College ring

[terceslil]

I am graduating Saturday and my gf gave me a class ring for graduation. The school ordered from Balfour, who promised to have the rings ready for the ring ceremony. The rings were supposed to be delivered to the school. The ring ceremony came and went and I didn''t have my ring. Balfour sent it via FedEx, so I got a notice left at my door. I arranged to pick it up from FedEx last Friday. I fought traffic to get there, and after I opened the package, I felt that I should have just left the ring at FedEx. It was awful. It was hideous.

My gf was eager to see the ring, so I didn''t tell her what I thought of it. Instead, I told her I would let her decide when she saw it. She was soooo disappointed. I contacted Balfour, and they suddenly got amnesia about a ring ceremony, or the fact that the ring was supposed to be delivered to the school. They said that the agreement says that the ring takes 6 to 8 weeks to make regardless what we were told by the Balfour representative who sold the rings at the school.

My gf is not happy. She called them about the ring, and tried to describe what is wrong with the ring. For starters, the stone is not level, the sides are illegible, the graduation year is illegible, the degree is illegible, you cannot tell what the images on the side are supposed to be, the color of the ring does not look gold by any means, the ring looks as though it was stamped instead of etched, and the lettering around the stone for my university is off center. That''s just starters for the defects in this ring.

Balfour instructed my gf to complete a form identifying what needs repaired. My gf said that she does not want this ring to be repaired, that she wants a new ring. They said that it will be 4 weeks before she gets the ring back. I believe that she really wants a refund. This entire experience has been terrible. For all of you who have college or high school rings, isn''t half of the enjoyment of the ring about getting it for ring ceremony and to share the comradary with your fellow graduates?

I am kind of over it. It''s in my gf''s hands now. If she chooses to take the refund, and not replace the ring, I would be alright with that. This has left a bad taste in my mouth for Balfour.

BTW, I still have my HS ring. It was made by Jostens. The stone and gold has held up fine despite the abuse I''ve dished out over the years. I thought the Balfour ring would be comparable to the Jostens ring, but I was wrong. When you put the two rings side by side, they are two different animals even though the designs are very similar. The Balfour ring was just a terrible quality along with terrible customer service.

I''ll let you guys know what my gf decides.

BTW - my gf brought the Balfour ring to her work, and her co-workers and boss said the ring looked like it came out of a gumball machine.

I didn''t take pictures of the ring because there''s nothing about that ring that I want to remember. It''s hideous.

 

[chictomato]

Hi terceslil! I am sorry to hear about your bad experience.. Hopefully something can be done?

 

[terceslil]

I''m going to follow up with my gf and see if she has sent the ring back yet. I don''t want to pressure her because I don''t want her to think I am in a hurry. At this point, I don''t even want a Balfour ring. So, we''ll see where she is with the ring.

 

[chrono]

I’m sorry to hear about your bad experience; I hope she pursues the refund route as well since it doesn’t sound like it’ll be worth the time and hassle of getting it remade, especially given the poor customer service.

 

[Indylady]

My university uses Balfour as well. I''m so sorry to hear about your experience; class rings are so expensive as well. I sincerely hope they issue you an apology and a refund.

 

[lavatea]

My school uses Balfour, too. I have decided to have a gemstone ring made for my college ring instead of buying the Balfour ring, but that was mainly due to the cost of the ring (for what it was). My high school ring was made by Balfour, and I loved it. Maybe you just got a bad one?

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Sorry to hear about the bad experience!

My school orders from Balfour as well, but the quality I saw in the display was huging different from the quality they did for my college rings. It''s kind of strange since it''s Balfour for both, but there''s a notable quality difference depending on the school. However, my college only offered 1 ring option, so maybe they paid more attention to detail since there was only one mold? Who knows.

I think I"m also going the gemstone ring route for a graduation ring though.

 

[PumpkinPie]

I`m sorry for your bad experience and disappointment!

 

[Stone Hunter]

So sorry this isn''t turning out to be a fun experience for you. Hope they make things right.

 

[marcy]

How sad and frustrating. I hope they cooperate and things get worked out okay.

 

[terceslil]

I haven't heard anything from them yet. My gf works at a magazine and had the editor of the magazine draft the following letter to Balfour when she sent the ring back. (I thought it would be a good idea to have someone who is impartial describe the ring, because I would have been too emotional about it because I was so upset about it.)

I thought it was very interesting how the editor described the ring.

Dear Sirs;

I would like to express my extreme disappointment with the graduation ring we recently received from your company. First of all, the ring, as per your invoice indicating what we paid for, was supposed to be delivered for the graduation ring ceremony and it was supposed to arrive in a wooden box with a transparent top to display the ring. The ring did not arrive for that ceremony and it was sent to our home two weeks later in a simple plain black felt ring box.

Regarding the ring itself, unless the quality and craftsmanship of the ring can be greatly improved upon, I would like to request a full refund. We purchased the 10K gold version of this ring, and the problems with the ring itself are overwhelming. First, the imprinting on the ring is so poor that even using a magnifying glass, you cannot tell what the symbols on the ring are and most of the writing is completely impossible to decipher. The lettering is so poor it cannot be read at all without a magnifying glass, and even with a magnifying glass, you have to guess at what some of the letters and numbers are. The Southeastern University Lion’s head logo is nothing more than a raised blob that looks like it’s next to a small factory or something. Even the dates on the ring are so poorly imprinted they’re virtually impossible to figure out. Moving on to the green stone atop the ring, the gold “S” imprinted within a circle on the stone is printed off-center and in addition to that, it’s crooked! Then, the stone itself isn’t seated properly in the ring and it looks like some type of black residue, or perhaps glue, is covering part of the stone in the upper corner. In short, I’ve never seen a lower quality graduation ring in my life, and having shown it to everyone in my office, they all agree.

Again, unless there is a way to greatly improve the quality of this ring, I would like a full refund. If you feel a quality ring with the correct presentation case can be produced, naturally, I would like to have what we ordered. I wish to send this ring back, either for replacement with a ring of far superior workmanship, or for a full refund.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

This is what the ring was supposed to look like:

 

[Barrett]

sweet..hope that letter finds it''s mark..sounds good to me..sucks about the hassle..got a pic of the said ring by chance?

 

[StonieGrl]

Oh, that is too bad. I know what you mean, I ordered a class ring same company and when I opened the box my heart just fell, I couldn''t believe a company would send out an item so clearly defective and damaged.

I sent it back and shortly received a very very well done class ring.

Just be very specific and point out every flaw, what you really want is for them to fabricate a brand new ring for you that goes under some QA/QC before they send it to you.

I bet they will make this right, just sorry it wasn''t ready at the appropriate time for you.

 

[loriken214]

Sorry about your ring but, HAPPY GRADUATION!!!

Lori

 

[jstarfireb]

So sorry this happened to you! On the bright side, it''s obvious that your gf really cares about you. My college used Artcarved and my HS used Jostens. I still have both rings and they''re both of very nice quality. It''s too bad you''re stuck with that particular company through your school, because class rings can be really elegant when done right.

 

[terceslil]

I am still waiting to hear from them. It seems like I should have heard from them or that they would have sent me a letter or something, but not a word. I kept my tracking information. They said it may take up to 4 weeks for me to get the ring back. So if I don''t hear anything by then, I guess I''ll start trying to contact them.

 

[Souled In]

Send an email to the CEO and let him know you want a full refund or you will sue them for false advertisement.

An email is a nice way of avoiding having to get stressed out. Sometimes they will ask you to call, and sometimes not.

It also is a good experiment for you to see how it goes, and to also get the confidence from taking care of the situation.

I''d also let them know you will be letting all the school''s they sell to know what they did, with a picture of how bad the rings are, so that they can not continue their business.

For a ring THAT bad, they most likely won''t be able to EVER do it perfect.

However, it is possible that they had a new person do it.

Anything is possible. Don''t be rude if you talk to them, but if they are being an AHOLE, your power doesn''t lie in your ability to cuss and get mad, your power lies in how you can affect their money, and business, as a customer.

If they still won''t, it''s probably not worth the stress of going to schools and giving all the students flyers to spread the news about them being a bad company, and you should probably just let it go. Sometimes in life we are powerless, which is why we need God.