I do understand, and people did win the "Golden Sample" lottery as recently as today. Some may not be anandtech posters, some may be.
Without our reputation, we're nothing. We've been around since 1991 and plan to be well into the future. We're not always going to be the cheapest, and we're not perfect, but we have always tried to take care of our customers.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt since it seems like you're making quite an effort to make us understand.
However, I think you should have made more of an effort to honor the GS requests. This way you get the GS's to the ones that would really appreciate it (and get more satisfied customers). With the 'random' method you used, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some people that will get a GS that won't even realize what they've really got! Plus, if you ran out, it would be a first-come, first-serve situation which is an easier one for people to deal with.
It's just a suggestion.
Cheers!
HeroOfPellinor
Lifer
- Dec 27, 2001
- 11,272
- 1
- 0
So why is it now $400? You're no longer offering it for a good price?
It looks to me like you might be trying to exploit the additional traffic from the publicity over the mix up. I'm not entirely sure that's proper, Joe.
Yes, I agree Monarch should make more of an effort towards honoring the GS requests. I think it would go a long way towards repairing their damaged reputation if they offered exchange for credit towards GS(at a more reasonable price than $444). Remember it was their agent Rick who misrepresented them, and even if it was an honest mistake, they still bear some ethical, if not legal, responsibility.
I'm working on purchasing on the price. I believe it has something to do with MSRPs, but thats treading into waters I don't delve into.
Agree with oakleaf - I'm also willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. It sounds like you tried to do a good thing and I'd hate for you to get burned for it.
But, yes, I think you probably could have handled the distro a bit better. Really trying to get them to those who wrote e-mails, first-come, first-serve, etc. And if they were flying off the shelves in the last week, you should have made sure the staff was telling people that the chances of getting them were rapidly decreasing. I don't feel ripped-off, but I do still feel a bit mislead over the whole thing - whether that was intentional or not.
In the future it might behoove you to make sure the ATer's are satisfied first... It never pays to agitate the vocal minority!
But, yes, I think you probably could have handled the distro a bit better. Really trying to get them to those who wrote e-mails, first-come, first-serve, etc. And if they were flying off the shelves in the last week, you should have made sure the staff was telling people that the chances of getting them were rapidly decreasing. I don't feel ripped-off, but I do still feel a bit mislead over the whole thing - whether that was intentional or not.
In the future it might behoove you to make sure the ATer's are satisfied first... It never pays to agitate the vocal minority!
Originally posted by: wpenhall
Agree with oakleaf - I'm also willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. It sounds like you tried to do a good thing and I'd hate for you to get burned for it.
But, yes, I think you probably could have handled the distro a bit better. Really trying to get them to those who wrote e-mails, first-come, first-serve, etc. And if they were flying off the shelves in the last week, you should have made sure the staff was telling people that the chances of getting them were rapidly decreasing. I don't feel ripped-off, but I do still feel a bit mislead over the whole thing - whether that was intentional or not.
In the future it might behoove you to make sure the ATer's are satisfied first... It never pays to agitate the vocal minority!
Hey, I completely value Anandtech. I spent many a night on here updating everyone on the MSI K8N Neo 2 motherboard... Me being on here is not a "one time only oh s### we've been hot deal'd" kind of deal.
I wish I could have gotten everyone the GS board. But in all honesty, the 6800 GT non-GS is a hell of a card, and it was priced just right at $380.
In the future, please ask me as to what's going on! I try to keep the call center informed, but I end up in 100 different directions during the day that I can always give them the full scoop on things.
From the posts here, it looks like there are quite a few who have yet to get their cards. If some do get em, then fine, it just wasnt' the most copasetic distribution model. Like others said, with random distribution, folks who never expected, nor would notice, could be holding the much desired GS parts. However, if by next week, nobody can say they've gotten one, then I think this can be considered FOUL. Time will tell. My RR won't be auto negative if I get a regular, but it would hard to give em a positive if noone gets one.
When discussing things with Joe, he did mention they sold over 100 of these when the price was $380 and that maybe it just happened that Anandtech people did not get the GSs. That comes out to $38,000 in sales. This company does not look that large. Therefore, nothing they can say is going to change my opinion of the situation unless a good amount of anandtech users who ordered before the 2nd get a GS.
Whether intentional or not, it looks like misinformation did come from Monarch. I think it's safe to say that most of us would not have ordered had we known what we know now.
I am not going to make a big fuss of things, as I can certainly live with my non-GS card. I appreciate Joe's effort to pacify us, but I still think a first-class company would've done things differently.
I am not going to make a big fuss of things, as I can certainly live with my non-GS card. I appreciate Joe's effort to pacify us, but I still think a first-class company would've done things differently.
Unless you called or e-mailed Monarch personally and a representative said "Yes, you will receive the Golden Sample" you really have no legitimate beef in this case. The product numbers were never the same on the web site to indicate that this item was EVER a Golden Sample. I pointed this out with a post several hours after the OP posted this deal. However, if you were told that you would receive a GS and you did not, then yes, I would definitely follow up until it is squared away. If you were not personally told that you would receive a GS then just suck it up and next time don't believe everything you hear.
Ok. In light of today's events, I have a confession to make. I just played Doom3 for 22 minutes at 1600x1200 with my Gainward 6800 GT NON-Golden Sample overclocked to 405/1110. Note: GS runs at 400/1100. So apparently this card rocks and Golden Sample is nothing more than one of these cards tested for you.
I got to this overclocking slowly increasing by about 20% up to the GS settings, then went up to 405/1110 which still works great. I then got confused thinking I needed to restart my computer in disbelief, so I set my clock to 420 and it then crashed my computer after a few minutes. So I may be able to overclock even slightly higher, but I haven't tested yet. In the end, this is a hot deal even without the damn Golden Sample. But of course, YMMV, all the cards will be different, and it probably helps that I have a lot of fans on my case.
If most people can overclock this high, this is definately still a hot deal.
Comments on the card:
The only complaint so far is that the DVItoVGA converters are hard to get on the back of the card, I swear on one side it would not screw on no matter what so I tried the other side and eventually got it.
There is only one power connector, I think the Ultra has 2, which makes this an advantage over the Ultra maybe.
It has 2 red lights on the fans and it looks pretty cool.
I can hear the fans but not really over the full hum of the rest of the case. The hum would be annoying if you put your case on your desk like right next to your face, but I put mine on the floor.
So far I love this card. Time for some Counterstrike Source Beta with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.
I got to this overclocking slowly increasing by about 20% up to the GS settings, then went up to 405/1110 which still works great. I then got confused thinking I needed to restart my computer in disbelief, so I set my clock to 420 and it then crashed my computer after a few minutes. So I may be able to overclock even slightly higher, but I haven't tested yet. In the end, this is a hot deal even without the damn Golden Sample. But of course, YMMV, all the cards will be different, and it probably helps that I have a lot of fans on my case.
If most people can overclock this high, this is definately still a hot deal.
Comments on the card:
The only complaint so far is that the DVItoVGA converters are hard to get on the back of the card, I swear on one side it would not screw on no matter what so I tried the other side and eventually got it.
There is only one power connector, I think the Ultra has 2, which makes this an advantage over the Ultra maybe.
It has 2 red lights on the fans and it looks pretty cool.
I can hear the fans but not really over the full hum of the rest of the case. The hum would be annoying if you put your case on your desk like right next to your face, but I put mine on the floor.
So far I love this card. Time for some Counterstrike Source Beta with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.
It seems to me that people are upset that they didn't receive a YMMV deal. I think anyone that says they'd be ok as long as someone else received the deal is lieing. You know YOU are upset because YOU didn't receive the deal.
I got an idea, if you didn't receive a GS and you paid $380, then sell it for $380 to someone else and wait till the price comes down, buy a GS somewhere else, buy a non gs somewhere else or just play with your non gs card. Here's another way to look at it, you paid $380 for a card that has dual DVI, that is one of the few GT cards that in fact has dual dvi and for $380 it's a steal.
It's frustrating to see so many people attacking a legitimate business that appears to care about their customers and was actually hooking some of them up. Perhaps they should have done what every other retailer does when there is a pricing mistake, cancel the order without discussion. This wasn't a conspiracy theory to drive traffic to their site, their good prices and service will do that on it's own.
-Ron
I got an idea, if you didn't receive a GS and you paid $380, then sell it for $380 to someone else and wait till the price comes down, buy a GS somewhere else, buy a non gs somewhere else or just play with your non gs card. Here's another way to look at it, you paid $380 for a card that has dual DVI, that is one of the few GT cards that in fact has dual dvi and for $380 it's a steal.
It's frustrating to see so many people attacking a legitimate business that appears to care about their customers and was actually hooking some of them up. Perhaps they should have done what every other retailer does when there is a pricing mistake, cancel the order without discussion. This wasn't a conspiracy theory to drive traffic to their site, their good prices and service will do that on it's own.
-Ron
know what the funny thing is...honestly looking at it, people are getting pissed off because the got WHAT THEY ORDERED. We should be so lucky with all the other crappy online dealers out there (i.e buy.com)
Umm. No. We're pissed because we were lied to(or at least given misinformation by a legitimate representative). I would've paid 435 for the guaranteed GS at the beginning. I was seriously considering the eVGA for 380. 95% chance at a GS at 380 was too good to pass up. And now, nobody's got one, at least, nobody on AT forum. I'm willing to wait until the people with cheapo 5-7 day shipping get theirs before a final judgement, but I'm not just gonna take his word that he shipped GS cards. And no matter what, he already admitted there was misinformation spread by his own representative. So far, this is all damage control, and while he SOUNDS honest enough, I'll believe it when I see it.
Mr. Lennon
Diamond Member
- Jul 2, 2004
- 3,492
- 1
- 81
Agreed. Alot of you guys are saying "If no one from these forums receives one I will give bad rr ratings." Do you really think you are the only ones that were trying to buy this card? Monarch never said "you are getting the gs version 100% sure!" I am sure a couple of forum members bad rr ratings would do nothing to their business. I see pissed off customers all the time and see websites against circuit city, but the people still come.....
I sure hope this doesnt screw them up..they have like a 9.5 rating at RR. Thats just as good as NewEgg! Its not easy maintaining that rating and would hate the see them fall just bc of this deal
This company is one of a few good e-tailers out there outside of CA. Cant really buy from NewEgg bc of tax..sucks :disgust:
This company is one of a few good e-tailers out there outside of CA. Cant really buy from NewEgg bc of tax..sucks :disgust:
I don't think anyone has a right to criticize those who are unhappy unless they've also got a non-GS and are satisfied. It's easy to just claim we've got sour grapes, but the fact is I wouldn't have jumped if I didn't believe my chances were 95% or very high. And it turns out that little extra that made me take the plunge and buy and absurdly expensive video card was a lie at worst or a miscommunication that is their fault at best. And I don't see what their reseller ratings have to do with anything. I'm gonna rate them on my personal satisfaction, and if YOU don't like it, who asked you?
Well..IDIOT..this is a freaking forum where people post stuff, opinions included. No one asked you either dumba$$
Well, thanks for your opinion, calling me an idiot is really mature. I was trying to say that you just don't understand the position of those who jumped. So, thanks for your opinion, and #$^%$& you too
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 21K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter