# Monarch Computer Systems Incorporated ....



## Mindreaper01 (Nov 29, 2006)

The below post is what has happened to me personally and my dealings with Monarch Computer Systems. I'm still having to deal with them and i'm going to warn as many people as i can about them in hopes of them avoiding a potential problem.

Let me tell you a sad but true story about Monarch...

In February of this year i had a motherboard that died on me. It was an ASUS A8N SLI-Deluxe motherboard. So i call Monarch tech support. I worked for Dell tech support for several years and i am an assistant network administrator now for a large financial firm, so i'm no novice to computers or their problems. So i'm speaking with the tech and i tell him everything that i've done and that since the motherboard starting dying, my video cards and been hitting temperatures as high as 238 degrees. I agreed with the tech that we should replace the motherboard first and see if that rectifies the issue with the temperature on the video cards.

So the tech sets up and on-site visit and mails the part to me. The part arrived in 2 days but i didn't hear from a tech for another 3. By the time i heard from the tech i was tired of waiting and had replaced the motherboard myself. Well, that didn't rectify the issue of the video cards hitting excessive temperatures so i called Monarch back to let them know that both of my video cards (NVIDIA 6800 GTX's) were still overheating. I was speaking with a different tech this time but i told him of everything that had been done previously and he agreed to send me new video cards. He sets up an on-site service and mails the parts to me as well.

So, i receive the new video cards and i open up the box and there are 2 NVIDIA 7400 video cards in the box. I was like "WTF is this crap?!" So i call Monarch and ask them why they sent me these cards instead of identical cards? (The 7400 cards are a major downgrade from the 6800's by the way) The tech tells me that NVIDIA is no longer making the 6000 series cards and that Monarch has none of my cards in stock and had to replace them with "comparable" cards. This is where everything starts to go downhill. I explain to the tech that a 7400 card is not comparable to the 6800 cards and that this needs to be resolved. He tells me that it is a comparable card and refers me to BFI's technical support (the card manufacturer).

I decide to jump through their hopes just so they couldn't say that i didn't listen and follow their tech's instructions in case something goes wrong. So i call BFI tech support and i tell the tech everything that has happened so far and when i tell him what the Monarch tech said about the 7400 being a comparable card he actually starting laughing. No a chuckle, not a haha, i mean a full room shaking belly laugh that by the time he stopped laughing he had me laughing just because he was laughing so hard! So we start comparing video cards. We compared my old 6800 card to the new 7000 series cards and he determines that the 7900 OTC's would be a comparable card. I thanked him for his time, and i also got his name and number before i disconnected the call.

So i try to call Monarch about this video card issue. After 2 days of TRYING to speak with a tech i finally reach one. I explain the issue with him and tells me that the BFI tech should never have told me what he did about the cards not being comparable or that there was an issue with the 7400 series cards and SLI. He says that he'll speak with a manager and call me back within the next day or 2.Meanwhile my computer will only function with 1 video card in it and i'm really getting upset (putting it very nicely) that i can't play WoW and attend raids with my guild. I agree to his calling me back and go on about my day. Well, 4 days later i still had not heard back from the tech OR the supposed manager so i call Monarch AGAIN. This day i called Monarch a total of 7 times, got put on hold 7 times, got disconnected 5 times. I was livid. For the next week i tried getting a hold of a manager in their "tech" department and amazingly enough, EVERY time i called and asked for a manager, i was told that they were either in a meeting or out to lunch!

Finally i get in touch with a manager and i was so mad i was physically shaking from my anger. I explained to him everything that i had been through over the course of 3 weeks and the issue with the video cards. He looks through my call records and sees how many times i've called in and he tells me that i will receive the 2x 7900 OTC video cards by tomorrow morning (this being 4 in the afternoon already). He didn't lie, sure enough i had those cards at 7:30 am. He had also set this up as an on-site call as well and the technician called later on that day to set up an appointment. By this time i had replaced all the components in my system and told him to come on out and pick up all the pieces, good and bad.

So the tech shows up the following day at dinner time. I gave him the 3 boxes of parts, 1 motherboard, 2 NVIDIA 6800 video cards, and 2 7400 NVIDIA video cards. He writes down my system information and fills out his form and asks me to sign it, which i did. Then he left. My wife and son were present and watched as all this took place so we're all thinking that FINALLY my computer is fixed and i won't have anymore problems.....WRONG!

About 2 months later i get a call from a Monarch tech asking me where are the old parts are and i tell him that the tech came out and picked them up and advised him to look up the company and the tech who did the call and hung up. Now, having worked for Dell tech support i know how things are SUPPOSED to work and i also know that the tech has to validate his repair with a signature from the customer in order for the tech AND the tech's company to get paid (at least they do for Dell). Time goes by and i didn't hear from Monarch again so i'm thinking everything is cool. I should have known better.

I got married in June and my wife and i went to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon. When i arrived home and went to turn my computer on it wouldn't do anything at all. I could see the green light on the motherboard but not even the fans move when i hit the on button. So i call Monarch again , this is on Monday the 17th of July and speak with a technician about the power supply. He tells me that he'll set-up an on-site service and send the power supply to me. So 2 days past and it's now Wednesday the 19th so i call and ask where my power supply is and the tech says that they had to switch companies in the Nashville area because that company (don't know the name of the company) wasn't returning the parts to Monarch and that now they need my credit card information so they can charge me for the parts that were never returned from the past 3 on-sites PLUS charge me for the power supply before they will send it out. I was getting more upset with every passing second the tech was speaking. So i ask the tech how much those 3 on-site parts were going to be and i was told (and later confirmed) $2,109.00! PLUS another like $98.00 for a new power supply. I told him that there was no way in hell that they were going to charge me for those 3 on-site calls and asked to speak with a manager.

I was transfered to a manager named Tracy. She told me about this change in the companies and she apologized for the trouble but she said that she looked in my log and she see where they TRIED to charge those parts to the credit card i used when i purchased the computer (which was no longer active THANKFULLY!) She gave me the same spill as the tech about needing to charge me for those prior on-site parts and i told her no. I told her that the technician had come out and picked up the parts and that my wife and son watched him do it and that i wouldn't pay for their failure to properly enforce their contract with a subcontracted company. I told her that she may charge my credit card for the power supply and i understood that the charge would be reimbursed once the old part is received and i started to give her my credit card information. After she gets all the information she tells me that they're going to charge those on-site visits to the card as well as the power supply. I told her that if she charged me for those parts i would call the credit card company and stop payment on that AND then contact my attorney for possible legal action. Well, mentioning LEGAL action was the wrong thing to say! She said something to the affect of "Sir, since you have mentioned legal action may be an option against Monarch, i have to refer this matter to the legal department for resolution." Now, remember that this was on Wednesday the 19th.

By Saturday the 22nd i had a letter from a Monarch attorney stating that since i failed to return the 3 on-site parts totaling $2,109.00 and repaired my own computer, instead of letting "a trained and certified Monarch technician" do the repairs, i violated Monarch's Terms and Conditions and my warranty was hereby canceled. BOOM! I had purchased a 3 year ON-SITE parts and labor warranty and it was even 15 months old and now it's canceled!

So, i type up a response to the Monarch attorney letting him know that the parts were given to the contracted Monarch employee at the time of the repairs. I printed out a copy of the terms and agreement (kept a copy for myself) and asked him to point out WHERE in the Terms and Agreement that it states a customer can not repair his own system? Also, if a customer "repairing" their own system violates those Terms and Agreement, why do Monarch technicians as the customer if THEY (the customer) want a technician to come out and do the repairs OR does the customer want to do the repairs themselves? I sent the letter out certified mail and contacted my attorney.

After 2 months of no reply from Monarch, i contacted the Georgia Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint against Monarch. The BBB said to give them 8 weeks to try and resolve the issue. So, at 8 weeks i call the BBB and they said that they had contacted Monarch on several occasions and they never responded to the complaint.

So i fired off another letter to them telling them that they had 10 business days to respond to this letter and correct the canceled warranty or litigation would follow. I got the receipt back in the mail, waited 12 business days just to be sure, then i had my attorney file a complaint against Monarch, which is still pending.

So all of you out there who want to buy from Monarch, the best thing i can tell you

*BUYER BEWARE*!!

I would like as many people to post on this thread, good or bad. When i posted this above post on Monarch's site i was immediately banned. They will not tolerate ANY negative posts on their forums at all. I watched as 3 other posts were deleted when they were posting negative comments asking about a refund for the RMA's that they returned over 2 months ago.


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## Mountain Man (Dec 19, 2006)

Hello Mindreaper01,

I am very concerned about the problems you have encountered with Monarch. I used Monarch to custom build my latest computer back in May 2006. I have an AMD Athlon
64x2 4800+ Dual Core 1MB/core Socket 939. I selected the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 DDR SATA 3GB motherboard. I went with the Corsair 2GB DDR400 memory. My video card is the eVGA 7800GT 256MB. And, of course, I have all the bells & whistles for reproduction because I burn numerous DVDs & CDs.

I have encountered no problems with this machine. The only changes that I have made are with Windows XP, wherein I went into the PrefetchParameters and changed the enablePrefetcher from 3 (prefetch everything) to 1 (application launch prefetch). I also empty my Prefetch Folder every time that I do a defrag, which about once a week. Changing the prefetch setting makes Windows XP run a bit faster.

For two days I have attempted to telephonically contact Monarch Compter. To my surprise, I am told by a recording that "our offices are closed".

Since I paid Monarch for 3 years of 24/7 tech support, I called that number and listened to a recording saying, "this is no longer a working number".

I visited Monarch's web site and attempted to access the various options in order to custom build a computer. All that comes up is "fatal error".

So, do you think that Monarch has went "belly up". Have they become overwhelmed with orders for new computers? Doesn't make sense, if you have half a brain, you don't turn down business; you just streach out the delivery time.

Oh, before I forget, "Traci" is not a manager. She works in customer service.

In any event, my friend and physician wants me to custom build him a system. Now, I really need a quality producer! Note to oneself, "you don't upset the person who performs your annual finger wave"!!

So Mindreaper, what are your thoughts?

Mountain Man


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## Mindreaper01 (Nov 29, 2006)

Hey Mountain Man,

If i had to build another computer again i would use www.avadirect.com for the builder. They have an outstanding reseller rating right now for the last 6 months as a 10 with a lifetime review of 9.40 (( http://resellerratings.com/store/AVA_Direct to see for yourself )).

These guys have their s**t wire tight and you can tell by reading the reviews that their serious about their company and how people perceive them. Their options are above average, not the greatest, but still really good in my book.

Awards:

[H]ard|OCP: "We were very pleased with our AVADirect custom system. We experienced excellent after-sale support (support we could continue to look forward to thanks to the lifetime phone support guarantee and 3-year parts warranty) ..."

All of their systems come with a 3 year parts warranty. I'm sure they've built the price in there somewhere but for the most part their prices are still very reasonable.

MR 

EDIT* I forgot to answer your question about Monarch. MCS is in the process, or has been, bought out. They've closed all of their retail stores and are only doing online requests, but no more custom builds. I have a feeling that there are going to be a LOT of lawsuits coming out of this after reading several tech forums and seeing what has been happening to everyone else. Apparently they're going to stay in business but if someone did buy them out i would guess that a name change is probably going to be in order. I know my lawsuit is still pending a courtdate so I won't know much of anything about my ordeal until after Christmas.


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## Mountain Man (Dec 19, 2006)

Mindreaper01

Thank you!

Mountain Man


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## clipper (Jul 31, 2007)

Does anyone know if monarch was in fact bought? Is another company honoring those 3 yr warranties?

Thanks

Clipper


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## legion510 (Sep 23, 2007)

hi guys,

am planning to assemble a quad-based PC and plan to buy from either directron.com or mwave.com... any previous experience from these...?

i've never heard of avadirect.com...


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## legion510 (Sep 23, 2007)

directron seems to have a very wide selection of parts... but mwave has a bill-me-later option that's just superb when ur budget-concious...

i plan to assemble a q6600 2.4 GHZ quad based desktop pm an MATX board (g3 chipset) and cram all these into an apevia x q-pack case. any thoughts?


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