Monarch Computers....BEWARE

[screw3d]

My current rig was purchased from them about 1 1/2 years ago.. that was when I noticed the beginning of a downward slide

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Quintox

Originally posted by: archcommus
In other news, Xoxide just shipped my order same day and it arrived the next. Go Xoxide!!

Sounds good to me, are you being sarcastic?

Nope, I ordered Monday, it shipped Monday night via UPS and arrived 10 am this morning. Was also the best price I could find. Good retailer.

 

[musicman64]

Ha,

I still remember the day Sterling told me that Newegg.com would be out of business in a year or so (It's been about two years since that conversation.)

So long Monarch! Too bad it didn't happen sooner, horrible company, horrible service - You won't be missed by me!

 

[bennylong]

Is it me or did they not only took down the phone number, but they got rid of the forums also?

 

[musicman64]

Yup, all gone. Any day now.

 

[Odeen]

I think I was actually ON HOLD with their tech support number when they turned off the lights yesterday. I was listening to the never-ending "thank you for holding - we haven't outsourced tech support to India and we have a pink camo wrap for ALL the ladies!" spiel, when the line suddenly went dead. I called back, and got the "we are currently closed" recording.


A few months ago, I contacted Sterling Harris by phone (via the Monarch Computer Systems front office number - 770-939-9886. He gave me his cell phone number: 404-358-5110. I kept trying to get a refund issued for a defective case that I bought, and Sterling kept promising that I will get a refund. He was actually a pretty amiable guy, and I he did send me the parts that were missing, but, at the end, I still have a dented side panel and no refund or replacement in sight.

The latest I had contact with Sterling was 11/28. Oddly, I was only able to get through (after weeks of trying) when I finally disabled the Caller ID on my phone. He had me email him the order and customer number, he replied with a "thank you" and that was the last time I heard from him.

I gave Monarch every chance to fix a problem they had with my order but, after six months of trying to, and after this announcement, I'm letting fellow Anandtechies try reaching Sterling at the above phone number, and, possibly, getting some restitution.

 

[punjabiplaya]

Originally posted by: ballmode
whoa that sucks

I guess zipzoomfly/newegg are the only ones I shop from now

Clubit.com, frys.com, mwave.com, microcenter.com, directron.com, etc...

Anyways, I just happened to order an e6400 from monarch when they started to tank. I was a little skeptical (e6400 for $185?!), but I got it in 3 days (the intel box was beaten to hell, all the seals were ok though...). It works great, but I guess I got lucky.

 

[amdhunter]

Damn, I always received stuff next day from them, and never had a single problem. I even won a bunch of free stuff, including a pretty pwn AMD shirt. I will miss them if they go down the drain. I knew a bunch of them when I used to post on the athlonxp forums back in the day.

 

[Imaginer]

Thanks for the heads up. Its been roughly about a year since I have ordered from them last though I had not encountered any problems with them at all. It is a shame they started to go downhill from what I been hearing around.... And they dont charge tax for me over here too unlike **cough**newegg**cough**. Their bundles are not bad either.

 

[steve9983]

Does anyone know of another site that does the pre-tested motherboard/processor combos? That was by far my favorite part of monarch.

 

[j00fek]

good thing i didn't buy from them lately

 

[dogchainx]

WWW.HARDOCP.COM just posted something about Monarch on their website, and its not good news.


Hey Keeleysam, still expect to have those processors arrive next week? I dare you to order from them again.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
I can't believe how many of you don't get out of ATOT. REPOST from General Hardware!

there is a general hardware forum? Cool, it would also be cool to have a place for us to buy and sell parts with each other.

 

[Miramonti]

Their site looks pretty functional right now.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: jjsole
Their site looks pretty functional right now.

you should order something. make sure you use an amex.

 

[thegimp03]

It's too bad this has happened to Monarch. I've used them several times and have never had a problem - most recent purchase being about 2 months ago. Their service was always great to me. Hopefully they can turn around again.

 

[GlobalHPSJoe1]

I know its an old thread, but it mentioned my name so I figured that gave me creedence to post.

Yes, this is MonarchJoe. I left Monarch at the end of October. It seems the rumor mill is swirling constantly about on Monarch's demise.

I was just an employee, so obviously I do not know everything that happened. Essentially some deals went bad, risks turned out too risky, etc, and thus here they are. Pretty much what happens to any company that goes out of business.

One rumor that I do know the answer to is no one has bought them out. Maybe someone will? I don't know. It's been almost 3 months since I was there.

There are several ex-monarch employees that are now employed by Global Computer. Myself included. That does not mean anything other than there were a bunch of guys out of a job in the Atlanta area, and there were openings here. There's not many places around that do what we know how to do, so the choices for a lot of us were slim. As we all have worked together, we are a sales team. Nothing more. As at Monarch we dealt with Custom Gaming Systems, Workstations, and Servers, that is our current focus. Global mainly has dealt with off the shelf in the past, so it's a natural fit for us to bring them a market they really haven't tapped.

So there's my lengthy reply. I'm more involved with Sales so if there's anything you need please feel free to contact me at my personal email and I'll take care of you like I did back in the day.

 

[GlobalHPSJoe]

Here is my updated Anandtech user name, in case you would like to IM me.

Originally posted by: GlobalHPSJoe1
I know its an old thread, but it mentioned my name so I figured that gave me creedence to post.

Yes, this is MonarchJoe. I left Monarch at the end of October. It seems the rumor mill is swirling constantly about on Monarch's demise.

I was just an employee, so obviously I do not know everything that happened. Essentially some deals went bad, risks turned out too risky, etc, and thus here they are. Pretty much what happens to any company that goes out of business.

One rumor that I do know the answer to is no one has bought them out. Maybe someone will? I don't know. It's been almost 3 months since I was there.

There are several ex-monarch employees that are now employed by Global Computer. Myself included. That does not mean anything other than there were a bunch of guys out of a job in the Atlanta area, and there were openings here. There's not many places around that do what we know how to do, so the choices for a lot of us were slim. As we all have worked together, we are a sales team. Nothing more. As at Monarch we dealt with Custom Gaming Systems, Workstations, and Servers, that is our current focus. Global mainly has dealt with off the shelf in the past, so it's a natural fit for us to bring them a market they really haven't tapped.

So there's my lengthy reply. I'm more involved with Sales so if there's anything you need please feel free to contact me at my personal email and I'll take care of you like I did back in the day.

 

[SuperNaruto]

do you have pictures of the place.. boy.. did they go gambling on peoples money ? risky deal ?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Thanks for the update Joe! You always did right by those of us who frequented Monarch back in the day, sorry to hear of Monarchs demise. I will add your new company to my shortlist for the future

 

[BrokenVisage]

Damn this sucks, I got lots of stuff from them over the last few years.

 

[GlobalHPSJoe]

No pictures of it, it wasn't much to look at the end though.

No personal abuse of money from what I gathered, all parties involved were struggling when I left. (Ownership, managers, employees)

Obviously they took some risks, as do all business owners especially in our industry. (How much of this to buy, what to sell, what to RMA, etc) When those risks fail, some recover, some don't. Unfortunately they ended up in the latter.

Originally posted by: SuperNaruto
do you have pictures of the place.. boy.. did they go gambling on peoples money ? risky deal ?

 

[waggy]

hehe i still think its funny the first guy that said they were going out of business got "OWNED" with everyone yelling at him.

guess he was right LOL

 

[Tobolo]

nm

 

[GlobalHPSJoe]

Thanks for the kind words. Please feel free to contact me on anything, at my current role I'm able to do some discounting and the such. Corporate level is even better, I can get Extranets setup with pricing levels built in, ability to do POs right online, etc.

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Thanks for the update Joe! You always did right by those of us who frequented Monarch back in the day, sorry to hear of Monarchs demise. I will add your new company to my shortlist for the future