[fghofer]

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 other 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!!!