"I was going to buy a combo from Monarch and then I saw all of the free items and I jummped on that right away. Got my combo in today, free stuff is great, and the combo is even better"
"Ordered an AMD barebone system and had no real problems . The wiring had to be redone , but they didn't know what parts I had to put in ,so I don't fault them. All parts were legit and just what I ordered and came with all the extras that come with retail version products."
"Their support line was probably the most unprofessional that I have experianced. There was no automated routing. It was all done with a secretary who had to check back 3-4 times to make sure I was the same person because I was on hold for such a long period of time. When I finally got through to tech support, they were unwilling to ship a replacment prior to recieving the defective product. Meaning I would have to pay shipping costs and wait a few extra days while the product was en route. I did not ask about a refund but I would not be suprised if they did not offer that. Otherwise it would be simple for them to take a refund on my current item and charge me for a new item while shipping pre-paid return materials to me with the new item.
Overall very unsatisfying. Luckily the original manufacturer, BFG, knows how to conduct business in a professional manner.
This company's rating baffles me."
"I placed an order with the site on Sep. 21, 2005, Wednesday. They immediately charged my card after the order. After waiting through the weekends, I did not receive any response from them other than that I have successfully placed the order. I checked the status of my order and it was always 'in the wharehouse for processing'. Comes Monday, I decided to cancel the order and did it. They will not respond to cancellations, or inquries, by email and the site does not have any information on how to cancel orders (unlike other sites). I was forced to call them to cancel, but the trouble does not end there. Now, I have to constantly call them and email them about refunding me what they charged. It is now Sep. 28, 2005 and still no refund. Not even after two calls and one email requesting for it. Beware of this store if you plan to place an order through them. This is my first experience with this store and it will be my last. (Updated November 18, 2005) Now, it seems that this store is out to ruin my credibility, simply because I would not change my review. How very 'nice' of them. Avoid this store at all cost, if you do not want harassment from writing a bad review."
"Purchased a hard drive from Monarch. The drive was defective. Called Monarch to get it exchanged. Was forced to leave a voice mail message. Never received a call back. Decided to just RMA the hard drive to the hard drive manufacturer since I needed a new hard drive asap."
"Sent defective parts. Have tried in vain to get RMA for nearly a week. Have left two voice messages since calling number forwards to voice mail immediately. Also requsted RMA via e-mail, via support forum, and via submission on Web site.
UPDATE:
After reading my response to ResellerRatings.com, I have been contacted several times in good faith by Monarch Computer. They have made a tremendous effort to correct the issues. Kudos to them!"
"My custom-component computer was built perfectly and the software was installed fine, too. Highly recommended!"
"I ordered on a Wednesday and it showed up the following Monday, which is great going from the east coast to CA. Great price on a Geforce 6800 and it works great. Prompt communication made me very comfortable dealing with Monarch for the first time. I'll definitely order from them again."
"I purchased 512MB of RAM. I received it quickly and at a very reasonable price. I ordered it over the phone and customer service was great. I will definitely purchase from Monarch again.!!"
"Easy to use, well-designed site. Didn't need customer support as everything came in good condition, on the predicted arrival date. I was very satisfied with these guys, and will order from them again. No problems whatsoever."
"After initally posting a review here on or around Sep 23rd or 24th I was contacted on the 26th of Sep by Monarch. They apologized for the slow build times and even knocked a bit of money off the video card I purchased. They assured me that my system would ship that day.
The system arrived on Sep 30th with a DOA video card, an eVGA 7800GTX KO. While not very impressed I contacted Monarch and was assured to call back on Monday and they would ensure a prompt exchange. During this time I borrowed a friends 6600GT OC so I could enjoy the system I pad $2500 for. Needless to say within 1 day the system started rebooting on its own and would continually give me memory errors after rebooting. I contacted tech support who was excellent in running me through trying to correct the system, however in the end they decided the best thing to do was to ship back the system for repair.
Monarch received the system on October 17th around noon. It is now November 4th at the time of this update and I still do not have the system back. I called after the 1st week to be told that the repair department had not even receieved the system yet from shipping. I called this previous Monday, the second week, to be told that it was a motherboard problem, and that they were waiting for parts and a new video card. I was told to be patient.
It will be 3 weeks in two days that they have now had my system. I have used the system a grand total of maybe an hour of enjoyment since it was first received on Sep 30th after initially being ordered on August 24. This is extremely frustrating. I am based in Canada and I am looking for information on state laws in Georgia and with my credit card company on how I can get my money back or what can be done about this problem. While the people at Monarch are friendly enough, little is being done for my piece of mind for $2500 of my money that I haven't been able to use coming up on two Months now. I will never deal with this company again, their excuses hold no weight."
"This company is great. The shipment got to me on time. I have ordered other things before and sometimes they even got there early. I loved this company because of the free shipping on certain items and tax free. Other websites list their products cheaper but after the shipping and tax, the amount comes out to be more than what you can get at Monarch Computers. I don't know about the support because I haven't had any problem with the company. I am very confident in this company."
"The website for customizing computers is one of the best I've ever seen. The ordering went flawlessly. The tech support and customer support departments were the most helpful and knowledgeable I have ran into. One set of memory turned out to be faulty, was quickly identified, and replaced without hassles. Best packaging I have ever ran into."
"It's been 24 days today ,sept 24, since I placed my order. The money for my system was taken within 1 hour of placing the order. the order is still in pre production.In there words they are still gathering the parts, nothing exotic mind you, meat and potatoes stuff. My questions on the status are answered with a form answer, same answer no matter what the question or wording. Hello does anyone there read!!!! Yes I'm upset not because they are overwelmed with orders but because mine for about $1700.00 does not seem to mean anything to them, much less me as a customer. I will update this as events occur."
"I am a graduate student researching in hi end graphics. We ordered a hi end system. It took 2 months to get the system from order date. There was a 2 week delay from the university system to reach the purchase order to monarch but still they took a long time.
Their proposed RAM for the system did not work and they had to struggle to get it to work.
Then finally they shipped. I requested them to give the current pricing as in 2 months it has dropped by more than $500. They didnt.
On receiving the system the dvd drive was not working and I had to grab an old cd drive to load OS into it. And I could not load OS. It would just not work.
Regarding DVD, when I asked for replacement with a better vendor, they told that the can replace with same or return with 15% restocking charge and if I purchase another brand, it will not be covered under system warranty.
Its a real bad experience with them and I would neither purchase from them again nor recommend anyone to purchase from them."