"I made a purchase of a CPU on september 26, 2006. However, I decided to cancel the order the very next day. When I called to cancel the order, they lied by saying order has been shipped and there is nothing they can do. I should receive my tracking number momentarily. A couple of hours later, I still did not receive anything. So, I called again, and ask about the status of my item. Then they say it was NOT yet shipped. As soon as I mentioned I want to cancel my order, they said I can only do that by email. So, I sent 2 emails to cancel my order. 1 email by replying the order confirmation email, and the other thru the inquiry page on their website. Next day, I still did not receive anything from them. So, I called again, and someone manage to cancel my order. however, for 2 weeks, I did not get any confirmation email about the cancellation. I checked my credit card, and found out I was still being charged for the order. Please keep in mind that I did NOT receive the item from them, as they did not ship the item to me. I've made a few calls to them, and I could not reach anyone at monarchcomputer who has the authority to reverse this charge on my card. This is very ridiculous. They even told me if no one calls me back, I will have to call them again myself. AWESOME FREAKING CUSTOMER SERVIVE. I'VE NEVER EXPERIENCE ANYTHING LIKE THIS. Well, I told them to write a note saying that if they dont return my call within 24hours, I will report this charge to CITIBANK as a fraud charge. This is still ongoing and I have a tread at ocforums which I keep everyone up to date about my situation.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=479359

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=479359"

"If you're looking for a custom system, they offer a ton of options at a good price. From what I can remember, they were helpful when I called them for support... that is when I can finally get a hold of them. It just seems like they're dealing with too many customers and there isn't enough staff. Anyway, I had to return my Hornet Pro because the PC heats up quickly and then shuts down itself. Turns out fan doesn't spin inside, thus making the PC overheat quickly. I returned it at my own expensive from what I remember. They said they fixed it by replacing the CPU fan and sent it back. But guess what, it still does't spin. They cut out the unnecessary wirecovers though. I don't know if they truly replaced the CPU fan. But if they did, they didn't test it either... two times. So I wouldn't buy from them again. If they go back to being a reputable company, then I might change my mind. But the trend doesn't look good."

"i purchased some products for computers that i build for clients for $1600 on 7/24/06 and they were in stock and ready to ship. however, after a week of waiting, i got to wondering and checked out monarch's store reviews & saw some dissappointing results.

so i cancelled my order, which was done promptly, however, i still haven't rec'd my credit as of today 10/9/06. after leaving many answering machine messages and emails i decided enough was enough and called visa to try and get a charge back. we'll see what happens.

i purchased from them last year and everything went smooth and easy. i will not buy from them anymore."

"I ordered a motherboard from Monarch Computer on 07/27/2006. In the following week I sent them 3 e-mails trying to confirm this order.On 08/07/2006 I received a responce stating that they had been busy the week that I had e-mailed them. Order canceled on 08/07/2006. Still waiting for refund.10/08/2006. 12/01/2006 STILL WAITING FOR REFUND. WHAT EVER YOU DO,DO NOT BUY FROM MONARCH COMPUTER.(THEY WILL SCREW YOU) "

"DO NOT BUY FROM THESE GUYS! Done thousands of dollars of business with the guys in the past, great company, now one of the worst! Ordered motherboard & cpu combo and video card. video card backordered. canceled video card, impossible to contact, over two months later still no refund. Turned into VISA. By the way the heatsink was improperly installed on the cpu. If I had not noticed cpu would have fried."

"Very bad experience with cancelling and returning an order. They use vague promises, lies and all sorts of excuses, had to charge back through credit card. And they even lied again in the charge disbute process. "

"Poor service, item received, eventually.

Ordered an OCZ powersupply that didn't ship out until 11 days after the original order."

"Wow, a lot of negative reviews. I purchased a barebones system (I choose the components and they build it for me) from Monarch on Aug 25th, with a conroe processor. The system shipped about Sept 14th and arrived around Sept 15th. I expected a big delay with the Conroe availability, as they stated on the order page. I was also very nervous after I placed my order because of all of the negative reviews here.

Everything arrived in great condition. The build quality was awesome - all of the cables in the machine were tied off and the interior of the case was super clean looking. The case has a clear side window, so the interior look is important. I installed a new retail version of XP with absolutely no problems. If you read about all of the BIOS problems people had in back in August, you know that the Conroe's were not working well with the BIOS of the Asus boards. There was no problem here - Monarch obviously tested everything before shipping it.

Also, I ordered a 7600GT card with the same order. During the build time, Nvidia released the 7900GS for the same price! I emailed Monarch and asked to cancel the 7600GT and order a new 7900GS. They got back to me after a couple days and they did just that - the 7900GS had to be backordered, though, since they didn't have any in stock yet. About 5-7 days later they shipped the new 7900GS. No problems at all.

It's too bad so many people are having trouble. My experience was good. Faster build/ship times would be nice, but if Intel can't get Monarch the parts, then there's not much they can do."

"Monarch has started in on a very negative trend of "floating" with the consumer's money.

Just one year ago, I would have recommended to anyone to purchase from Monarch. Indeed I made a number of purchases from them, and considered myself one of their biggest fans. This encouraged me to keep an extra close eye on all their offerings, advertisements and sales.

Unfortunately, I got caught up in something that I should have had the foresight to see was coming. In the last 2 months (since early Aug 2006), Monarch has had a TON of clearance sales, or extra good sales, on items that would otherwise cost quite a bit more at other vendors. I usually obsess over checking prices with other places. I had started to question how and why Monarch was able to dump all of these products at such low prices...

I should have paid more heed to my own observations. I ordered two graphics cards at ridiculously low prices from Monarch on 25 Aug. A few days later, Monarch emailed me to say that THEY were cancelling the order because of a lack of available stock. OK, fine, it was out of stock. Sort of silly to charge a person's credit card immediately on an item they neither have in stock nor are able to ever replenish stock with ...

Well, the email stated I would receive a full refund on the entire order that they had cancelled. This would occur within 30 days.

45+ days later ... nothing. No refund. No attempt on my part to contact the company has been successful. I called them -- and you get to leave a voice mail message. I emailed them: No response. I used their web form twice, which it states receives a response within 24 hours: No response. I don't know what the purpose is of having a web form if the business never responds to the entries on that form...

Anyway, as I have continued to watch the "sales" roll in to my inbox during Sept. and now October ... sometimes 2 or 3 clearances announces in the same week ... I was like -- WOW, I get it -- they are doing this to lots of people. They are charging our cards right away, on stock they do not have, and then they float on our money to pay their bills for 30-60 days. This is normally a very bad sign for the health of a company. I hope their doors remain open long enough for me to be able to obtain a refund. My current burn is for $86.57. At this point I do not know if I will ever see it back."

"bought a core2 duo system from this company and had it in 9 days, i must say, i wanted it faster, but that was my impatience, not at fault of the company. they actually got it to me sooner than they stated they would, i have no room to complain, oh, and Monarch, you WILL hear from me in the future, THX"

"I would just like to say that if you would like to get your items in a hurry, DO NOT PURCHASE FROM Monarch Computer Systems. I purchased half of a system from NewEgg, and the other half from Monarch. I used standard shipping (3 day) from NewEgg, and express (2 day) shipping from Monarch. My items from NewEgg are already here 3 days later, My items from Monarch are not even on the truck yet. I would expect that if a customer was going to pay extra for express shipping, as a retailer you would try to get the part out as quick as possible, not wait 4 days to put them on the truck."

"Edited 10/28/06:

I received my system after just over 5 weeks of having placed the order.

In the end, my new computer runs very nicely (so far). That said, the thing I'd have to say about Monarch were I to recommend them to a friend would be "Be prepared to wait a long long LONG time for your system to be built. They WILL get to it eventually."

However, as of now I am also unable to get ahold of them by email regarding a very simple item that apparently was backordered and therefore not shipped with my system. First off, I was disturbed to only find this out after my system shipped, which was 5 weeks after I ordered it. This kind of information would have been useful, say, 4 weeks earlier as they were scheduling the system for production. I emailed them twice now to cancel the backorder and refund the money, but no response to either email.

I'm likely going to give up since it's like an $8 item, so I'm not going to waste my time chasing them down. But I'm also probably never going to do business with Monarch again, not because I am angry, but because the simple fact of the matter is that there are companies that have competitive prices and are much more reliable. Why shop at Monarch when I can get the same item in 1/3 the time elsewhere and without the extra baggage Monarch seems to carry with them.

I sincerely hope that in the future they clean themselves up, but odds are this will not happen. My only other review at Reseller Ratings was from a company that was absolutely fantastic in every respect, and now they're out of business. Things happen unfortunately."

"Have ordered several computers in the past (2+ yrs ago) and was very pleased. Latest order has been a nightmare. Credit card charged on 8/25/06. Order has been promised to ship for over two weeks. On hold today for 25 mins. Will not allow me to cancel Now they say may ship in a day or two. Am contacting my credit card company to try and cancel the charge.Will never deal with them again"

"I ordered a batch of 10 AMD processors, totalling for around $2500. The amount was debited from my bank account on July 24th, 2006. I cancelled the order shortly before it even shipped out, and i was promised that it would take no more than one billing cycle, at the most 30 business days. Well, its now been over two months. I have now left three or four voicemails to their credit department, and i've never recieved one call back. Everytime i call their number, i get forwarded to the credit department, which is conveniently never there, forcing me to leave a voicemail. I would advise never ordering from them. It is not worth the hassle in case you have to cancel the order."

"I ordered a video card back in March. The site said it was in stock, and they charged my card immmediatly. Afterward, they said it was backordered, and they kept giving me different dates it was supposed to be in stock. Finally on April 22, I cancelled my order. It is now October first and still no refund. I have e-mailed, sent messages, called, probably a total of 10 times. I get no response. I filed a complaint with the BBB. Next step is legal action. They screwed me out of over $300 and it will cost more than that for a lawyer, but I might pay for one based on pure principle."