"Order 3 CPUs on Nov 1 and didn't get it. Cancel order Nov 17 after on hold for an hour. Still have no refund on CC(Dec 8)"

"I ordered a motherboard from Monarch on 8/23 and sent an email to cancel the order 8/24. I received no response to that email and called on 8/25 and talked to Roger. He said my credit card had already been billed. He changed the ship to address and had it sent directly back to Monarch but said that it would be up to 15 business days to see the refund.

After checking my credit statement the next month I noticed that the credit had not gone through. I called back on 10/16 and talked to Nikki. She said that the credit was posted on 10/12 and that it should show on my statement by 10/19.

After checking my statement again I sent emails to order and status accounts at Monarch with no response. I called several other times without being able to get a rep. Finally on 11/21 I was able to get a rep: Joe. I told him my name and order number, was put on hold and proceeded to stay on hold until Joe's voicemail picked up and disconnected me. I have called several times since but Monarch's phone system will disconnect after being on hold for about forty minutes.

This service is unacceptable on every level. At first I thought that I was getting service that was merely bad. Now I know it is horrendous. I strongly advise anyone to stay away from Monarch. I wouldn't order something from them if it were free."

"The last time I talked to Matt at Monarch was Wednesday, November 29th. I was told that I was told that my PC was built and was in software. I was happy and secure that day. Since that time I have been deliberately ignored and dogged out. They have in their possession my PC which is already paid for ($3500+). I beieve that they are closing shop and that I have been deliberately misled and lied to. They have ripped me off. This is GRAND THEFT! I'm looking at civil suit. I live in California. This is the true nature of Monarch. They are thieves! My purchasing experience has been a nightmare and I do not wish this for my enemy."

"I ordered a motherboard and processor from Monarch several years ago and received the right CPU but the wrong motherboard. I called, and they sent me not only the right board but a duplicate as well. They paid for the return shipping of the wrong board as well as the duplicate board. Well, anyone can make a mistake. BUT YOU HAVE TO READ WHAT THEY DID THIS TIME.

On September 25, 2006 I ordered a motherboard combo again (I should have learned my lesson).The motherboard portion of the combo order was an Intel D975XBX (a Bad Axe). After complaining that the order was taking an awful long time, and receiving the assurance that the parts were defiantly in stock, I received the correct processor but the motherboard was an Intel D975XBX2 (a Bad Axe 2). Now some may say, “Cool, you got the next generation Intel board that supports the Quad core CPU.” Well, look again at the date above. The Bad Axe 2 was just put on sale at the end of November; what they sold me was a pre-production version of the soon to be released motherboard.

The board came in a plain cardboard box with several stickers on it. The only readable sticker had an Intel logo and D975XBX2 on it; the other stickers were large plain white stickers. There was nothing to indicate it was a preproduction board. I did think it was strange that the board was not in the usual retail box.

I did not know what I had at first. I installed the board, but I could not load the OS because my CD-ROM, which was plugged into the only IDE slot, was not recognized by the BIOS. I E-mailed Intel tech support about the problem, and I was told, “the technical support staff does not comment on unannounced Intel products.” That’s when I found out what I had. They sold me a PREPRODUCTION BOARD!

I peeled off those large white stickers on the box so statically placed, and guess what?, sure enough, it was a preproduction board. And under one of the sticker it said, “This product is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased until compliance with requirements of the FCC has been verified. This product is intended for ENGINEERING USE ONLY!”

I contacted Monarch and was told the combo department puts so many CPUs and MBs together they may have made a mistake. Yeah, right! (I took photographs of the board and box with the sticker removed).

I kept the processor, but RMA’d the motherboard back and cancelled the MB portion to the order because I no longer trusted them. I have documentation that shows the motherboard was received on Oct 31, 2006 by C. Garrett who signed for it.

I called about my money but was told (by Matt) that the RMA department did not have any record of Monarch receiving the motherboard. He said I would get a refund within 30 days. I asked, 30 days from when. He said, 30 days from the time it hits the receiving dock. Now, that was over 30 days ago.

He was not willing to check with the dock, or help me in anyway, except to tell me that I would get a refund within 30 days from the time it hit the dock. Well it’s beyond 30 days.

Made a call to Monarch two days ago (day #34), gave the person my RMA number and he said it looked like I would be getting a refund but he could not answer any questions about it, and he gave me the extension for the credit department. I called the credit department numerous times and left messages, but my calls were not returned. I call today several times and decided to leave another message but got a message back saying that the mailbox was full. Do you believe it: the MAILBOX WAS FULL! Now what does that suggest?

I can see a very long time passing before I get my refund, if I even get it.

My advice, SHOP ELSEWHERE!!!
"

"They charged my credit card for an order without shipping the product. They say they will credit back my refund within a month. Now it's a month, they still haven't refund my money back to my credit card. I filed a dispute against Monarch with my credit card company. Hopefully Monarch will refund back my money."

"Horrible experience!!! I actually cancelled my order after 23 days of it being in production and with NO RESPONSE from their sales department via phone or e-mail! I have two theories, either monarchcomputers.com is a two-man show that can't handle the volume of business they recieve or the entire company is staffed by incompetent morons; Frankly either explanation wouldn't suprise me."

"I ordered a simple video from these guys on Nov 9. I didn't get a single email about it being shipped so I waited 2 weeks before calling them. After 45mins of being on hold, I finally got someone to tell me it would be shipped the following Wed. Again 2 weeks later, no card. I've tried emails and phone calls to get a refund. Nothing
My advice....stay away from Monarch"

"I have placed more than a couple of orders with Monarch over the past 4 or 5 years. I will not be placing any future orders however. Their website told me my order was to be shipped in 2 or 3 days. After a few weeks and multiple emails to them, still no news. I called a few times only to be on hold indefinitely. Finally I did get through to someone on the phone and by gosh they sent my order out immediately with upgrade to free overnight. Very aggravating hassle but at least I did receive my hard drive 3 weeks after ordering it. However this order was to have a credit applied to me from an earlier RMA, and as of December 4, this has yet to happen. When I spoke to them, they told me the credit should be applied in a few days but never did. So I tried floating around for a while in their abysmal infinite voicemail system loop, and did get through to someone. I was told on the phone to email their credit department directly. My attempts at emailing that address result in instant failure of delivery notices. Hmmm.
"

"First, I will not make any assumptions about the status of this company. Just the abbreviated facts regarding my situation with them:

I have purchased parts and assemblies from Monarch for years. This represents many thousands of dollars worth of gear. We had been reasonable toward each other about any issues (large and small), and as a long-experienced system builder, I enjoyed the competency I saw from them in the past so much as to commend and recommend them (particularly for parts and customer service).

After placing an order through Monarch’s system configuration / compatibility menus back in October 2005, I found out after some testing that the motherboard did not cleanly support the entire 4 GB of RAM I had ordered with the system. So, I contacted them about the problem.

---

Monarch’s response (10/13/2005)…

"The combo has already been assembled and shipped. The Asus premium motherboard does have problems with certain types of ram at 4GB. If you have any problems with the combo or would like to return the board for the other, let me know.

Thanks,
Kevin / Monarch Support Team"

My response (10/17/2005)…

"Hello Kevin,

Thank you for your quick reply, and WOW!... *extremely* fast service.

After upgrading my content creation workstation with the new guts and doing much testing, I've come to the conclusion that the well-featured and beautifully built mainboard should stay. It has many good I/O options and cooling features that I need, built in.

Had hoped to get 4GB in the box performing reasonably to make ready for heavy 64-bit apps when they come down the pike. Looks like that won't happen just yet. Not with this particular processor, anyway.

The memory is already fairly high latency at spec timings, and the mainboard will only run the 4 double-sided modules with further-reduced speed, and even then, perhaps not reliably. System cannot be made to run AT ALL with all 4 at their spec clock, so I did not bother to deepen testing with all 4 banks loaded. Not worth the trouble.

Just one pair still requires 2T command rate to post. System tests out 100% clean in memtest86+ after many passes at stock timings and the 2T command rate though, so... good enough for now.

Can I get an RMA number for one of the memory kits?:

Memory: 140346 - DDR (400) 3200 - 2 GB (2 pcs 1GB) OCZ

I will go ahead and keep the one set running and purchase a more compatible / high performance matched set of 4GB for this system if/when that is made available with real certainty.

Thanks again,

"

Monarch’s reply (10/28/2005)…

"This is to advise you that we have entered your store credit in the amount of $205.00
When you place a new order, on the bottom of the screen is a PO field. Enter the RMA number in this field (EX. "RMA 25669 "). Once you receive the confirmation for the order, immediately reply that you would like to use the store credit for this order. Please keep in mind that store credits are only valid for up to one year of the credit memo date.
Please let me know if you need any additional information.
Also, please keep in mind that orders processed on the website will be completely billed to your credit card or pay pal account, and in turn, the store credit will be refunded back to your account once the order had been processed.
If you have used your store credit, please disregard this e-mail.
Thank you and have a nice day,
Melissa L.
Monarch Computer Systems
Return Department"

---

Recap; I was issued an RMA and "store credit" for the return of 2 of the 4 matched memory modules back in October 2005.

RMA #: 0025669
RMA Date: 10/21/2005

On a subsequent purchase (dated 9/9/2006) I applied the store credit precisely as described by Melissa L. at Monarch Computer. This was within the 1 year window to use the credit. The recent purchase (a Raptor HD) was paid in full by me and delivered by Monarch in good working condition and in reasonable time. As usual, they billed the full amount almost immediately after my online order was placed.

Monarch’s acknowledgement to apply the promised store credit (email date: 9/11/2006)…

"Your RMA credit is currently being applied to your order. Any credit available to you will be refunded back to you."

Note; this was *not* signed by any Monarch CSR.

It is now 12/4/2006 (almost 3 months later) and there has been no application of that promised $205 credit to either the purchase or my account.

All further inquiries regarding the matter have gone unanswered.

Wishful thinking, perhaps, but I’d like to see them make good on our arrangements."

"I ordered an athlon 3000+ from Monarch on Oct. 23rd 06. I checked the status page for 2 weeks, with it constantly saying that it would be shipping within 2-3 days. I called 3 times over the next 2 weeks and kept getting told it would ship the next day. I emailed Monarch 3 times asking to cancel the order and refund my money, but never even got a reply. I called to cancel and was told to email to cancel! Rediculous doesn't begin to describe it. After 2 months of no CPU and Monarch charging me immediately after my order, I disputed the charge and within 2 hours got a full refund. Don't deal with them. Go newegg, zipzoomfly, or heck, even go to a brick and mortar shop. It may cost more, but it isn't worth the hassle."

"Ordered MB/Cpu/Ram combo. Said they were in stock. Charged my CC for $705. 10 days no delivery of order. email them: Claim to have heavy volume w/ combo's. Say 3 days it will ship. Call after 5 days they say it is not in stock (lied to me) I cancel the order due to the fact that I can get the same items elsewhere for cheaper and they have them in stock. Monarch has canceled the order in late October. It is Dec 2nd and my credit card has still not been reimbursed. Am now going through Visa to fight this since this company seems to have no morals and the customer service was very poor.
I will never do buisness with them again. I would recomend staying with companies with good reputations. Newegg and Zipzoomfly have become my new best friends and they don't lie or hold onto your money.
In conclusion, Monarch does not always have items that they advertise in stock. They just want to land your order and prevent you from ordering from some other place. Once you place the order you will have to fight tooth and nail to get your money back."

"Avoid this company. I ordered a Dual 4600+ AMD barebone system. All parts appeared to be in stock from their website. When the 8-days for system build came and went, I contacted them by email. They responded, saying that they were back ordering the case I requested.
When the system finally arrived, the memory did not pass a memcheck, meaning that their burn-in process has no value. After 10 minutes on hold with tech support, they promised to send me new RAM. Fifteen days later, no RAM has arrived."

"Monarch is riding on an old reputation. I purchased a computer from them last year and have had nothing but problems with it. They build a really bad machine. The tech support that they provide is relatively useless. Average hold time when I've called has been approximately 40 minutes. They are always very polite and sound competent over the phone but the bottom line is: Very poorly configured machines, Inacapable of solving hardware or software problems. Your better off with just about any other company. Stay away from these loosers. "

"I would just like to say that, my dealings with Monarch, past and present, has been outstanding!
Great credit card security system in place and extremely fast shipping, even through USPS!
I will most definitely purchase from Monarch again
Highly recommended! J N"

"Beware!
I ordered a part on begining of October that they were suppose to have in stock. Four days after ordering, still having no news about any delivery, I called them and learnt that they did not have the product in stock but would receive it shortly from one of their warehouse. I then cancelled the order with the help of the sale representative.
This was a done deal, but I noticed several days later that my bank account showed a statement related to that order. I then contacted Monarch to ask them for a refund of my order.
I am still waiting for it and they are not answering phone calls or emails."