"Monarch is very slow- took four days for them to even ship item -
Monarch has terrible phone support, Fine they give you an 800 number but what good does it do ya if no one asnwers? None thats what. Not even an answering machine.
Monarch has good prices!
Monarch has good forums support at anandtech but don't try calling them."
"watch out for monarch's shady business tactics.
their web page will indicate items are in-stock even if they are not.
they will charge your credit card immediately upon ordering even if they have no stock.
their website says there is a 15 day full refund period but i've yet to experience it. their products (even defective ones) are subject to a 15% restocking fee no matter when you return them (15 days or not).
their RMA phone number is a recording and no one will return your calls. and by the way, you will pay all return shipping for defective products.
stay away from them. there are much better places online to shop.
REPLY TO MONARCH--
No one from monarch has tried to contact me other than the reply here to this msg. What is truely sad is that they have time to reply to postings here but not to customers when it could make a difference.
good luck if you deal with monarch. you will need it.
"
"Great service and fast delivery!!
I ordered my opty 170 on monday and had it in three days."
"Ordered a in stock XFX 7800Gt on 11/23/2005 and Monarch shipped it almost a week later..Which is unaceptable for a in stock item..I'll be doing all my ordering from only well established companys from now on period.
"
"I requested a RMA to return a defective power supply and since i need it badly i bought a new set from a neighbourhood store.But they send me a replacement. Now they want to charge me with 15% restocking fee and the item still has a thin wrapping film around it. Emailed them about this 2 days ago but i havent received a response till today."
"Excellent Service. Quick Delivery. Great follow up after delivery."
"Very good service. No issues here. Order shipment was timely and Monarch sent the tracking info right away. They followed up with several e-mails making sure the transaction met all of my needs."
"UPDATE 05/06/06 - I contacted them to find out how I will get this motherboard that was shipped out with 'quality not speed'. be aware that the motherboard arrived working for a week then crapped out just like their customer service and ordering process. anyways, it's laughable that the response i see on the page is that they said i refused to respond. as i have stated in my e-mails to them, i refuse to talk to sterling and anyone else from there over the phone. i responded and advised them that i will choose to hold any conversations in e-mails only (there's electronic records with e-mail, no records with telephone conversations). now, i contacted them and they said that warranty expired 30 days from date of purchase. keep in mind that my order was charged immediately ordering but did not ship until after 2 weeks. Now when i finally received, it crapped out a week later. Because of all the lies and misleading claims, nothing was and will ever get resolved with this sad excuse for a company. I contacted DFI directly, without the help of Monarch, RMA was issued within 24 hours of contact and motherboard was shipped to DFI shortly after. DFI received, repaired and shipped quicker than Monarch took to ship me this combo. But keep in mind, they "won't sacrifice quality for speed". Regardless of the claims they have made, the fact is that there's unexplained days that they could've shipped but didn't ship the combo.
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I'm starting to see a trend with recent orders being delayed with no useful status information with Monarch Computers. This is my first and last order with Monarch Computers.
11.20.2005 - Order placed and order number given, pending charges on account.
11.22.2005 - Card successfully charged and status is submitted to warehouse for processing.
11.23.2005 - Waiting, same status report - submitted to warehouse for processing.
11.24.2005 - Thanksgiving.
11.25.2005 - Waiting, same status report - submitted to warehouse for processing.
11.26.2005 - Waiting, same status report - submitted to warehouse for processing.
11.27.2005 - Waiting, same status report - submitted to warehouse for processing.
11.28.2005 - Form filled for order status. Vague, standard response form auto-reply system.
11.29.2005 - Waiting, same status report - submitted to warehouse for processing.
11.30.2005 - Waiting, same status report - submitted to warehouse for processing. Sent e-mail to ****@****, finally get item ready to ship.
12.01.2005 - Tracking information e-mailed, I should expect to receive on 12.05.2005. BTW, I paid for express saver 3 day shipping.
FedEx information as of 12.01.2005:
Nov 30, 2005
9:39 PM - Left origin - DECATUR, GA
7:23 PM - Package data transmitted to FedEx
6:31 PM - Picked up - DECATUR, GA
I placed an order for Opteron 165 w/ DFI board combo with all the extras they offer on 11.20.2005. On 11.22.2005, my account was successfully charged $484, even though it was already pending since 11.20.2005. I read and understood that it may take 2-3 days to ship. Granted it was the holidays and there may be some delays, I waited until Monday to check the status. The status online stated that it was submitted to warehouse for processing (same status since 11.21.2005). I followed the procedures on the website regarding status since all numbers listed on website are for tech support or sales only. First step is to check the online status, which showed the same status since it was ordered. Second step was to fill out the form thru the 'Questions about your order' link. I filled out the form and got this response:
This message is to let you know that we have received your email to ****@****.
Our normal hours of operation are from 9:30 AM EST to 7:00 PM EST on Monday through Friday.
Thanks,
Monarch Computer Systems
Response not very clear at all to me. Anyhow, I waited until Wednesday afternoon. No response, by e-mail or phone. I sent an e-mail to ****@**** and CC'd myself also. Within two hours, I got a response from Carol Harris that my order has shipped - at 7pm. It took over a week of waiting and finally an e-mail to the order department to get the item shipped. It seems to me that I had to make a move myself to get the item shipped. I'm not sure what would've have happened if I just waited and did nothing. What concerned me was that the website stated that the Opteron 165 was sold out. I was starting to wonder if they oversold it and failed to notify me. Anyways, I received notice this morning that it shipped 11.30.2005 but I will not receive until 12.05.2005. By the way, I paid for FedEx Saver 3 day shipping.
***UPDATE 12.04.2005***
I received e-mail from Sterling that they were closed 6 days of the days I mentioned. Fair enough, there were 5 other days that they were open, not including the weeked or holiday. After an e-mail to them, my item ships 2 hours later - at 7pm. I appreciate the upgrade in shipping to get it to me on Friday instead of Monday."
"My experience with monarch computer was excellent. Everything was easy to find, they had the best prices. And they shipped it to me faster than anything I have ordered online. Overall, I loved my experience and would recommend them to anyone who is interested in computer parts."
"After numerous emails and phone calls, I ended up speaking with sterling. There is no reason that one person should be the fabric that holds customer faith in a company. Meaning with the system in place and everything is smooth with the order customer satisfaction is top notch, the horror stories begin when there are shipping, credit card, or RMA issues. I have had problems with two of the three. My RMA took over two weeks to process and until I spoke with sterling things were moving at a snails pace. "Hey Monarch employees!!!" (excluding a select few), The maximum range of an excuse is ZERO range. Sense of urgency and craftsmanship should be your number one priority. This is what I got from sterling, and Monarch should not have to be carried by one mans crusade for customer satisfaction. I am speaking from experience, I have been a field service representative for 8 years in the electronics arena. I know what it is like to have someone breathing down your neck saying your costing me $1000 an hour being down when will it be fixed?? Come up with a good answer for that.
Anyway my faith is restored only due to Sterling, THANKS THANKS THANKS!!!"
"Delivered on time as promised for the price promised. Can't ask for more. Price slightly higher than some, but they did have the product in stock as claimed (given overnight delivery). I will certainly give them a try again."
"Great, fast shipping and wonderful follow-up from Monach Computer "
"I've made many purchases from Monarch Computers and usually been very satisfied.
Due to their increased customer protection through credit cards my order was delayed a few days. However, a small delay is worth the added security.
Packaging was a bit of a let down as it was quite minimal, only a few air pockets protected my purchase.
Monarch’s customer support is very thorough and genuinely concerned, and as long as they stay this way I will definitely purchase from them again.
"
"Overall satisfied with this merchant. There was some delay in a system repair but management has been responsive."
"With its award winning Nemesis and Hornet, Monarch Computer Systems lives up to its fame. Thanks to their easy-to-use site and user-friendly forums, you can find anything you want or need, and even some things you might not have thought about getting (thanks to its "related customer purchases").
Monarch's variety fuses together quality and quantity. A choice reseller of many top-named companies such as Western Digital, Corsair and Logitech. Not just that, but a great reseller of products such as ATI, nVidia, Seagate, Asus, Enermax, Thermaltake, Plextor, Creative Labs, Intel, AMD, etc. The list goes on and on.
Sounds like they have some great products, but for those of us who are not Bill Gates, what about pricing? Price is not a factor. The price you see at Monarch probably won't be found cheaper anywhere else, and in some cases, the cheapest on the net for computer part resellers. Let me tell you something about your narrorator, I bought a Thermaltake Xaser III case at Monarch for $145 and FREE shipping about 5-6 months ago. That same case, found at another very competitive reseller (many of you probably know which reseller I'm talking about), was $155 plus $10 for Fedex 5-7 day shipping. Great deal right? Yes.
Now, with all of its fame and glory as a reseller, Monarch employees are very tuitive about their own computers. Thus, Monarch has created its own line of complete systems available for purchase. From their ultamate gaming rig, the Monarch Nemesis, to their "smaller is better" Monarch Hornet, they provide a wide range of pre-built systems. Well, why don't you see for yourself at: www.monarchcomputer.com"