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Monarch Computer Bites the Dust?

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-(Xyphox)- said:
I guess i could say i saw this coming, but not so soon, sucks for all of those with a monarch PC though,
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worthless

best bet is to hold onto it and see if another company buys them out and see if you can get the new ownership to honor it, if they are worth a damn they will
 
ive been rippped off hardcore by these guys for $950. i bought a few things on their site on dec 26 and have received nothing... i used paypal for the transaction because monarchs site was unable to accept credit cards... seems like not only did i get ripped off by monarch but payapl too

i started a blog about the whole ordeal here..

http://monarchcomputer.blogspot.com/
 
jayrod422 said:
ive been rippped off hardcore by these guys for $950. i bought a few things on their site on dec 26 and have received nothing... i used paypal for the transaction because monarchs site was unable to accept credit cards... seems like not only did i get ripped off by monarch but payapl too

i started a blog about the whole ordeal here..

http://monarchcomputer.blogspot.com/
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Paypal can only take action if there's money in a sellers registered account,if it's empty,there's not much they can do.That's their drawback,it's much better to make purchases online with a credit card(not debit cards,they don't have the same protection).Your story is also a good example of why you should check out an online vendor carefully at sites like ResellerRatings,by the time you ordered Monarch's ratings there showed they were ripping off people.
 
yea we should have checked them out before we made the purchase.... and we should have not used paypal off of ebay...

does anybody have any ideas on how to get our funds back??? i would rather not sue these people but would be open to it if nothing else works...

it seems like everyone else on this board is complaining about refunds and rma's not buying something and never receiving it... am i the only one?

as far as i am concerned this is just plain and simple theft
 
jayrod422 said:
yea we should have checked them out before we made the purchase.... and we should have not used paypal off of ebay...

does anybody have any ideas on how to get our funds back??? i would rather not sue these people but would be open to it if nothing else works...

it seems like everyone else on this board is complaining about refunds and rma's not buying something and never receiving it... am i the only one?

as far as i am concerned this is just plain and simple theft
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you will probably either be forced to write it off as a loss or wait until a class action lawsuit becomes apparrent...which i am sure it will....not that there will be enough money to satisfy everyone's loss.....
 
Even though I use PayPal to make purchases I always use a credit card to pay and make sure to never leave any money in my account. I got ripped off by an E-Bay seller and paypal would do nothing for me either even though they also did an investigation and found in my favor. The seller had emptied thier paypal account and closed it. Paypals guarantee is not worth the bandwidth its listed on.
 
i met a guy that got a job at monarch computers in december and he contacted me saying they have sales positions available. this was this morning. why would a company that is closing be hiring up to 10 new salespeople?

does anyone know if a buyout occured? im interested in a sales job with this company, (hell, im interested in ANY job at this point!), and im just trying to figure things out. if there is a buyout happening, id feel a little more confident about going in for an interview.

ill keep you posted at any rate
 
drewfus said:
i met a guy that got a job at monarch computers in december and he contacted me saying they have sales positions available. this was this morning. why would a company that is closing be hiring up to 10 new salespeople?

does anyone know if a buyout occured? im interested in a sales job with this company, (hell, im interested in ANY job at this point!), and im just trying to figure things out. if there is a buyout happening, id feel a little more confident about going in for an interview.

ill keep you posted at any rate
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sounds to me like a buyout has/is occuring......that....or this guy you met cannot be trusted...

i know one thing, i am ready to hear something official one way or the other, hopefully there was a successful buyout and things will be better than ever, here's to wishing
 
MY BAD!

it isnt monarch computers, it was mintone computers. its a small computer store in tennessee. i have to switch cell carriers now!

hope i didnt get anyones hopes up:(
 
lopoetve said:
I'd buy things from them and resell, you'll get something out of it that way. How much?
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I believe 50 bux, but I'll have to double check.
robble said:
not true, you can use it to see if they are still shipping anything.
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I did check the site out, there is pretty much nothing I want for sale now, even things I wouldn't normally buy.

I'll have to contact them and see if theres any way that it can be reimbursed, I'd feel bad if my Dad just threw away the money.
 
I've been following this thread since its inception. My story is similar to many. In October and November I ordered two systems, whose combined price was very nearly $4000. Neither system ever showed up despite much effort spent following up on my orders. I'm currently trying to deal with my bank, but I feel like it's long past time to begin criminal proceedings. After spending tens of thousands of dollars with Monarch over many years, they blatantly ripped me off, and I want justice.
 
We_are_theBorg said:
I've been following this thread since its inception. My story is similar to many. In October and November I ordered two systems, whose combined price was very nearly $4000. Neither system ever showed up despite much effort spent following up on my orders. I'm currently trying to deal with my bank, but I feel like it's long past time to begin criminal proceedings. After spending tens of thousands of dollars with Monarch over many years, they blatantly ripped me off, and I want justice.
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Go file a lawsuit then, you don't need our advice, mere peons on the internet. ;)
 
Man, this is horrible. I feel fortunate that I've only ordered a few parts on occasion, and all before this big mess.

I hope it doesn't end up like Enron, only it's the customers who absorb their financial delinquency.
 
Hello all:
I have been lurking on this site for some time now and I have been customer of Monarch Computer since the 90’s. Granted what is going on is a damn shame, but small business is ruthless and until your in business you’ll never know how difficult it can be - with reporting and taxes from all the nit picking government agencies, to the shift in business and profits – one mistake can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

I would like to address the chat about class action law suites, and criminal charges. In order to have a class action you have to have a class and a customer is not a class, and a retail store not delivering goods to a customer is not criminal, it’s civil. One could go to small claims court and win a FiFa but where would it be served? If a business files for protection under bankruptcy a customer can join but the governments get paid first then the vendors, and what would be left over? Anyone’s best bet here is to go to your banks, credit card issuers and beg them for a refund.

Now I’m not interested in driving to some po-dunk town outside of Cleveland to visit AVA direct, nor run out to California to deal with Vigor or CyberPower PC. No, I’d like a major builder, with a stuffed warehouse here in Atlanta!

Now it may not be PC (the other PC!) in this forum, but I’d like to thank Trey, Sterling, Jason, Chris, Rick and of course Chuck, and Greg for all your help and valuable information they have given over the years. I can’t believe there is malice here; wish you-all well, and I’d be a happy guy if Monarch Computer came back from the ashes.
 
Dunno about customer not being a class, there have been large numebrs of consumer class actions lawsuits agasint comapnies for all sorts of sthings, from nondisclosures (that rootkit situation) to failure to perform as expected.

Only hing you need for a class is for a group of people with similar reltionship and similar claim grounded on the same legal principle.
I wouldnt hold my breath to actually money though, by the time you file and goto court, its unlikely there is anything left.

Re: criminal, you would have to convince a prosecutor or regulator that the officers of Monarch knowingly ripped clients off in that they explicitly knew they could not deliver on orders. Thats going to come down to proving certain timings and intents that is difficult to do without alot of inside info.

I for one, beleive they should throw the book at the owners. If they knew they were going under they should have ceased taking new orders asap.

Im not 100% sure, but if you could prove their intent or their negligence, you could try to pierce the veil (not sure if Monarch was an LLC or if it was Inc.) and go after personal assets. You would need to win the class status first to ahve a large neough claim to be worthwhile of course. Lot of ifs here, not worth it like as not.
 
There is an object lesson here: Always use a credit card, and support your local vendors. I don’t support Dell, Gateway, HP, and etc. because they aren’t local and don’t have dealerships in this town.

I would buy from AVA Direct if I lived in Columbus, but wouldn’t if I live in Atlanta. And I’m more than happy to buy from out of state vendors for parts, but I’d still use a credit (not debit) card for protection.

When all this saber rattling gets over with and calmer heads prevail you’ll quickly see going into the legal system is expensive and time consuming – I speak from experience. It’s great sport chatting up Class Action, and Piercing the Corporate Veil, but the reality here is in a bankruptcy all the government agencies are first in line then the major creditors, what’s left is pennies on the dollar if anything at all. In civil or federal court (class action is usually federal) a retainer is going to be required and that would start at maybe $20,000. In a class action the lawyers are looking to 50% off the top plus expenses. And “looking into” a company is called discovery, which can take years and tens of thousands of dollars, not to mention multiple appearances in court.

I understand the anger and the want to get someone, notwithstanding my posts are trying to say is this was/is a great company for years - staffed with helpful folks and as I mentioned before this is a damn shame.
 
It would be a shame if they had come to this due purely to economic reasons and had tried their best to serve customers in a fair and reputable fashion.But clearly that is not the case,they engaged in any deceptive and possibly illegal practice they could to try and stay afloat.No number of years of good service can make up for what they put customers through at the end.I feel for the people who are probably going to lose their hard earned money over this because they trusted Monarch,but I have no pity for the Monarch ownership at all,they brought this on themselves.
 
fastfwd said:
Hello all:
I have been lurking on this site for some time now and I have been customer of Monarch Computer since the 90’s. Granted what is going on is a damn shame, but small business is ruthless and until your in business you’ll never know how difficult it can be - with reporting and taxes from all the nit picking government agencies, to the shift in business and profits – one mistake can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

I would like to address the chat about class action law suites, and criminal charges. In order to have a class action you have to have a class and a customer is not a class, and a retail store not delivering goods to a customer is not criminal, it’s civil. One could go to small claims court and win a FiFa but where would it be served? If a business files for protection under bankruptcy a customer can join but the governments get paid first then the vendors, and what would be left over? Anyone’s best bet here is to go to your banks, credit card issuers and beg them for a refund.

Now I’m not interested in driving to some po-dunk town outside of Cleveland to visit AVA direct, nor run out to California to deal with Vigor or CyberPower PC. No, I’d like a major builder, with a stuffed warehouse here in Atlanta!

Now it may not be PC (the other PC!) in this forum, but I’d like to thank Trey, Sterling, Jason, Chris, Rick and of course Chuck, and Greg for all your help and valuable information they have given over the years. I can’t believe there is malice here; wish you-all well, and I’d be a happy guy if Monarch Computer came back from the ashes.
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I'm just throwing this out there, but a join date of 1/23/2007 with 4 posts on two Monarch related threads makes me a little suspicious of your true identity.

Aside from that, why praise a company who seems like it intentionally defrauded customers by accepting orders, and more importantly, payment, with no intention of shipping those orders? Maybe they have every intention of shipping those orders out or refunding everyone. If they do and actually follow through then I'd say great, give them another chance if they go into busines. But if that doesn't happen then they're little better than outright thieves.
 
eggrock said:
I'm just throwing this out there, but a join date of 1/23/2007 with 4 posts on two Monarch related threads makes me a little suspicious of your true identity.

Aside from that, why praise a company who seems like it intentionally defrauded customers by accepting orders, and more importantly, payment, with no intention of shipping those orders? Maybe they have every intention of shipping those orders out or refunding everyone. If they do and actually follow through then I'd say great, give them another chance if they go into busines. But if that doesn't happen then they're little better than outright thieves.
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I'm with you. Not to mention: He's totally wrong about Class Action suits.

fastfwd said:
There is an object lesson here: Always use a credit card, and support your local vendors. I don’t support Dell, Gateway, HP, and etc. because they aren’t local and don’t have dealerships in this town.

I would buy from AVA Direct if I lived in Columbus, but wouldn’t if I live in Atlanta. And I’m more than happy to buy from out of state vendors for parts, but I’d still use a credit (not debit) card for protection.

When all this saber rattling gets over with and calmer heads prevail you’ll quickly see going into the legal system is expensive and time consuming – I speak from experience. It’s great sport chatting up Class Action, and Piercing the Corporate Veil, but the reality here is in a bankruptcy all the government agencies are first in line then the major creditors, what’s left is pennies on the dollar if anything at all. In civil or federal court (class action is usually federal) a retainer is going to be required and that would start at maybe $20,000. In a class action the lawyers are looking to 50% off the top plus expenses. And “looking into” a company is called discovery, which can take years and tens of thousands of dollars, not to mention multiple appearances in court.

I understand the anger and the want to get someone, notwithstanding my posts are trying to say is this was/is a great company for years - staffed with helpful folks and as I mentioned before this is a damn shame.
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Dell and the others never defraud hundreds of customers by using their funds to float by for months at a time.

Doesn't matter what they were. What they are is lying, scheming bastards who stole from hundreds of people.

They are criminals.

(edit: and FYI, a debit card has the same protection as a credit card)
 
Michael: It’s 16 years in business and 8 or 9 in retail. And neither you nor I know “they engaged in deceptive and possibly illegal practice(s)”. With the exceptions of a few anonymous posts I don’t know what happened and I’m less than 15 minutes away from their location.

EggRock: Paranoia can be your friend, hear these words – customer!

You know another persons intensions?
To defraud?
To not ship?
I don’t know if they will follow through, if they are being bought out or have fallen on hard times and gone broke – and you don’t as well. What I do know is I was in their store early December and last week I stopped by and they were closed.

Lopoetve: Here’s a quick and dirty course in class action: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_action#Pros_and_cons_of_class_actionsAs your glancing at this let’s remember billable hours are $400 per hour or MORE!

Add to that you don’t know if there are 10 people who would join a class action or 10,000 – so it’s not a class. And even if I’m dead wrong what’s to gain from a defunct company?

Finally the differences between credit & debit cards, if you want to know whom the real crooks are shhhhhh Banks!

http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/7/40/225/http://www.stretcher.com/stories/00/001218d.cfm

Now I have to find a vendor/supplier - if anyone is local here I’d appreciate any recommendations – understand EDI over on Beaver Ruin is good??? But don’t have a phone # or address.
 
fastfwd said:
Michael: It’s 16 years in business and 8 or 9 in retail. And neither you nor I know “they engaged in deceptive and possibly illegal practice(s)”. With the exceptions of a few anonymous posts I don’t know what happened and I’m less than 15 minutes away from their location.

EggRock: Paranoia can be your friend, hear these words – customer!

You know another persons intensions?
To defraud?
To not ship?
I don’t know if they will follow through, if they are being bought out or have fallen on hard times and gone broke – and you don’t as well. What I do know is I was in their store early December and last week I stopped by and they were closed.

Lopoetve: Here’s a quick and dirty course in class action: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_action#Pros_and_cons_of_class_actionsAs your glancing at this let’s remember billable hours are $400 per hour or MORE!

Add to that you don’t know if there are 10 people who would join a class action or 10,000 – so it’s not a class. And even if I’m dead wrong what’s to gain from a defunct company?

Finally the differences between credit & debit cards, if you want to know whom the real crooks are shhhhhh Banks!

http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/7/40/225/http://www.stretcher.com/stories/00/001218d.cfm

Now I have to find a vendor/supplier - if anyone is local here I’d appreciate any recommendations – understand EDI over on Beaver Ruin is good??? But don’t have a phone # or address.
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1. they took orders from a great many people and stopped shipping them items.
2. They refused repeatedly to issue refunds.
3. Thus, they stole this money from those poor people.

that's theft. They intentionally kept taking orders that they were not fulfilling. whatever they did with the money, they didn't return it, and that's illegal.

In addition, you're still wrong about a 'class'. I've been a member of 2 class action lawsuits and one normal civil suit as well. Customers can be easily members of a class action suit: See the one against apple for the iPod; the customers who bought them were the ones suing and getting paid for Apple's actions. Customers have made class action suits against car companies as well. You define the class as all people who may have purchased, or contracted for, specific goods and/or services during a specific time period. What's to gain? Probably nothing in this case, but that doesn't make your point valid. I wouldn't sue in this case, as you probably won't get anything, and lawyers are pricey (we've got one), but it would be possible if you wanted to.


I'll admit to being wrong on debit cards, I've only ever been offered visa ones.

I still think you're mighty suspicious here... Especially supporting a company that stole from as many customers as Monarch did.
 
Something good has happened now you know that Paypal, a debit card, cheque, script and cash are all about the same form of payment and a CC is the only payment method to be used on the web.

Let’s use 3 examples from your premise, companies A, B, & C. “A” took orders, stopped shipping and refused refunds; the owner(s) grabbed the money and ran. “B” did the same thing except for the grabbing and running left the funds and went bankrupt. And “C” didn’t do the grabbing-running and was shut down by a government agency - seizing all assets. All three examples could have happened here. Company “A” would be involved in conversion, but companies “B” & “C” simply went out of business.

I choose to believe something along the lines of “B” or “C”, but I’ve said repeatedly I simply don’t know and neither do you! I don’t like what’s happen to both MC and their customers. I didn’t say I supported Monarch Computers I said I know them and have for years, and I’ll bet that’s more than you could say about the 100’s of “poor people” you don’t know.

I tend to agree with Babalu: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1115217&page=21&highlight=fastfwd
 
fastfwd said:
Something good has happened now you know that Paypal, a debit card, cheque, script and cash are all about the same form of payment and a CC is the only payment method to be used on the web.

Let’s use 3 examples from your premise, companies A, B, & C. “A” took orders, stopped shipping and refused refunds; the owner(s) grabbed the money and ran. “B” did the same thing except for the grabbing and running left the funds and went bankrupt. And “C” didn’t do the grabbing-running and was shut down by a government agency - seizing all assets. All three examples could have happened here. Company “A” would be involved in conversion, but companies “B” & “C” simply went out of business.

I choose to believe something along the lines of “B” or “C”, but I’ve said repeatedly I simply don’t know and neither do you! I don’t like what’s happen to both MC and their customers. I didn’t say I supported Monarch Computers I said I know them and have for years, and I’ll bet that’s more than you could say about the 100’s of “poor people” you don’t know.

I tend to agree with Babalu: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1115217&page=21&highlight=fastfwd
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You're missing something though. they've been doing this for a long time, made up resellerratings, and this has been a steady progression getting worse and worse. Not the government stepping in all at once, or them going bankrupt all at once. they got in a hole, and started cheating to try and get out. Period. This has been going on for almost a year.
 
fastfwd, why are you even defending a company that screwed over so many people? They could have stopped taking orders long ago, when they got in trouble, and didn't. they made a choice to keep taking orders they could not fulfill, the time period involved is TOO great to argue this. They hurt a great many of your peers, and there should be no one standing to defend them. different choices would have led them to FAR better solutions
 
btw, what nhappened to the edit button?

Babalu said this:

" Monarchcomputer using customers money as a float..."

That's not a defensible practice.
 
Monarch's actions as a whole are not defensible,how can anyone dismiss the dozens of customer complaints listed at the various ratings sites?They took orders for merchandise they listed as in stock that they never had,then took months to issue refunds,if at all.They tried to pass off used items and engineering samples as new,their support line was unreachable,and RMAed items and systems disappeared.They became the prototypical online horror show,giving credence,fair or not,to all the reasons critics give for not buying from online vendors.
 
fastfwd said:
I didn’t say I supported Monarch Computers I said I know them and have for years, and I’ll bet that’s more than you could say about the 100’s of “poor people” you don’t know.
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Actually the people on the [H] forums are, in general, reliable and experienced enough that I tend to trust what they say. (Console vs. PC, disabling services and ATI vs. nVidia discussions excepted. ;) )

Enough people here have cried foul that it's a near certainty. I'll give you the 0.01% that's left.
 
I just noticed that their site is now totally gone.... It seems that Monarch is no more.
 
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