove it, he is someone that would actually know that information.

I kind of worked it into a conversation today, and he said, yeah "that's the rumor" nudge, nudge..wink, wink.

So what I am trying to convey here is if you have anything outstanding with monarch, dispute it now, because if the big, big guys aren't getting paid, you won't either.

[Coolwave]

My experience

10/19 - Placed order for motherboard
10/19 - Paid via Paypal
10/23 - Sent to warehouse for shipping
10/26 - Sent order status e-mail
10/31 - No reply yet, called 1-800 #, "not in stock until...", canceled order

Nov - Sent multiple emails about refunding to my Paypal account, have never received an email reply from them! No hurry so didn't bother calling...

12/1 - Called 1-800 #, message said they were closed during operating hours. Officially spooked so I immediately opened a dispute on Paypal
12/4 - Refund received!!

Not the worst experience, I got my money back! Of course I will NEVER order from them again after this. Funny thing is that I never would have ordered from them, but I had money in my Paypal account from an auction and newegg doesn't accept Paypal anymore... Guess I should have transfered my funds instead!

Thanks for nothing Monarch!

Coolwave

[mrjminer]

My experience

10/19 - Placed order for motherboard
10/19 - Paid via Paypal
10/23 - Sent to warehouse for shipping
10/26 - Sent order status e-mail
10/31 - No reply yet, called 1-800 #, "not in stock until...", canceled order

Nov - Sent multiple emails about refunding to my Paypal account, have never received an email reply from them! No hurry so didn't bother calling...

12/1 - Called 1-800 #, message said they were closed during operating hours. Officially spooked so I immediately opened a dispute on Paypal
12/4 - Refund received!!

Not the worst experience, I got my money back! Of course I will NEVER order from them again after this. Funny thing is that I never would have ordered from them, but I had money in my Paypal account from an auction and newegg doesn't accept Paypal anymore... Guess I should have transfered my funds instead!

Thanks for nothing Monarch!

Coolwave

Just as a side note, I think Newegg is taking PayPal again. They just had a promotion where they would give you free shipping if you paid with PayPal, so I don't think my assumption is illogical.

Let's not derail it, though.

I used to recommend Monarch and compliment them when I saw someone slamming them because my experiences have always been positive. Not to mention it is in their ToS that they will take a length of time for refunds to get back to the person who ordered if something gets cancelled. However, I was even on their side when "Mr. Fox" first posted his information at Anandtech. After reading through all of these and all of the stuff on resellerratings.com, I can see that my convictions were in err. Sorry to anyone who ordered from Monarch based on something I posted--all I can say now is don't do it again!

[General Crespin]

It looks like they are now moderating all posts on their forum.

[hardwarephreak]

It looks like they are now moderating all posts on their forum.

I don't think people have been able to post over there without having the posts immediately deleted for awhile now.

You have a comment. Deleted.

You have a question about a RMA. Deleted.

You have a question about a refund. Deleted.

You have a question about a potential purchase...eventually its answered.

[Nazo]

Geez, why don't they just disable the forums then. They'd tick people off a lot less that way (especially if they put up a message lying about the reason the forum is down -- like say database errors or something.) As it is, they're just compounding their problem even further with stuff like this. Now many of their current customers feel like they can't even ask a question without being censured when in many cases even the simplest of answers would be enough to make a few of those customers stay.

If anyone else was doing this, I'd jokingly say "well, clearly they just don't need any money." That joke doesn't hold up so well in reference to a company that's going straight down the toilet.

[C.Norris]

Well things just keep getting worse and worse for monarch and who ever deals with them.

I checked out the RR forums again today and there are numerous allegations of Monarch selling ES CPUs, MB's and Video cards when people thought they were getting retail or warranted items. One poster reported receiving a nVidia reference card when he claims he purchased an eVGA card with his combo. I think the Monarch rep that kept posting there with his mind boggling posts has given up and no longer posts, sad to see him go, he added so much fuel to the bonfire. Can you all believe this stuff? WTF is up with Monarch?

[jcll2002]

Well things just keep getting worse and worse for monarch and who ever deals with them.

I checked out the RR forums again today and there are numerous allegations of Monarch selling ES CPUs, MB's and Video cards when people thought they were getting retail or warranted items. One poster reported receiving a nVidia reference card when he claims he purchased an eVGA card with his combo. I think the Monarch rep that kept posting there with his mind boggling posts has given up and no longer posts, sad to see him go, he added so much fuel to the bonfire. Can you all believe this stuff? WTF is up with Monarch?
i honestly dont want to know.

[jcll2002]

Any update on this?
Looks like I'm screwed.

The CC company said they couldn't help us, upper management wont answer/return my calls. No emails have been returned. Nothing.

I'm fucked out of $550.

[rpjones68]

if you paid by CC and you don't have the goods, how can they not give you the $$$ back? I'd cancel that card for sure!

[jcll2002]

thats not what happened. I RMAed a few things for $500 and they said i could pay the price and theyd refund it when they get the fault hardware. I didnt get the refund though.

it happened late august.

[w1retap]

if you paid by CC and you don't have the goods, how can they not give you the $$$ back? I'd cancel that card for sure!
yea... canceling a credit card with money still on it isn't good for your credit score.. you have to pay it.

[Kyle_Bennett]

I was told today that Monarch was on the verge of bankruptcy. I have heard this from two industry insiders. It is still an unconfirmed rumor and I would treat it as such, but you better get your business done with them quickly if you have something outstanding.

[MrMike]

Looks like I'm screwed.

The CC company said they couldn't help us, upper management wont answer/return my calls. No emails have been returned. Nothing.

I'm fucked out of $550.

That's rough that your CC company isn't of any help. I'm surprised at this though.

Also, is there something I'm missing here that's preventing this from being considered theft? Is their RMA disclaimer something like, you can send stuff back, and we'll never refund you for it?

[General Crespin]

I was told today that Monarch was on the verge of bankruptcy. I have heard this from two industry insiders. It is still an unconfirmed rumor and I would treat it as such, but you better get your business done with them quickly if you have something outstanding.

*Taps*

[The Gonz]

I just finished a very negative experience with Monarch.

Back a few years ago I bought some corsair ram from them and it was awesome! I even needed to rma it 1 year later and BAM I had the new piece within 2 days.

Fast forward to November 2nd of this year. I order an Opteron 165 from then before I caught up with all this bad news. Well I was not about to play Russian roulette with my money so I canceled the order the very next day.

I promptly called my CC to have them doubly cancel the order. Well my order got conceled sure enough before my CC was charged and LO AND BEHOLD 2 days later I get charged from them.

Their refund policy states that refunds MAY take up to 30 days to be processed. By the way I read somewhere this is like the maximum allowed by law or some crap I dunno.

So basically when I called them up and asked where my money was I got a big STFU in polite terms from them.

30 days later (Dec. 6th) NO REFUND! I call my CC and they eat the charge and refund me my money.

Sorry but this is the end for Monarch. At this point there is nothing that can save them.
I am done with them and everyone else would be smart to stay away.

I don't care how good a deal something is. If you never get the item (Read: correct Manufact. etc) if you get it at all, then you got ripped off.

[hardwarephreak]

E T H I C S.

Or lack there of is what floors me about these guys. It's not like we haven't heard from them in awhile, someone from monarch was just on ResellerRatings in the past 10 days.
But the whole time, they are saying that EVERYONE is making baseless accusations. That everything is just fine at Monarch, and that all the items in their clearance section are "ready to ship".

[jcll2002]

Looks like I'm screwed.

The CC company said they couldn't help us, upper management wont answer/return my calls. No emails have been returned. Nothing.

I'm fucked out of $550.
is there anything reasonable i can do?

[saturnine2]

Sorry but this is the end for Monarch. At this point there is nothing that can save them.
I am done with them and everyone else would be smart to stay away.
Nope, the only way for them to make it after all this negative publicity & possible bankruptcy would to be to go ahead and close up shop now, then re-organize later under a different name and (hopefully) offer better customer service. I'll never forget how I was treated by them..

Oh, and Kyle, we all thank you for terminating Monarch as a sponsor before things started getting worse. You saved a bunch of people from having these problems, and for that you guys kick ass ;)

[jcll2002]

Nope, the only way for them to make it after all this negative publicity & possible bankruptcy would to be to go ahead and close up shop now, then re-organize later under a different name and (hopefully) offer better customer service. I'll never forget how I was treated by them..

Oh, and Kyle, we all thank you for terminating Monarch as a sponsor before things started getting worse. You saved a bunch of people from having these problems, and for that you guys kick ass ;)
yeah i got fuxored though :(. $600 down the drain. gone.

[saturnine2]

yeah i got fuxored though :(. $600 down the drain. gone.
Keep calling! Call every few hours, send tons of Emails (no mail bomb though ;)). Do everything you can to annoy them till you get your money back. That's what I had to do.

[jcll2002]

Keep calling! Call every few hours, send tons of Emails (no mail bomb though ;)). Do everything you can to annoy them till you get your money back. That's what I had to do.
i have! called maybe 15 times and i have no idea how many emails

[hardwarephreak]

Anybody know anyone in the Atlanta area? I am a solid 5 hours away, so it wouldn't be just quick trip for me, but maybe you could find a forum member in the area to take a trip by there to get some questions answered for you. Not if they are going to be an a$$ though because that will get you nowhere. Maybe you could throw whoever some money for gas, beer, and some dinner, and in return they could stop by and try to get it straightened out. He could call you when he go there, and then hand the phone to whatever is working there.

[jcll2002]

Anybody know anyone in the Atlanta area? I am a solid 5 hours away, so it wouldn't be just quick trip for me, but maybe you could find a forum member in the area to take a trip by there to get some questions answered for you. Not if they are going to be an a$$ though because that will get you nowhere. Maybe you could throw whoever some money for gas, beer, and some dinner, and in return they could stop by and try to get it straightened out. He could call you when he go there, and then hand the phone to whatever is working there.
they would probably just throw you out of the store...

[hardwarephreak]

Well if someone lives in the area it probably wouldn't be too much trouble for them to stop by. And if they are well spoken and polite, they might actually get a foot in the door long enough for them to put you through to them. Something like, "I am acutally here for a friend, it woould probably be best if he asks you himself because I don't know all the details." Then he calls you on his cellphone and sticks his cellphone with the Monarch troll.

[The Gonz]

Kyle I was thinking of something that might be a great idea and public service for [H]ard OCP to do.

We all know the kind of pull this site has when it comes to evaluating the system buying experience. When you guys find an area lacking with a company and make note of it, they hear it and often times make changes.

Well rather then only do it for systems why not make an article scoring the customer experience of various tech selling sites. As techies we all know the avenues to explore and such but newcomers may find great value in an article such as this going into detail about how smooth or rocky one company is compared to another as well as how easy it may be to RMA a broken item. Along with other areas of the tech buying experience.

This may be a great time to highlight potential champions of tech shopping and expose the underbelly of some more "tasteless" companies.

Far be it from me to suggest including Monarch computer systems in such an article but if they were to make an appearance many people would be informed for the better of their lacking customer support and shall I say... honesty?

Just my humble $.02

[mrjminer]

The problem with that is expectation and reliability of the customers. We all know some people set their expectations unreasonably high and then slam a company when those expectations go unfulfilled. We also know that some people set their expectations unreasonably low and then praise a company when those expectations are filled.

The only way for something like a complete merchant evaluation to be accurately completed would be for the evaluator to complete an innumerable amount of purchases across an unforeseeable length of time and stagger their tests of a merchant to avoid detection of the evaluation taking place (ie. RMA something, then RMA something from a different category; repeat with the exact same items, of course from different orders, multiple times). Not to mention some things would not really have an accurate testbed without falsifying experience in some way (ie. what if no items received are ever defective or if the amount of defective items does not allow for an accurate sample of items to be RMAed?).

Simply put, it is not feasible or realistic to run the tests that you suggest; you simply have to go through word of mouth and make an individual judgement as to what qualifies as a good merchant or a bad merchant to you.

[w1retap]

Still haven't got any responses yet from phone or email.. its been since the beginning of last month. Over $600 out.. paid with a check that has been cashed already by monarch.

Also, LOL...
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Temp/monarch.jpg

[General Crespin]

Monarch discussion board is now closed. :rolleyes:

[Xilikon]

Monarch discussion board is now closed. :rolleyes:

Looks like they are now pulling the plug and close everything... It sucks for those who are still struck with them.

[General Crespin]

I just noticed that their main site is changing a lot too.

EDIT: And called them, and phone says they're closed but lists office hours as 10-6.

[muddocktor]

And I saw over at the RR forums that their email box is full too. Sounds to me like they have stolen enough people's money to go out and have themselves a good Christmas before formally closing the doors for good.

It's too bad they didn't screw over some local Atlanta cop who could just sic the whole police department on them and hassle the bastards. :D

[topaimz]

Hmmmm, are they going bankrupt?

They used to have a wide range of products for sale,
and they used to be pretty good on service...

That was like 4 months ago.

I haven't need anything for that long, but I order
my memory two times from monarch with no trouble.

Now I check back, and there are barely anything for
sale, and complaints like this thread are rampant
all over the net.

What's up with them?

[muddocktor]

Hmmmm, are they going bankrupt?

They used to have a wide range of products for sale,
and they used to be pretty good on service...

That was like 4 months ago.

I haven't need anything for that long, but I order
my memory two times from monarch with no trouble.

Now I check back, and there are barely anything for
sale, and complaints like this thread are rampant
all over the net.

What's up with them?

If you do a google search on them, you should come up with dozens of threads talking about how they are ripping people off. Looks like they are even now still trying to screw as many folks out of their money before they officially declare bankruptcy. Just read this thread here and it will fill you in on the problem.

[Jasonx82]

They took there phone number off there site? :eek:

[TheDro]

Do these numbers still work?

(678) 385-1064
(770) 939-8886

I went to their store 2 months ago to buy the 80mm Panaflo fan, which I didn't since they didn't have the one I was looking for, and their place was located in a pretty nice office park/industrial park, in fact on the way to their place was a pretty large warehouse that said Computer Parts or something like that. I'm not sure if they're part of Monarch, but I didn't see any signs indicating that it was, but it was most likely their supplier.

Oh and Monarch's building is a pretty large warehouse that looks like an office building towards the front thats facing the parking lot/street, and that is also the same location of the store.

Heres their building (highlighted in green):
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4439/monarchiv2.jpg

Also I'd go to their store again but they're located about 130 miles away from me, so its not happening, unless I needed to get something up in Atlanta.

[hardwarephreak]

Those refurbished computers...hmmm...could they be the computers that were used by staff, and now that they are going under, they don't need those computers...

liquidating what assets they have before the creditors and lawyers decend.

Many of the large national distributors are local/have branches in and around Atlanta. Monarchs rep at these distys has been anything but stellar for some time now. Though those grapevines I have herad that monarch stiffed a large distributor for six figures :eek:

If there was any potential sale/transfer of the business to a new owner, the accountant or financial officer in charge of going over their financials would see that they are overextended from every possible angle.

At this point, anyone that hasn't gotten their money probably won't. If you placed an order through a credit card, don't wait, dispute it now. And those of you that have parts/systems in for RMA, put all of you documentation together, because you may have to petetion to get your hardware back, and you will need proof of ownership.

Messy, messy, messy...I just hope that the people responsible are not allowed to just dissolve through bankruptcy. There are certain people involved that willfully have defrauded people..

[Paul_Johnson]

Do these numbers still work?

(678) 385-1064
(770) 939-8886


They still work but they say they are closed.

[BrinNutz]

Ok, I have been having problems with Monarch.

I ordered a TT Bigwater 745 when they were on the cheap. Got it a week and a half later.

Then, I splurged and bought 2 Lian Li V2100A Plus II's on 05 Dec 2006.

$139.00 a piece plus shipping.

They have since taken money from my credit card, and I have left several messages, on every extension I can find someone's name at.

I have sent multiple email's concerning this matter, and have threatened to contact the FTC and BBB to report them. This does not seem to bother them one bit.

So, along with someone else at another forum who has alread contacted the FTC and BBB (and has been in contact with them via phone), I will be doing the same in the next few days.

I will also contact my CC company to get my money back on this.

I have ordered multiple things from them before and never had a problem, until now. This is f'in ridiculous.

BTW, can someone help me find the Auto Store next to them so I can call and ask a favor? Thanks!

I don't know if this has been posted or not, but I have figured out how to dial directly to a person's desk.

Even if it says they are closed, the number 3 is the first number to reach an extension, i.e. 301, 302, 303...etc.

So, to get through, just dial one of them and leave a message at each one.

[C.Norris]

BriNutz-

I think it is safe to say that Monarch was trying to get a little bit more money before ducking out and you were one of the ones to give it to them. I think they had a clear plan to purposely defraud you and others that have used them in the last couple of months. I really hope you pursue the owner thru FTC and any other Gov Fraud agencies and get that bastard.

[BrinNutz]

probably...CC will give me my money back tho for sure.=)

[strikeout]

phew im lucky i got my video card new and working back in oct. I have dealt with them twice and got out clean. One of the lucky ones i guess.

[Ockie]

I could smell their scum a year away so thats why I stopped shopping there... boy am I glad I did :)

[fuelvolts]

I could smell their scum a year away so thats why I stopped shopping there... boy am I glad I did :)

Agreed. After I bought some RAM 4 months ago that took 2 weeks to deliver bc they "lost" my order. Never again. Newegg and outpost/fry's are the only tech websites I shop at now.

Shame on you, Monarch for doing this to people.

/Feels a lot better
//mods, feel free to edit my post if it offends people

[Kyle_Bennett]

yeah i got fuxored though :(. $600 down the drain. gone.

they owe me a lot more than that if it makes you feel better. :(

[MrCoffee]

Fuck you, Monarch for doing this to people.

QFT. Monarch owes my buddy a 550$ refund.
Someone needs to introduce Monarch's kneecaps to some baseball bats... :mad:

[The Gonz]

Kudos to Kyle and the rest of the [H] for putting this on the front page. One can only hope it gains more publicity to prevent some poor kid from spending his Chanukah or x-mas money on those sorry sons of **tches.

To Monarch: I hope you intimately learn the meaning of the word butt-puppet

[rthefley]

Sad but a true fact, and this is of course a very gray unethical area but companies that are having problems that might possibly be going out of business can still legally take orders. Here is where it gets ugly. At the moment the company closes it's doors, all orders and those funds are basically frozen. And the way the banks work, when they give loans it's expressly written in contracts that they get their money back first before any consumer when the said companies assets are liquidated due to bankruptsy. Even newegg which does an estimated $10 - 13 million is sales PER DAY has loans in the several millions of dollars but to explain why would be beyond the scope of my knowledge in this area. So from the small guy that ordered that $100 dollar part, to the small business that just spent $10,000 dollars on some office computers, they are SOL. Now, many people do get their money back by contacting their credit card companies and or banks. But many do not.

This is basic legal 101 stuff.

I wish everyone the best.

[jcll2002]

Kudos to Kyle and the rest of the [H] for putting this on the front page. One can only hope it gains more publicity to prevent some poor kid from spending his Chanukah or x-mas money on those sorry sons of **tches.

To Monarch: I hope you intimately learn the meaning of the word butt-puppet
yeah lol, but really no lol. Im 16 and all that money i spent working for............gone.

kyle how did they manage to get something from you?

[Crosshairs]

kyle how did they manage to get something from you?

My guess would be they owe him for advertising....They used to do a lot of advertising on this site...

They no longer do, probably because they didn't pay the bill :)

[BrinNutz]

Yup, I'm out $320 bucks. Until I call the CC company.

[BrinNutz]

I just called the compnay next door to Monarch, and he said there are people working there right now. WTF

[geeford]

I live 10 minutes from them. What would you like me to ask them for you? Will probably see them tomorrow or next week.

[The Gonz]

Ask them how they feel about going to hell for stealing from little kids and old people?

[rahlquist]

This is sad. They are about 22 miles from my work. If nobody manages to contact them maybe I'll run over there. Perhaps the local Fox5 news station who likes to rip into ripoffs like this would like to be in on this. I'll send them a link.

EDIT: You can reach the Fox5 I-Team at iteamatlanta@foxtv.com and tell them your story of being ripped off, enough voices will likely get them to investigate, they love stories like this. They also have a # of 404-898-0242

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=318554&version=65&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

There is a Digg thread on this too pointing to the story here. Digg it folks and spread the word..

http://www.digg.com/hardware/Monarch_Computer_s_Going_Bankrupt

[Bill Clo]

And they wonder WHY some people go postal, what with the way they deliberately screw people over.

Maybe some folk could camp out in front of the store with picketing signs (properly, with a permit and all so the cops don't harass them so much), and picket the owner's house as well...

Embarassment/shame can be a powerful weapon if skillfully used. And if they aren't, well, you can harass them in many legal ways.

Thank GOD I saw them going down the shitter and haven't ordered from them in quite some time.

[DogChainX]

Thanks Kyle (and Steve?) for posting this on your website. I sent word to Steve requesting a warning on HARDOCP about the status of Monarch Computers. THANK YOU!

I bought a computer case from Monarch on October 30th, in hopes to build a new system for the 8800GTX. I bought a lian li V2000b, which they said was IN STOCK. 4 days went by, and there was no tracking number, no status change, NOTHING. So, i called up Monarch and talked to a guy there on November 5th. He first put me on hold while he "check things". After about 5 minutes on hold, he said he's not sure when a shipment will come in and tried to get me order another case. I tried canceling the order, but he said that they already ordered the cases (more than one!) and it will be in stock soon. I stated how he could know that if he didn't know when the shipment was coming. LIARS! So they did NOT have it in stock, and they didn't know if it will be in stock. 2 days after this, the case disappeared from their website, so they aren't getting anymore in. LIARS!

I finally got them to cancel the order and issue a refund. I check my visa statement online every day, and didn't see anything for a week. I call back, get put on hold while they "check" on that refund status. 30 Days. They charged my credit card for a case that would NEVER BE IN STOCK, and i have to wait 30 days for a refund. So I wait, all the while thinking I should get my credit card company involved. But hey, this is MonarchComputers.com right, they're a huge company....surely they'll refund the money.

38 Days later, MonarchComputers replaces their business hour phone with an automated message stating they are closed, and to call back during normal business hours. Their voicemail boxes all fill up within a day. Emails are not responded to, and their forum closes. Their main phone number is taken off the front of their website. A few days later, their webpage turns from a huge list of in stock items to "refurbished systems" and "misc computer crap no one wants". My refund? No where in sight.

On day 36 I called up my Wells Fargo CC service, and explain the situation. I am NOT liable for those charges. Woohoo....but what about everyone else whose is less fortunate?
What will they have to do in order to get their money back? Who has all the money from current orders that have gone unfulfilled?

Looking at reviews at www.resellerratings.com it seems that Monarch is swindling people out of their money left and right. Refunds are not happening, customer service/warranty is non-existent. Monarch Computers seems to be gone....just an empty shell probably ran by a few people trying to liquidate whats left.

What a pathetic way of closing up shop. I hope jail time is dealt out. :mad:



Btw, CoolerGuys.com had the case in stock, and matched Monarch's price and sent it out THAT DAY!

[BrinNutz]

I live 10 minutes from them. What would you like me to ask them for you? Will probably see them tomorrow or next week.


Help please...PM

DogChainX, you got PM as well..=)



And here is another thread over at Overclock.net about Monarch

http://www.overclock.net/off-topic/136697-monarch-computer-probs.html

[topcat989]

they owe me a lot more than that if it makes you feel better. :(

You know the ship is on fire and sinking when they screw over the owner of a major web site. If they weren't concerned about bad publicity from that, then wow.......

[swatbat]

they owe me a lot more than that if it makes you feel better. :(

Any chance of you ever going into more of the details of what you wrote in CPU mag since I'm guessing it was about Monarch?

[lsman]

I am currently out about $600 on an order at Nov1. (should had check more closely before I ordered... I did 2 orders from them before without problem)
hopefully the great service of AE will cover that...

[BrinNutz]

Stop the presses!! HAHA...No, don't do that..

But, I just recieved an email from Monarch :

To Me from Them,

I'm sorry. We are restructuring and the phones were messed up transferring the numbers to a new line and the extensions to a new phone system. I just got your voicemail and I'm sorry but I'm short one of your cases. I can ship the one tonight and, if you like, switch the other to one of our other Lian Li cases. Tell me your requirements for this chassis and I will recommend one that meets your expecations.

Jason@monarchcomputer.com

So, I ordered the Lian Li V2100 Plus II's (Quantity 2), and they only have one. I replied back that I would take one of the V1100 versions since that is the only case similar in specs to what I have purchased.
I'm waiting on a reply.

[Treetops]

So...We don't actually know that Monarch is going out of business, right? But because Kyle has personal finiancal beef with them he decides to use his position to maybe get a little biased revenge. Wow, thats not very responsible. I know this is his house but lets realize that people have motives and may be telling a story to make it come true instead of it already being true. If you tell people someone is going out of business then people will not order from them and this is far more likely to make it true. I don't know all of what is going on over there and in all honesty none of us do.
I wouldn't necessarily respond to Kyle either if I was them, he tells of a story where he cancelled their account and they don't call him back in 5 minutes to make him happy? go figure

[rthefley]

Hey Kyle, Add a Thumbs Up! or Thumbs Down! Feature to the posts so we can bury BS responses like the one above me talking smack on you.

[SILVR 6]

So...We don't actually know that Monarch is going out of business, right? But because Kyle has personal finiancal beef with them he decides to use his position to maybe get a little biased revenge. Wow, thats not very responsible. I know this is his house but lets realize that people have motives and may be telling a story to make it come true instead of it already being true. If you tell people someone is going out of business then people will not order from them and this is far more likely to make it true. I don't know all of what is going on over there and in all honesty none of us do.
I wouldn't necessarily respond to Kyle either if I was them, he tells of a story where he cancelled their account and they don't call him back in 5 minutes to make him happy? go figure

Nice first post :rolleyes: Seems like you have something to do with Monarch. This isn't Kyle being selfish or out of line. Just google monarch computers and you'll see how bad stuff has been for the past 2 months or so, i'm rather suprized that [H] didn't post anything sooner, he's definately NOT out of line at all.

The purpose of the post is to warn people not to order from Monarch, its been WELL documented that people have been ripped off repeatedly from this store.

[DogChainX]

So...We don't actually know that Monarch is going out of business, right? But because Kyle has personal finiancal beef with them he decides to use his position to maybe get a little biased revenge. Wow, thats not very responsible. I know this is his house but lets realize that people have motives and may be telling a story to make it come true instead of it already being true. If you tell people someone is going out of business then people will not order from them and this is far more likely to make it true. I don't know all of what is going on over there and in all honesty none of us do.
I wouldn't necessarily respond to Kyle either if I was them, he tells of a story where he cancelled their account and they don't call him back in 5 minutes to make him happy? go figure

Brought to you by the wonderful people at Monarch Computers.... :p

[Treetops]

I haven't done business with them in years, and they don't owe me money, so I can admit I may see things differently I they had my cash. But you can't just say someone is going out of business when you have no idea if thats true because in his position he can put people out of jobs who really are just employees who aren't decision makers and don't have your money. How angry is he?

[rahlquist]

So...We don't actually know that Monarch is going out of business, right? But because Kyle has personal finiancal beef with them he decides to use his position to maybe get a little biased revenge. Wow, thats not very responsible. I know this is his house but lets realize that people have motives and may be telling a story to make it come true instead of it already being true. If you tell people someone is going out of business then people will not order from them and this is far more likely to make it true. I don't know all of what is going on over there and in all honesty none of us do.
I wouldn't necessarily respond to Kyle either if I was them, he tells of a story where he cancelled their account and they don't call him back in 5 minutes to make him happy? go figure

I've been a Hardocp reader for years and one thing that Kyle doesn't do is jump the gun and make baseless accusations. I am sure he has the best interest of the community at heart. That said, Google Monarch Computers Ripoff and you will find a growing number of complaints about this company on forums everywhere.

While there may not be hard evidence that they are going out of business there does seem to be a common thread of misleading communications and horrible customer service with this once popular company. If Kyle keeps one family from ruining their kids Christmas by preventing a $500 order of a part they will never get then I would stand behind him 100%. Sorry but thats just the way it is. A site with the readership and power of Hardocp has not only a moral obligation to report the facts but they also have a moral obligation to warn us if there is something fishy. This is one of the reasons that despite not being a gamer i still read their news.

BTW I notice this appears to be your first post, you wouldnt happen to live/work in Tucker would you?


I haven't done business with them in years, and they don't owe me money, so I can admit I may see things differently I they had my cash. But you can't just say someone is going out of business when you have no idea if thats true because in his position he can put people out of jobs who really are just employees who aren't decision makers and don't have your money. How angry is he?

Sorry but if an employee were to work in an operation thats preforming the actions I am hearing from the community without reporting their employer well they get what they deserve...

And BTW read things more carefully. Nobdy has said they are going out of business just questioning if that is indeed what is happening.

[SILVR 6]

I haven't done business with them in years, and they don't owe me money, so I can admit I may see things differently I they had my cash. But you can't just say someone is going out of business when you have no idea if thats true because in his position he can put people out of jobs who really are just employees who aren't decision makers and don't have your money. How angry is he?

Kyle does have power :D However once again, are you still oblivious to the fact that there have been many times in the past where computer stores have gone under and pulled the EXACT sequence of events as Monarch is doing. I'm not out to slam monarch, but as a person who has been ripped off at other online sites I feel for those who are getting scammed. Also there is a TON of support for what has been going on at Monarch, we all didn't just wake up and decide "Oh yeah were gonna make sure Monarch goes out of busniess" :rolleyes:

In your dreams

[Treetops]

I don't work for Monarch. I'm sure the admin can verify this by my email address. I understand they may suck terribly. I just think we need to stick to things we know and speculate less. By all mean please let me know if they go out of business. Send me a personal notice. But until then lets quit pretending to know things that we don't.

[emp7re]

Kyle is right to have posted this
The only experience I have had with Monarch was a horrible shitty one. I ordered a PC before leaving for college, and I had them pre-assemble it, as I had no time to do it before school started. I ordered it about 2 months before school started, yet somehow they charged me the very second I ordered, AND gave me the run around for over a month. Cutting the story short, I posted about it on resellerratings, gave them a horrible rating and wrote a huge rant about it, they called me the next day, gave me free overnight shipping and knocked $200 off my order in exchange for me removing my review/altering it. However, after hearing what has transpired now, all I can say is that I am even more angry, especially after having spent money on their tech-support services, which ARE non-existent mind you. I really hope theres some way to sue these people and get some of my money back. :(

[Rhinohelix]

They owed me on an RMA from earlier in the year. It was supposedly good for a year, when the rumors a couple of months ago became more serious, I looked around (finally finding something I could use as the their "Parts" section slowly atrophied) and ordered a few things. I had to apply my RMA to the order and then pay for it, which they would then refund the RMA credit against. That's dodgy to start with but I went with it in order to not those that money. The next day they had the great deal on the e6400. While I had heard of people having crappy service, I was still getting regular emails from them, so I thought "in for a penny, in for a pound" and ordered another part from them. The processor order that didn't have the RMA attached to it went right through and I received the part in just a couple days. Still nothing on the first order which had the RMA on it but they had just come through, right?

Wrong. I guess because they were going to have to come up with money, I never heard anything on the RMA order after the "processing" email. When I saw that they were stiffing distributors, I knew there was no coming back from that. I disputed and got my order money back but I know that RMA money has gone the way of the dodo. While it sucks, it wasn't as much as some here, so I should count myself lucky, I guess. My sympathies to those who lost hard-earned money.

Dealing with far-off companies would seem to be a risky business normally but given our experience buying from the far-flung screwdriver empire, people have become comfortable ordering this way. Some people don't remember a time before this was common practice in the computer industry. I am shocked by this, not so much in that they are ripping people off but how safe this commerce feels and how integrated it is to our way of doing things. While certainly not of the same scale, it appears this is as close to an Enron-level event we have had in this industry in long time. It speaks of how good things are in general that this is such a rare occurance.

[DogChainX]

I don't work for Monarch. I'm sure the admin can verify this by my email address. I understand they may suck terribly. I just think we need to stick to things we know and speculate less. By all mean please let me know if they go out of business. Send me a personal notice. But until then lets quit pretending to know things that we don't.

Would you like to know if they go out of business BEFORE or AFTER your refund? Hence the post on HARDOCP and this (and MANY other) discussions....

[Treetops]

But its just speculation. We don't know anything new. That doesn't sound like front page news to me.