on november 2nd i placed an order with monarch, after hearing that they were a good company to work with. i ordered a processor and mo-board combo. my cc was instantly charged 472.55. i paid for 3 day shipping. after 3 weeks i never saw my order so i called, after waiting on hold for over an hour finally someone answered. i was told the processor was not in stock and that they could only sell me the mother board, and that my cc would be credited the remaing ballance of 267.97, well its now december 14 and no credit had been aplyed to my card, when i call all voice mails are full and i get a recording saying they are closed......DO NOT ORDER FROM MONARCH!!!GO WITH NEW EGG they are the mad note yo! Im at a loss as to what to do with my situation, i just want my money back, its christmas time after all and i could use the money they STOLE from me.

This review was modified by its author, dskblast, on 12/14/06 10:37 AM.

On October 25, 2006, I ordered a processor from Monarch Computers. I chose MC because they were the only people listing this particular processor in stock. The next day, I stumbled upon a bad review of MC, which led me to this review site. Suspecting the worst, I called MC to check on the status of my order. Although the website still listed the processor as "in stock," the CSR informed me that the processor was not, in fact, in stock, and would be delayed several days. Needless to say I canceled my order, but by that time, my credit card had already been charged. They promised me an "expedited refund" (less than 15 days), but to date, no such refund has been made. Fortunately my bank is very good about disputes and have credited my card for the full amount. However, if I didn't have such a responsive bank, I'd still be out several hundred dollars. There is not a low enough rating for this scam of a company.

Trouble Brewing at Monarch. DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING THERE!!  
 
I placed a small order(Thank God) that has been slow in arriving. I finally received a partial order yet the contents dont even match the packing slip.  
Ive emailed a couple of times without any reply.  
Ive resorted to calling them but continue to get a recorded mesesage that "Monarch Computers is now closed.......Please call back during normal business hours, yada , yada , yada....."  
The problem is....I AM calling during normal business hours.  
Not looking good to get my order.  
 
Ive already contacted my credit card bank and started the process to dispute the bill and recover my money.  
 
P L E A S E.....I hope people read this before ordering from them.  
 
AVOID MONARCH!!!!!  
 
IF they were at all rightous, they would pull their website immediately to prevent orders from being placed.  

I stupidly ordered a new Hornet Pro system from Monarch despite the negative reviews on this site. I was hoping that they had just hit a rough spot and were working things out, as posts from their CSRs in various forums claim. At any rate, they instantly charged me just under $2600, but my order status has been static ever since. Plus, as other folks have mentioned, they do not respond to emails, and calling them only results in a message stating that they are closed. I've already sent them a final email to cancel my order and filed a dispute with my credit card company. Please, nobody attempt to purchase any items from Monarch. They seem to be going out of business and attempting to rob us of our money in the process. They've gone from being a reputable company to a bunch of scam artists. I am now going to file more complaints with the BBB and the Georgia Governor's office.  
 
There must be somebody out there that lives close enough to swing by their B&M store to see what on earth is going on.

It's now been over a month trying to contact Monarch for an RMA, and apparently they are now out of business. I guess I will have to go to small claims court to get the money for my extended warranty back.

This review was modified by its author, outergeorge, on 2/4/07 3:06 PM.

SEEMS THEY ARE NOW "CLOSED FOR BUSINESS"  
 
I'm a small system integrator in New York City, and I've spent tens of thousands of dollars with Monarch over the last five years. Until my last two orders, I experienced no issues, other than maybe a couple of days extra lead time, but I placed one order on October 10th and one on November 15th, and I have yet to see either system. At this point, I have doubts that I ever will, and even that I will be able to get my money back without significant legal action.  
When my first system failed to arrive on time I called them, and after a 45 minute wait, was informed that they would "look in to it". Upon calling back the next day and not getting any answer, I called back yet again, and after the requisite 45 minutes, I was told that my video card had failed its tests, and that a new one had been ordered and would arrive soon (as the part was not in stock). Since the system was long overdue, I asked Monarch to expedite my next order for no additional charge, which they agreed to readily. The increased phone support wait times made me a bit nervous, but with many positive Monarch experiences under my belt, I didn't think much about it (other then when I was pressured by my clients). After another three weeks, I started calling back every day, and after two days got through to sales support once again, where Dave assured me that both systems would be delivered by the end of the week (five days). When I had not gotten a package or a confirmation by Friday, I tried to call back, but their 800 number went directly to voicemail, and informed me that they were closed, but to call back during business hours. The problem was that I *was* calling during business hours. I called back at least six times, throughout the day, with the same result. It was at this point that I contacted the Better Business Bureau and filed a formal complaint. On Monday (today) I called back again, with the same pattern. Still they were not open. I am now afraid that I have been patently ripped off, and that they are closed for good with my $4000 in their bank account. Since I bought my orders with a debit card instead of a credit card, my chances of refund are seemingly slim, and I'm hopping f%@#ing mad.  
Anyone interested in joining a class action lawsuit?

This review was modified by its author, We_are_the_Borg, on 12/12/06 3:06 AM.

Horrible Service If the part is not instock.  
Order on the 20th A CPU and motherboard and recieved no update other than they took my money basically. It was clear on the item info page of hte motherboard that they would email me if the mothterboard went out of stock. (I really don't know how hard it is for them to have an active database of how many parts they have instock?)  
On the 26th I emailed them and quickly recieved a reply that "Oh the motherboard is out of stock what would you like to order a different one or cancle." I replyed well what do you have offer? I recieved no response. I checked their webpage and saw a better motherboard for the same price, so I just ordered it. I dropped them an email to cancle the motherboard but to still send the CPU, which I heard nothing about.  
I still get no reply, So i decide to call them. After holding for about 45 mins. The guy tells me the CPU is backordered and that the motherboard is still on the order! I tell him to cancle it and he does. Luckly I received a refund fairly promtly for the motherboard. He tells me the CPU will be in stock at the end of the Week. Well the end of the week comes, and I get nothing. No notice that the part is on backorder. I call again, after holding for another 45 mins. and the guy tells me it's still backordered. I called again and I get hung up on when it hit their closing time. (after a 40min wait) That's really poor service there you don't just close on your waiting customers. Finally getting through the next day I get sick of them not letting me know what's going on so I cancle the CPU, and order from a different merchant, who gets it too me promtly.  
Well that day was Nov 4th, when I cancled my entire order and still no refund on Dec 12th. I see I'm the only one with this problem.

This review was modified by its author, pacojoebob, on 12/11/06 5:26 PM.

I ordered a cpu from them after a week and no word form them. I went to there site and all the cpus had gone from ships within 2 days to ships in a week. so I called to find out what was going on and they did not have any in stock like the site said thay did. So I canceled my order so now over a mounth later still no refund , its in the credit card conpanys hand now

This review was modified by its author, tbeagle, on 12/11/06 4:26 PM.

This is probably the WORST COMPANY I have ever dealt with in terms of customer satisfaction. Ordered a motherboard/CPU combination from them in July. It arrived with bad RAM and had to be returned. I did not see it again for another month, when it came back with better (but still problem RAM). Monarch then sold me new, better quality RAM and issued an RMA for the bad memory. It's now December and I have still not been reimbursed for the bad RAM. Numerous phone calls and endless hours spent on hold waiting to be lied to again and again have completely disgusted me with this company. I advise all to steer clear of them!

This is my second order from Monarch. The first one was purchased a year ago. They took 2 months to get me the hardware, but I could call and talk to someone and get a status along the way. The hardware arrived and worked fine.  
 
Now, with my latest order, I have the same problems as other here seem to be having. I ordered a $4,500 system and it's now just about 9 weeks out. No e-mails returned. Left a message with my sales rep (David H) last week and no response yet.  
 
I did managed to get someone on the phone twice after staying on hold for about an hour. I was told both times it was in the software stage and would ship out by the end of the week.  
 
After reading more people having the same experiences, I am looking into cancelling my order and getting my money back.  
 
They were fine about a year ago, now I wouldn't buy a cable from them.

I am yet another very unsatisfied Monarch customer. Here is my story in a nutshell:  
 
I am a senior level application architect that works in a very stressful environment (financial sector) and I work long ugly hours (60 hours a week or longer required). Long story short: I wanted quality parts assembled by people who are better at it than I am and have the time and experience to do it right.  
 
2 years ago, Monarch's rating was extremely high here on this site, so I decided to go with them. Here are the problems I had:  
 
- #1: It took me like 6-8 weeks to finally get the PC. I had even paid for a rush order ... but it took forever to get the PC and I had to follow up with them several times.  
 
- #2: When I got it, there were screws floating around inside the case that had fallen out (from problem #3 described below).  
 
- #3: The hard drives (Dual Seagate Barracudas SATA) were not even anchored to the case. They were wedged into the frame there on a 30 degree angle. Looks like they were a little too wide to fit into the Antec case frame I had ordered. Instead of calling me, or working out a solution, the just slid them in there until they kinda were snug, on an angle, and then shipped it. They even put screws half way in on one side to try to get it to stay (that fell out during shipping) ... I wish I had taken pictures ...  
 
At this point, I was an idiot. I assumed it was a fluke and just my bad luck. I didn't even call them. I just assumed it was one bad techie or something. They had such amazing ratings here I felt odd questioning them.  
 
Fast forward 4-6 months.  
 
- #4: The power supply starts having strange problems. From time to time, it would just not power up. For a day or two at a time (long hours I work would mean sometimes I wouldn't get back on the PC for a few days). Then suddenly work again. Shrugged it off at first but then, when I needed it badly (for online bills and some work at home stuff) it suddenly permanently went out. At this point I requested an RMA. I also told them about the drives for kicks. I assumed I was in good hands at this point and not to worry.  
 
- #5: They had my PC forever. I have an email chain that started in early March, with me sending the PC in early April following up several times per month (on phone too). I kept calling and emailing and they kept saying that my RMA had been lost and that it slipped through the cracks and such. I was getting upset at this point. I figured maybe they were so popular that they were that backed up and busy. I tried not to worry. It finally came back with a new power supply, so I was content again, but it was mid or late May by then.  
 
- #6: A week ago, the USB ports on the machine just went out. Computer recognizes the USB ports but none of them actually work. It's an ASUS Deluxe, and now I cant use USB mouse/keyboard/printers/iPod/etc.  
 
This stinks, because I am no handy man and wouldn't think about trying to replace the motherboard. I also wont send it back to Monarch (since I need my PC on an almost daily basis and have had zero good experiences with them so far), so I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place.  
 
I came back here to rant about Monarch, thinking I would be a lonely voice in a sea of happy customers, and I see that they have had a 3.7/10 rating over the last 6 months. Sad ... but it almost seems like I was that first batch of people who suffered when they decided to go from a reputable company to absolute garbage. I will never buy from them again. I won't even send my computer back there to be repaired for free ... I'd rather pay someone else I trust.  
 
Avoid Monarch, at least in my opinion.

Do not buy from Monarch.  
 
I got a custom built system from them in August. After failing to meet the Hot Rush deadline, and after numerous calls to customer service back in August, they refunded the Hot Rush fee. Since then, my DVD-RW failed and I had to call my 24/7 paid for tech support. They did not answer the 24/7 line, even though I paid for it. After getting a hold of Matt during business hours (and being on hold for over 30 minutes), Matt determined that the drive was faulty and they would send me a new one along with a confirmation. When I did not hear from Monarch, I contacted them again and spoke with David who sent me the RMA but not the drive, as he promised. After failing to contact Monarch for several weeks by e-mail and phone, I filed a complaint with the GA Better Business Bureau. I managed to get a hold of Keith, who once again promised to send me the drive within two days. When I did not get any confimation of that, I filed a chargeback with my credit card company. They failed to replace a drive under warranty and failed to provide any technical support.  
 
This company does not answer e-mails or the phone. Average wait times for tech support or customer service is 45 min (if you are lucky) to over 1 hour (maybe more, because I hang up at that point).  
 
Here are some e-mails, if you want to try them, they get no response for me:  
david.c@monarchcomputer.com  
sterling@monarchcomputer.com  
shawn@monarchcomputer.com  
sales@monarchcomputer.com  
order@monarchcomputer.com  
 
Stay away from Monarch, they are frauds.

It seems that Monarch Computers is not able to deliver it's products and services in a timely manner. My ordeal has started almost a month ago and I still haven't gotten a satisfactory result. In an attempt to get ahead of the Christmas rush, I placed an order for 3 computers in mid November, in the hopes that I would have the systems delivered before Christmas.  
 
I put in an order for a custom system for myself, and 2 for my other family members. These were to be replacement hardware for some older system that I intend to transfer some remaining hardware to.  
 
The first problem that I ran into was the order had to go through PayPal for the credit card information. Within 4 hours PayPal had contacted me to verify that I had made the purchase. The total amount of the order was $2900. This is not a major amount especially for 3 systems. I thanked PayPal for their due diligence. On the following Monday, Monarch Computers had called to verify the order as well. They had called and left a message. On the next day I had my wife call back and she sat on hold for over 2 hours. She attempted several times throughout the day to contact them. On the second day she finally got ahold of them after a total of 6 hours of staying on hold. I can already see this is going to be a major pain in the butt if I have to return any DOA's or get any support. During this time our order has been on credit hold even though they have charged our account (which I am disputing with the credit card company right now).  
 
We have been attempting to continually contact them to find out why the order is still on credit hold and I would like to cancel the order as I will not deal with a company in this way. They are very understaffed and thier conflict resolution method is to avoid the customer at all costs.  
 
For the couple of times we have made contact, the people have been very friendly, but if you cannot deliver product or resolve issues in a reasonable manner, all the customer service friendliness is a moot point.

Did not get the order on time. They charged my card without sending merchandise. Unable to contact company ..no phones or email, they have apparently closed and are out of business. Unable to cancel order. PayPal is investigating as well as Visa investigation for fraud.

My buying experience with Monarch and how I got my money back.  
 
I ordered an item($20+$7SH) on the 8th of November 2006 with Federal Express Ground shipping(2-5 days). After a week and half, I checked the status online which states that it is shipping within 2-3 days. After 2-3 business days past, I called support and got thru after two failed attempts (disconnected after waiting on hold for over 40 minutes), the guy said they are out of stock and that they will be getting a shipment the following week. Started emailing AND calling the week of Nov27th-Dec1st, no email response, couldn't get a hold of support, again disconnected after 40 minutes (tried twice a day for a WHOLE week). I got thru to support on 12/4/2006(3:35PM EST) again after being disconnected the first time. Talked to James about my situation and got the SAME answer as what I was told two weeks ago, told him I wanted to cancel my order and he said I had to go thru email. I told him if Monarch was not going to response to my emails and barely answering their phones, how am I suppose to believe they are going to honor my cancel order. Meaning to write some detail of the conversion down on paper, I told James I was going to "record" this down, but he HUNG up on me.  
 
That was the last straw, I went to Paypal and submitted a dispute that same day and to my suprise Monarch refunded my money within two hours (appeared on CC two days later), WOW!  
 
So in conclusion, DO NOT DO business with them and if you do, record and save everything. I pity the people who bought more expensive items.