Monarch Furia @ [H] Consumer

Chris_Morley

Former [H] Consumer Managing Ed.
Joined
Jul 5, 2000
Messages
3,609
Our latest system up for evaluation is the Furia from Monarch:

I think of building systems this way: if I were to build this for my best friend, and then take it over to his house for his birthday with his entire family there, would I be able to give it to him, proudly look him in the eye, and then accept payment from one of his family members for my effort? If the answer is no, then I have no business selling that system. I quite simply would have been ashamed to hand this system over to anyone, much less my best friend.
Check it out here.
 
Kudos to [H] for not being partial due to a company's sponsorship.

I am always leary when I see a product reviewed when the same company pays for advertising in a magazine or on a Website.

No one can accuse you guys of kissing butt...

Thank you! ;)

Edit: Now that I got to read the article in more detail, I think Chris was probably being generous by giving a 3.0 for Technical Support. What he went through is simply inexcusable. A 1.0 might be more like it....
 
kilgore777 said:
Kudos to [H] for not being partial due to a company's sponsorship.

I am always leary when I see a product reviewed when the same company pays for advertising in a magazine or on a Website.

No one can accuse you guys of kissing butt...

Thank you! ;)

Edit: Now that I got to read the article in more detail, I think Chris was probably being generous by giving a 3.0 for Technical Support. What he went through is simply unexcusable. A 1.0 might be more like it....
Brian scored it, and I believe the 3 was for the fact that we were able to accomplish an RMA without issue when we DID get through to them.

Our tech support section weighs RMA into the final score...all part of support. =)
 
Having recently gone through a problem with Monarch (which was resolved to my satisfaction), and listening to others who have bought from them, I think the problems illustrated in this article are typical for this company.

Phone system upgrades and staff changes? All unacceptable excuses. Can you image your non-technical family member trying to work with Monarch on a support issue?
 
Monarch seems to have been having "issues" for quite some time now with long lead times with delivery & etc.

Which is unfortunate, as I've actually spoken with Sterling in connection with an issue that I had with the puchase experience with a Opty 165 back in Dec. I got the "family run business" line as well.

The problem with that was that it took 4-5 business days to even recieve a confirmation of my order after it had been charged to my CC. Long story short, it took him to get involved for it to get shipped. It was explained to me that the hold up was the typical holiday crush...

Fair enough. He called me on his own dime & seemed genuinely distressed about my problem. And hey, who DOESN'T want to support a "family run" outfit? Right? Sterling seems like a nice guy too. Also, it was my 1st purchase, the Opty 165 was a "hot" item (if you remember, that was right about the time it's discontunued rumor was circulating) and I was ordering during the busiest time of year.

So I gave them another shot with some other orders and things have gone relatively smoothly, except that it seems to take an inordinate amount of time for them to get an order out the door. If I order, I make sure not to do it any later than Mon or I won't recieve it that week - and I only live 2hrs way. Odd.

Others I know of haven't been so lucky. Most recently a "forum buddy" of mine ordered a PSU from 'em. At my recommendation, I'm embarassed to say - because it took a pretty long time for him to recieve it & he was sent the wrong one and it took Monarch nearly 2 additional weeks to get him straightened out. Granted it was a killer deal on the item in question, but it's not worth it if one's order was screwed up.

Now I keep my mouth shut about them either way. I'll speak up for 'em if I have a good reason to do so. But my experience has been with them is merely adequate at best.

Seems like that they need to stop hiding behind the "family run" excuse. That can only work for so long. And we all know that just because your employees may be "family", doesn't mean that they do a good job... Sometimes they're the worst because it's really hard to fire 'em.
 
After reading that review, I don't think I could buy a computer from them. Not for nothing, I'm just really disappointed with their tech support and lack of focus on the details of your order.

Don't get me wrong though, the computer seems like a fairly good performer for someone that wants a decent gaming system, however, IMO, the experience with dealing with the company for any issues, not to mention how they overlook their own policies, would deter me.

Good luck with getting those issues corrected.
 
Well at least the video card worked without having to get an RMA on it!!!!!!!!!!

Thats a first ;)

As for the rest of the stuff, YEEEEEEESH!!!!!!!!

That's the reason why I build my own computers.
 
Wow - what a terrible experience. Thanks once again for posting your trademark well writting and thorough review.

Isn't it curious that the three companies you recently reviewed with a score of 3 or less on technical support just happened to also be in a state of transition? PC Club, Puget, and Monarch. If they weren't in a state of transition then, I bet they are now. I know they have to say something, give some kind of excuse, but these experiences are simply inexcusable.

Thanks, you guys, for taking the hit for us so we don't have to experience this for ourselves. These reviews are very useful.
 
lovemyPC said:
Thanks, you guys, for taking the hit for us so we don't have to experience this for ourselves. These reviews are very useful.

Yet another reason to "roll your own", I'd say.

It would truly suck if it was bought by a computing neophyte.
 
skippy9146 said:
Yet another reason to "roll your own", I'd say.

It would truly suck if it was bought by a computing neophyte.
I don't think a computing neophyte would fare much better "rolling their own", but I must say that the complexity of Monarch's configurator is best left to those who do know what they're doing.
 
I hate to sound like a band wagon Monarch bassher, but I must admit I have had serious trouble with them in the past as well.

Simply put....NEVER EVER order and pay for something they can not verify they have IN STOCK in Tucker. Do NOT accept their BS claims of "warehouses" across town with same day deliveries. If it's not in their hands, you can expect WEEKS of waiting. :mad:

Along the review lines, I have had the same issues with their tech support in the past. As far as I am aware, they run a 9-6 shop and use an answering service for all other hours. I have NO knowledge of any actual 24\7\365 service personal. The only saving grace I have found was to get the name and extension of ONE tech and ONLY use him for all subsequent calls. Latching on to one person gives you someone to hold accountable when phone calls go unanswered...even if it's only during normal operating hours. :(

So, bottom line: Having them local to me, I am speaking from experience. I have found Monarch to be nothing more than a glorified local computer store. I can go down the street to Ginstar computer and get the same prices with the exact same available inventory. All the stores here use the same distributors, so pricing and availability are equal. Monarch Computer is a far cry from a real OEM. I even chucked when the review referenced them as such. :rolleyes: They are still a mom and pop company with a store front like all the other small shops around town. :(
 
This is the one I was waiting for. I was very interested in getting a Monarch system.
I design it
They build it
They test it
I configure and tweak the hell out of it.

What really stuck out when I reasearched them was their was thier hardware selection. I can pick out exactly what I want. What was just as important was this from their website.
48-72 hr. Burn-in Diagnostic (to ensure all components are malfunction free); Latest BIOS, drivers, and tested patches installed (All drivers are also included on CD); award-winning assembly and installation, including tie-off on all cables (for improved airflow); final 62-point inspection by experienced technicians, and free phone support. All manuals, disks, cables and other accessories included with your retail components will be included with your system.
Wow .. that would save me a lot of time and hassle and it seemed to be to be worth the money.

It sure doesn't seem that way anymore. If they can't get the color right on the drives why should I trust them to get the model of RAM? They might have actually done the burn in since your issues you can seemed to have been application specific, but still the BIOS was old, not just one but two revisions.

I enjoy hearing about the tech support. I've done a lot of phone tech support and yes, it's a pain in the ass, yes all users are stupid and need to be shot, but that experience is the face of your company. Word of mouth here can make or break you. The person on the far end needs to know the tech support person is concerned about their issues and needs to know that action is taking place. Being busy will be tolerated, within reason (like 24 hours haha) as long as the customer knows you haven't forgotten about them. Not getting with the customer just isn't acceptable.

Very disappointed with the results, but again a really good review from [H]!!!
 
Last three reviewed companies all blew their wad on customer service.

All responded that changes were underway(personnel or hardware) within said Customer Service Dept and that '...you caught us at a bad time!".

I smell something and it's unpleasant...smells like bullshit.

Do these fools think that we are idiots?
 
I do like Monarch's Combos. I have yet to have a bad memory/mobo/CPU (bought 4 combos so far) order from Monarch whereas I have had to RMA 2 of about 5 mobo's I have ordered from Newegg. It may take a few more days initially, but I'll trade that for an RMA every time.

The reviews comments fit my feeling of what Monarch's weaknesses are. If they had better navigation for their webiste, better feedback (human and online automated) on orders and technical advice, and faster order turn-around I would order from them more often. As it is, they are my primary place for ordering combo's and not generally on my list for other purchases.


edit: changed error had NVIDIA where Newegg now is (typo).
 
I think a 3 is being overgenerous.

You got the RMA, but that was all, surely it only warrants a 1 or a 2 ?
 
I have to throw my hat in with the "support from monarch" sucks crowd. I used to by my gear from Monarch till they totally screwed up a couple of orders.. and still to this day never made right. we just gave up trying.

Monarch has the absolute worst Tech support on the planet. They dont call you back, ever. They dont care when they send you broken parts, and then ask you to glue it back together. Thats right.. my buddy got a system built by them, that arrived broken.. and they asked if we could GLUE the parts back on. He had one of those Acrylic clear cases. Not only was the case broken.. the thing had arrived more than 2 weeks late. It was a graduation present for the guy.. We had a lan party at his place, where he couldnt even play becase monarch screwed up the build so bad. It wouldnt have been so bad if they could even bother to return a phone call.

Theres a lot more to this.. but im not gonna get into it. Im just never going to buy anything from them again that involves them doing any type of building.
 
Jesus, I pretty much AM tech support for my company, and it would truley bug the shit out of me if I recieved a score between 0-6, I take pride in my job and enjoy doing it. I just don't understand how a company can make such a crappy computer, and to top it off not even do a 1/2 ass job supporting it.
 
Good review :)

My question is.. if you had not done the searching to find the bios fix, would they have solved the problem or blamed it on the game and said the comp was fine. I have dealt with situations like this before.
 
As someone who worked in Inventory Control in the past, I have to say I've always been leery of Monarch's 'site. This "we have shipments arriving all the time, and expect more soon" is BS. Either you have it in stock, or you don't. If you don't, then you don't take the customer's money, period. I'm glad you did this review. This just reinforces my negative viewpoint of their company.
 
Renegade_Azzy said:
Good review :)

My question is.. if you had not done the searching to find the bios fix, would they have solved the problem or blamed it on the game and said the comp was fine. I have dealt with situations like this before.
Well, honestly, I don't know. Our big beef was that they said they install the latest BIOS, and we didn't get that - something that caused an issue in the day to day use of the machine.
 
I have to say im a tiny surprised. I have had plenty of great experiences with Monarch...granted none of them involved a full system and I never called tech support.

I DO think Monarch deserved a lower score than even 6.0....I base a TON of my score on customer service though.
On top of that, I have worked in the customer computer biz and built these types of systems for such people (as I am sure many [H] have). I have to say.....If I put together a black box it would have black drives. I don't even care if they chose beige. I would at least call to make sure they wanted an ugly computer.

I feel I should mention 1 thing though. Considering Monarch computer is also a giant online parts store, its only fair to say they can't dedicate nearly the same amount of resources as many of these other customer computer builders can towards their customer build department.

That said, the question should be whether Monarch should re-think being in the customer computer business, and just stick to nice low OEM sales.

Another review I enjoyed though...
 
There are not many things I look forward to anymore when I visit a website. Mostly news.

But I look forward to coming to [H]ardOCP for their reviews because I know that they will not compromise their integrity and become fawning lapdogs for the industry. This review proves it. Monarch is probably one of the larger advertisers with [H], probably on the level with Newegg.

But that didn't stop Chris and the gang from ripping them when they deserved it. You guys don't think that Dell didn't pay attention when [H] called them out for the bloatware problem? I read 7 different mainstream tech articles that linked back to [H]'s review.

Or that Monarch is looking at their Customer Service Dept and saying WTF?

[H] is the best place on the 'net for reviews. Please keep up the good work. Don't cave in to nobody. You guys are the standard.
 
kwaichangkang said:
[H] is the best place on the 'net for reviews. Please keep up the good work. Don't cave in to nobody. You guys are the standard.
Thank you, it is much appreciated. Credit should be given to Kyle who dictates policy @ [H]. Our directive is to stay independant.
 
Chris_Morley said:
Thank you, it is much appreciated. Credit should be given to Kyle who dictates policy @ [H]. Our directive is to stay independant.

Yeah... not everybody would "tell it like it is" with a sponsor that just got finished running a promo/contest (free game w/ 3 order #'s) with forum members. Good on ya!
:D
 
48-72 hr. Burn-in Diagnostic (to ensure all components are malfunction free); Latest BIOS, drivers, and tested patches installed (All drivers are also included on CD); award-winning assembly and installation, including tie-off on all cables (for improved airflow); final 62-point inspection by experienced technicians, and free phone support. All manuals, disks, cables and other accessories included with your retail components will be included with your system.
I always get a laugh when a company claims to be "award-winning" at something and makes no effort to back it up. In this case has anybody even heard of a nationally sanctioned event in computer assembly and installation?
 
Let's hang them by their toenails LOL

I feel all lonely here, being the only one of the many people who do love Monarch. Please don't hurt me :) Seriously though, these guys have been around since what, 91 or something. They can't be too bad. Don't get me wrong they screwed up this order and it seems plenty of others pretty bad, but why all the insults? that is what I can't understand. I know for a fact since it happened to me they go above and beyond to make things right.
 
Let's all keep this discussion civil and objective. I don't want to see this thread go down hill.
 
Well when I suggested Monarch back in the thread asking people to say who they wanted to see evaluated I thought they would do a bit better. I have used them extensively and I have had my good times and bad.....and they almost always are on teh end of the delviery window. Oh well......maybe the monarch rep will step in?
 
I'm quite dissapointed at Monarch for their lack of 'attention to detail' and service / support for this review.

Personally, I have only made one purchase with Monarch, and that was quite some time ago. I have refrained from doing any business with them due to their lack of communication. It was 4 days before I got a confirmation of my order even though they charged my credit card the day I made the order.

To make matters worse, I didn't receive the item until 11 days after I ordered it (though I do have to say that from the time they actually shipped it, until the time I received it, was within the boundaries of the chosen shipping method). After searching around the net, I found that I was not alone. Many of the user experiences I read were much worse than what I had gone through, making me feel quite lucky that my experience wasn't as horrible.

The one question I have to ask (I know the answer will come from several people) is:

How long has Monarch been going through personnel changes and a phone system upgrade?

From what I have found via several searches, way too long. I believe it high-time they really put some serious effort into straightening out their business model & infrastructure before too much more credibility is lost.

Thanks again for the informative review [H]. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. :)
 
ALT+F4 said:
I always get a laugh when a company claims to be "award-winning" at something and makes no effort to back it up. In this case has anybody even heard of a nationally sanctioned event in computer assembly and installation?

I think when companies talk about award winning, they're referring to things like Editors' Choice awards from magazines and websites. Just like the auto industry and their award winning cars and trucks.
 
I must say that this paints a bad picture of monarch. I will be interested in seeing a second review down the road to see if they do anybetter(if they let you). Anyway good review. Reviews like these really paint a different picture then ones that only focus on the hardware.
 
Glad to see a review of Monarch finally. As someone who purchased a Furia back in August I have never experienced a more frustrating buying experience. First the system shows up with a bad video card (evga 7800gtx KO) AND bad motherboard (SLI-PREM). To get any response from Monarch after calls to "tech support" it took nasty comments on resellerratings to get a response from Sterling and a RMA number. How a system can be shipped in such a condition I'll never understand. After sending the system back, it took Monarch 3 weeks, after they received the system back, to replace the faulty motherboard and video card. From ordering a system in August, I finally had a working one at the middle of November.

While they certainly seem genuinely concerned if you do happen to reach tech support or Sterling it doesn't do any good if they don't follow up on there mistakes, which apparently is the norm. Back during my order last year they were experiencing "high order volumes" or something to that nature, obviously just some FUD to deflect the complaints about long build times and poor qualitiy of the builds. Sad they haven't improved on there customer service or QA at all, they have the potential to be a really great consumer option if they actually improved in those areas instead of making excuses for the poor product and service they provide.
 
swatbat said:
I must say that this paints a bad picture of monarch. I will be interested in seeing a second review down the road to see if they do anybetter(if they let you). Anyway good review. Reviews like these really paint a different picture then ones that only focus on the hardware.

I'm so used to [H]'s review process now I can't read any other website/publication's computer reviews without a sneer on my face.

Most of the time they'll receive the computer and 95% of the review is straight benchmarks. The other 5% is them thanking the company who made the computer for sending them a 'sample'

I hope that Monarch gets their act together. They are the one online retailer that will ship you APO/AFO addresses without extra charge to our service people in the Armed Services, which is commendable in this bottom line industry. That simple fact gives them a alot of love from me. But doesn't excuse this fiasco.
 
sometimes I think that companies with even the best intentions can lose "focus".

I mean, look at Monarch. They must have done a lot of things right, to get where they are now. and although it doesn't show from this review, they must have happy customers. In fact, a lot of them.

Then how is it ever possible that they send out a pc with parts in the wrong colour? The car comparison is great: BMW has never in their existence sold a car with doors in the wrong colour. Perhaps the techs thought: well, we got parts here that are just as functional, and installing them will save us an X amount of time untill the pc ships to the customer. Perhaps they were under pressure to ship pc's out. Perhaps they were truly intending to help the customer by reducing shipping times.

Either reason for shopping parts in the wrong color shows something: loss of focus.

If they were under pressure to ship: The people applying the pressure should realise that target numbers don't pay bills; customers do. Wrong focus.

If they wanted to reduce waiting time for the customer by using different parts: It is not their choice to make. Wrong focus.

Monarch: It doesn't matter what your business model is, just FOCUS on getting the max out of it.

If you are selling 24/7 tech support and then don't deliver, you've lost focus, unless your business model is selling lies.
 
Very nice article Chris,

Its nice to see reviews that show no sign of nepotism for sponsors, and it is obvious when review sites are guilty of it. I've been waiting for Monarch's evaluation for a long time and I saw this coming a mile away. HardOCP is doing a great job with these reviews.
 
That was a good review.

To me it seems like monarch could do so well if they improved themselves but it seems like they are stuck in this constant screw up and then fix it mode. It's like they are sabotaging themselves from being huge. I think they need more quality people working for them.
 
To me the biggest problem with the technical support was they paid EXTRA for a service that was unavailable. If you can't offer 24-hour support then simply don't have that option. To actually pay extra for a service that is unattainable would make me furious.
 
Very [H]onest review. I would of rated the overall buying experience lower than 6...I bought an X800Pro on the 10th with 2day FedEx shipping and its been 2 days since my order has now been sent to the wherehouse for processing.

It may be very well be a long time till I buy something from them.
 
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