Balfour Review

Thursday, December 5th

2024 Class Ring Company Reviews

Balfour

• Priced from $429.99 to $2,533.95
• From 47 to 66 ring styles in stock
• Men's and women's rings
• Large selection of college and high-school rings
• Repair with purchased warranty
• Shipping around $20
• "A+” rating and accreditation from the BBB

Balfour stands out as one of the largest companies in the commencement services realm, offering a variety of personalized products that include apparel, jewelry, yearbooks, graduation caps and gowns, announcement products, and photography. Balfour has gained recognition throughout North America. The company's portfolio includes GradImages, University Photo, Gaspard, ArtCarved (another service in our review), KeepSake, and Taylor Publishing Company. Balfour is known for graduation-related rings, so you'll have no trouble finding them here.

Choose your school to get started

There are two ways to get started at Balfour. You can either jump right into items sold by your school or university with the "Shop My School” tab or you can head directly to the "Class Jewelry” page. However, no matter where you want to start, you'll have to put in your school name to move forward. There are some other difficulties, such as even if you've put in your school name, you may be asked to do so again if you go back to the home page, which can add an extra frustrating step to browsing. Further, if you have multiple students (and they're at different schools), moving between schools on Balfour is a hassle and makes the process very lengthy.

Around 47 to 66 rings depending on school

Since you can't see how many rings are available from Balfour without putting in your school first, we searched for two universities to compare the selections (one private university, Rollins College in Florida, and a public university, the University of Michigan). For both universities, we found "traditional” class rings and separate styles under the "university collection.” For Rollins (the private school) there were 66 styles. For Michigan (the public school) there were 42 total options, showing that the size and popularity of the school doesn't have much bearing on the number of ring styles. However, being able to buy officially licensed rings from both universities was a huge plus. Only the traditional style rings could be limited by gender, with Rollins offering 25 men's rings and 28 women's rings while Michigan had 10 men's and 23 women's.

Slightly different metals depending on ring style

Balfour offers upgrade options, allowing you to customize your rings. We checked out how customizable both the traditional rings and the "university collection” rings are. There were plenty of metals for both styles including sterling silver (university collection only), argentium, 10K-18K white gold, 10K-18K yellow gold, 10K-18K rose gold, and celestrium, and a black material called "Balfour fusion” available on the traditional rings. You can also get raw, natural, or antique finishes (with raw and natural incurring an upcharge). The side designs include your year of graduation if you want to add it. Finally, you can add an interior engraving, a ring-loss protection plan, and whether you're a current student or an alumnus (which will be added to your design).

Prices from $429.99 to $2,533.95

To compare the price at Balfour to other retailers in our review, we looked at men's and women's rings across the site (at their starting prices). Since Balfour doesn't like you to shop without adding your school first, our prices are based on the two universities we added to try out the design tool. On top of men's and women's styles, we also looked at the most expensive ring with all the add-ons, and the least expensive ring with only the basic design elements. Here's how it shook out on Balfour:

• Women's rings: $529.99 to $700 (we noticed that the most expensive style for women was the same ring for Rollins and U of M, but the Rollins ring was almost $150 more)
• Men's rings: $429.99 to $1,189
• Least expensive ring: University of Michigan Ann Arbor North Carolina Wilmington Men's Legend SignetCollege Ring in Balfour Fusion (Black) for $529.99
• Most expensive ring: Tallulah Ring - Rollins College in 18K Rose Gold for $2,533.95

At Balfour, every metal increases the total cost, so the baseline prices will always go up when you add modifications.

Get your ring in under 8 weeks

The estimated delivery time for most rings is 4-8 weeks, though some rings have a shipping time of 6-8 weeks depending on the customizations you choose. You can find specific shipping times on each product page. High school rings are shipped to the local school representative, so you may get a different shipping time from your school. College rings are shipped directly to the customer's home, requiring a signature upon delivery. Shipping costs depend on those same delivery options (to the school or to your home) with an average cost of around $20.

No refund policy

If your Balfour ring doesn't meet your expectations, you have the option to reach out to the local Balfour representative. However, Balfour doesn't offer any kind of refund policy due to the rings being personalized, though Balfour does promise to collaborate with you to fix a custom piece if you don't like it when it arrives. For lost or replacement rings, you'll need to purchase the extra protection plan during checkout to be eligible for a new ring.

Discrepancies in delivery are a problem

Despite an "A+" rating and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau, customers have reported issues ranging from rude customer service to poor ring quality, including engraving errors, incorrect stone colors, and sizing discrepancies. Plus, compared to some of the more popular ring sites, Balfour only has a handful of customer reviews. The complaints on the BBB site show that many customers are frustrated that the ring on the site looks nothing like the real thing when it arrives. Others left complaints about the customer service and warranties that weren't honored.

Too many problems to rank higher

When you see the concerning reviews alongside the frustrations of using the Balfour website, it becomes clear that this may not be one of your top options for class rings. Overall, there seems to be a need to improve customer service and quality control, as well as more customer-focused policies regarding warranties. For these reasons, it gets a lower rating in our review.