"Lowest price on 400GB drive, had it in 2 days with free shipping!"
"Very pleased with all aspects of the purchase:
price, quality & accuracy of product description, packaging, and timeliness of delivery. Very highly recommended!"
"Have placed order for ~$1400 worth of components, including a CPU/Mobo combo. The online order tracker says that the parts are at "Stage 2", which, considering the CPU/Mobo combo and the information on their website, is understandable. If the parts aren't shipped monday, though, I'll be irate. I'll update this as I get more information/test the parts myself. I'm hoping to avoid the problems that I've been reading on the last 15 pages of reviews here on RR. My current plans are to check the order status throughout the day Monday, and if the status of my order hasn't been updated by noon, I will call them to find out what's up.
Again, more as things develop.
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Update: Called Monarch monday about the status of my order. They told me that the video card had been a popular seller last week, and that they were out, but a shipment was coming in that day and my order would be out the door soon. Later that day I noticed that my shipping had been upgraded to Fed-Ex *overnight* shipping. Its Tuesday morning now, and I've got a Fed-Ex tracking email in my inbox. So far, so good! I'll reserve final scores for when I get my parts and test them all out, but things are looking good!
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Parts arrived Wednesday, and so far everything works well! My only complaint is the lack of brass standups with the motherboard, and that may not even be Monarchs fault, as ASUS may never have packed them in the first place (I'm giving them the benifit of the doubt)."
"I have purchased many items from Monarch over the years. They always ship my order quickly. I have always received exactly what I ordered and I have never received anything except brand new, perfect parts. This is a great company to do business with."
"The purchase was good and I got my machine rather quickly. I got the box and it came with every part along with many replacement pieces just in case I needed them. I liked that. As time went along it had problems though with BSOD's and crashed every 30 minutes. After three tries at RMA's that failed and the machine becoming less and less responsive I thought I had a lemon. It turned out that it was a bad case and some other components were bad. Manufacturer problems but still problems. I talked with the management and they were gracious enough to not only fix it but to replace every component with upgraded components that were more reliable than what I decided to pick 6 months later. The machine came in quick order and was in perfect shipping condition. They sent it next day and I have been running it without problems ever since. They made a very nice setup of Windows, tight and clean (I know I do system setups on the side). I am very impressed with their diligence and determination to make me a happy customer. I know I will return to them for parts and service in the future."
"Great prices, fast shipping, execllent products, easy web site"
"My order was shipped very fast and efficiently. Everything arrived safely. They have excellent prices and great service."
"Purchased OEM Matrox Video Card. Card arrived in poorly packed state. The driver CD was cracked, and its sleeve it came in was slit across its front corresponding to the CD's crack.
Intalled video card and it did not function properly; the card seemed to destabilize my machine. Called to get RMA, was transferred to line which never answered.
Given bad experience, will not do business with again.
Update: Shawn at Monarch provided a new retail card to replace the defective card. While this took more time that I would have hoped for, the retail card was "upgraded" at no extra cost, and Shawn followed up after the return was received.
I'm impressed that Monarch worked so hard to resolve my issue, and now would purchase from, and recommend them to others, again.
"
"Order'd on Thursday recieved on next Thursday.
I had 2 day Fedex, and I only live 250 miles away from them. I love their products and prices, But they are slow shippers!"
"Purchasing a new PC with the fast paced changing technology can always be a little unsettling. Especially if you want to balance price and performance for a rig that you can get some life out of, but not break the bank. I wanted a PC that could crank out some solid graphics for games and handle some number crunching for school work. I had researched my setup for at least 3 months and asked numerous tech savvy friends and relatives for opinions. Monarch Computer was brought to my attention as retail seller I should consider.
While I consider myself knowledgeable about assembling PCs (I've done 3 before), I like that Monarch will assemble a bare bones purchase from a wide array of customer selected parts for a pretty nominal fee of $18. I'm no computer technician and the possibilities for messing up the motherboard or overly delaying assembly through my ignorance exist. This way I pay out less than what it would cost me to do it and I get it pretty much ready to go out of the box (minus my hard drives and a few other peripheries). Prices on the parts are pretty competitive and the brand selection is really reputable in my opinion (BFG, Asus, Antec, etc.).
Second, Monarch covered for my stupidity! I placed my order with the wrong motherboard. It seems pretty silly in retrospect but I selected the wrong Asus board out of 7 choices, and then didn't take the time to properly confirm my choices (I was a little giddy to get my new setup).
I took me three days to realize the colossal error I made and contact Customer Service. Monarch pulled the order off of the truck (no easy feat I can imagine) to redo the order! I got charged the difference for the motherboard, added a video card I had been undecided on at the time (seperate from the assembly and a bit more money), and for only an additional $18 build fee! They could have easily told me I was too late and that it had shipped, charged me a 15% restock fee (around $100), or both. Instead they put in the extra effort to cover my mistake with a nominal cost and I'm sure what was a big pain in the bum. That gets a big glowing rating in my book as a business that really wants your business, and by the looks of it, deserves it. If all goes well I'll be shopping with Monarch this Christmas (I want a matching video card and you can never have enough RAM).
My new system, albeit delayed and $18 more expensive, is currently being rebuilt. I'll update as soon as I get it up and running. "
"My computer runs some heavy duty financial modeling and databasing software, and had began to lag. I decided on a whim to double the RAM, and found Monarch came highly rated. Ordered another Gig of Coursair DDR2, selected the cheapest shipping (either free or only a couple of bucks) and had my memory on the door step two days later. my order had gone in on a Wednesday night and arrived incredibly well packaged on Friday morning. I love these guys and have already referred my brother in law who also purchased memory. We're both happy."
"Ordered a Retail AMD 4800+ Dual core CPU and EVGA 7800GTX Video card. The CPU was supposed to come with a FREE game called "Bet on Soldier Blood Sport". It appears that I forgot to select the box to get the free game. Monarch was very fast to respond in getting me the game and even offered overnight shipping. I am very impressed with the customer service trying to help me out. Highly recommend Monarch Computers."
"Though I have in the past built my own PCs, I decided this time to order it already assembled, mainly because I just didn't feel like taking the trouble. Boy am I glad I did. I looked at a lot of online build-to-order companies and finally settled on Monarch because of their excellent website and interface, great prices, and solid reputation. They're just about the only company I found that truly let you build your PC piece by piece out of name-brand parts right on the website. No proprietary cases or frustrating combos containing things you don't want. You pick it all, right down to the cables, the CPU fan, and the stickers that go on the case.
The only word of warning I'd issue is that Monarch is apparently experiencing growing pains. They're terrific, but unfortunately they're becoming a not-so-well-kept secret. There's a lot of talk about backlogged orders, of customers complaining because their machines aren't getting shipped within the promised 8-13 business day period. No doubt that is going on to some extent, but I truly feel that the Monarch team is putting their best efforts into keeping up with orders. My order actually shipped out only *1* day late and arrived 2 days later via Fedex. Though to be honest, the service I received might only be because I bugged a Monarch rep.
But hey, that's customer service! And besides, it was worth the wait. My machine came spledidly packaged, with all the leftover parts, cables, manuals, CDs, and connectors neatly packaged. The inside of the machine looked great, every last cable tied off. And it works great. My new X2 4400 machine is going to last me a long time.
Oh, and in terms of parts orders, I also ordered a video card separately for a different machine. I placed that order on a Friday morning. I received a FedEx tracking number the same afternoon, and I had the box on Monday by 11:00 a.m. Wow.
I'm glad I bought my computer at Monarch. I'll be shopping with them again. I just hope they can keep up with the demand. "
"This was my second purchase from Monarch. I was impressed with our first transaction. I bought a motherboard/CPU combination. They test hardware if you purchase two things intended to operate together. I was weary about this, but was sold on their overall cheaper price for this combo over Newegg. Also the free copy of Far Cry and Half-Life 2 were selling points. To my astonishment the CPU (retail with HS) and motherboard came assembled and well secured in the box. They even included a paid for return label.
Naturally I was drawn to them again to buy a beefier power supply a month later. The price was better than Newegg again. I missed out on a $10 by a week though. D'oh!
If Newegg doesn't have it, or doesn't have it as cheap, definitely give MonarchComputer a try."
"This is the best shopping experience i ever have on the internet. The customer service is just amazing and responsive, and I will buy more stuff from this store when I need future upgrade for sure. This is the company to buy parts."