"I placed this order in good faith for my system ram and a fan controller on a Thursday. Nothing processed, no info given to me regarding the delays, only the monarch site message that the order has been sent to the wherehouse where it sat for 5 day before I sent an other inquiry. It turns out that on the 27th I finally get news of a delay on one of the pieces of my order so it won't ship for another day or two. AFter I called Monarch I was finally told that it was the Hardcano 13 unit that was oversold. Why was I never given any info, so here I am still waiting for my shipment which they should have split into two shipments. I could have had my ram installed and system up and running last week but their process held up everything, I had to go dig for the information and no apology...no extra coupon codes for future purchases....nada. I should have my parts by March 6. In the latter half of the afternoon...sadly, it was ordered 2/22 and was upgraded to FedEx two day. Big help that was..."
"Update to below, received system 3-17 in time for the weekend so I could have plenty of time to set it up. They upgraded shipping to get it to me in time (thanks Charles) and packaging was great and everything worked beautifully. I had a question on the SLI video and got a person on the phone very quickly Friday night who was most helpful. I need to discuss the case with them but am very satisfied with this merchant, wish I could change the review to say that.
I ordered a custom system on 2/20
The ordering process was great, sales help was knowledgeable and when a price changed while I was configuring a sales rep handled getting me the previous price. Another rep recommended that for $5 more I could get a higher rated memory. However now my order has been sitting in step 2 for over a week, I would be surprised if I got my custom machine by the 15 days they said. I will update when it arrives, my feeling so far if you are in a hurry this may not be the place for you but I am hoping to be very happy with my choice."
"*UPDATE - I have been in contact with their management and they are attempting to get this resolved ASAP. I'm still skeptical to be honest, but I will say that at least they took the time out to contact me personally and let me know what the status was in real time while I was on the phone. Further updates to follow...
This company is unfortunately typical of the money grabbing, non-performing, bad customer service, bad quality garbage style of business that is dominant today in America. I ordered my custom sytem on January 17, 2006. Their own site says 10-15 business days until it ships on custom systems like the one I ordered. AND that if there is a delay, you will be informed. After routinely checking the status of my system, it always showed in Stage 2. So on Feb. 7th, 15 business days after ordering with no notice of delay or change in status, I called them to inquire. I was told that it would be another week, possibly more. SO I told them to cancel my order ($2000+ system). That apparently motivated them to tell me that they were essentially lying before and that they could push it though by the 9th and upgrade my shipping to 2-Day. Foolishly, I agreed to this plan. Ironically, on Feb 8th, I did finally receive an automated email explaining that my system would be late. The system shipped earlier than promised (after the phone call) but arrived when noone was home so I had to wait until the next Monday to get it. I was unable to open the package until the 18th, and upon connectiong the system found it to be DOA. I checked all the cables, everything else, it would post and then reset every time Windows XP tried to load. This is when I discovered that their tech support is never availble during non-business hours if you don't pay extra for the 24/7 tech support. I left phone messages, sent emails over the next few days and never received a response. On Tuesday, Feb. 21st, I finally called them, had to wait on hold for about a half hour to attempt to get an RMA through tech support. I was told that it would take 2 weeks after they received the system back to get it fixed. I asked why it didn't work in the first place since they supposedly do all these burn in diagnostics. Their only answer was that they believe that FedEx is doing something to the systems to cause the memory modules to go bad as they are getting many returns with bad memory in them. I told them I wanted a refund since they can't do anything correctly or in a timely manner. Was told that they don't do refunds on a custom system but that they would upgrade my shipping for the RMA to 2-Day air and try to get it out in a week instead of two. It has been a week since they received it back for the RMA, 6+ weeks since I ordered the computer. They have yet to deliver that which they owe me and are very unresponsive to emails (their preferred method of contact). Calling them is the only way to get their attention but they are so short staffed that you are on hold for quite a while when you do call. At least with Dell, you get bad customer service, with Monarch you get NO customer service, an ambiguous and non-customer friendly return policy, delays and bad excuses. If, by this time next week, I don't have my computer back in perfect working order, they will be hearing from an attorney and I will submit them for mail fraud. In short, the prices ARE too good to be true as you won't get what you want or anything close to it from these people."
"There was a problem with my order and they solved it to my satisfaction I am very happy with Monarch, I will defiantly buy from them again..and will recommend them to friends."
"Bought some RAM on sunday the 24th. It was in stock. Chose 2 day FedEX shipping, thinking that they'll process the order on Monday and have it shipped by that evening and I would have it by at least Friday March 3rd. I needed this RAM ASAP, hence the extra shipping option I chose.
Big mistake.
I checked the status of the order for the next three days, with no change. I thought to myself that was weird, so I emailed their Order Status to ask what was going on. I NEVER GOT A REPLY. They didn't ship it out until TODAY, March 2nd-FIVE DAYS AFTER THE ORDER WAS PLACED. It is going to reach me March 6th! I'm now going to have to buy this RAM somewhere in the Bay Area since I promised my customer that this RAM would be ready to install by Friday. Thanks alot Monarch. Even though their prices are low, their order processing has gotten worse over the last three months for some unknown reason. I am going to order from Newegg. Even though their prices are slightly higher and I have to pay tax, I've never ever seen them take FOUR days to even process a order that should have taken one.
"
"ordered an opteron 170. order went smoothly, everything was packed good and showed up in good condition. I have ordered again from them since this order, only problem is the delay from approval to shipping, sometimes as much as 3 days for the warehouse to ship. As long as your not in a hurry its ok."
"When my item arrived (on time), I noted that the internal packaging by AMD had disintegrated. Monarch had done a good job of bubblewrapping and boxing the AMD box. When I notified Monarch that I was concerned there might be damage, they didn't argue or quibble. They simply asked me to try the processor, and if I detected a problem, they would give me an RMA. "
"After seeing a special deal for a hot new AMD Opteron, I did not hesitate to place an order with MonarchComputer. I have done business with them in the past, and had great results on all occasions.
Their customer service is top notch and with the inexpensive shipping, ordering from MonarchComputer should be the easiest decision you should ever have to make. The hard part will be deciding on what components you are going to buy from their huge selection!"
"GREAT PRICE. The powersupply i bought from monarch was about 40bux cheaper then with going to buy it at newegg or anywhere else. i also got 2day shipping for a great price. item arrived on time and i say packaging was over exagerrated. but thats better for me. since there will be no damage caused to my item. saving me money if i have to return it because of damages. thanks monarchcomputer. "
"WARNING -BEWARE If you cancel an order with them, they will keep your money. We placed a $4600 order with them. I canceled the order because we received no comfirmation of stock or shipping within 24 hours. They billed my VISA, and the money has yet to be returned a month later. Now it is up to VISA resolution. We are in business too, and would never dream of doing this to any customer that cancels an order. That is business. People do cancel.
Gene Colburn
Station 3 Media"
""build times and delivery dates are good faith estimates and not guarantees. " - Quoted from MonarchComputer.com
FINE. However an e-mail explaining whether a customer's order has been shipped or delayed should be an effort of 'good faith' as well.
"If there is a problem with your system that will delay your order, we will contact you via email. Otherwise, your system will ship on time." - Quoted from MonarchComputer.com
My order for a custom desktop (2/3/2006) should have shipped today (2/27/2006) and the order status online still has my system in stage six (of seven). Of course I did not recieve an email explaining this situation.
Why would I?
I have emailed this company three times since placing my order and not once have I received a response.
Maybe it shipped, maybe not...
If it were not for the 15% restock fee, which is charged even prior to the system being built, (Is this 'good faith' or a coercive tactic?) and the fact that Monarch takes full payment prior to actually assembling the system (Is this ethical? Wouldn't acceptance of payment at the time of shipment be a more reputable practice?); I would demand my money back due to the overall negligence of Monarch's customer service."
"Very satisfied with Monarchcomputers.com, they have the best website for those who want to 'build' their own machine and want to customize how its configured and the price for the system."
"This is the third time I used them (this time for motherboard combo and other parts). Price was great. Contacted them because it hadn't shipped the day I expected. They got it out promptly after that and sped up the shipping without being asked. I definetely trust them and will certainly use them again."
" "
"Still waiting on order, placed order on Thursday Feb 23rd, according to the website, all items in stock. As on today the 28th, still no change in status. Status check says "1-2 days" same as it has all week. I have tried the online status request as well as emailing orderstatus, for two days, with no answer. Finally today I gave up and called an 800 number. The person I spoke with was nice enough, even though it was the sales line, he didnt hesitave to look up the order. He says there is an "inventory issue" with the cpu I ordered.
He says they expect those in tomorrow, wednesday, and that I could call back to check Thursday to see that it goes out.
**UPDATE**
Its Thursday! Sence my last update I have had various emails and responces, explaining the situation.
The CPU was backordered! They went ahead and shipped the rest of my order which I recieved today. Everything was very well packed, and as it should be. At the end of the day yesterday, they recieved my backordered item, and luckily got it out on the fedex truck that afternoon. I have the tracking info and i hope to see that CPU tomorrow (friday) which shouldnt be an issue.
Seems like the people at monarch saw my problem and took action to make it as smooth as possible.
Things happen in in business, and you cant control every aspect. The bottom line is, you need to know when it DOES go wrong, there will be help and assistance to make things right.
**notice** note that monarch made these steps BEFORE this was ever posted, they did it because its the right thing to do in the situation.
Now i just hope everything works correctly and dont have any returns, but so far everything looks good. (i cant really see if anything works untill i install the cpu...)"