Balfour Review

Wednesday, May 25th

2022 Class Ring Company Reviews

Balfour

• "A+" Better Business Bureau rating
• Spread payments over 3 months
• Convenient gifting options
• Slim, modern design options
• Limited lifetime warranty

Balfour is one of the largest commencement service companies that provides personalized products such as apparel, jewelry, yearbooks, graduation caps and gowns, announcement products, and photography. They are known all throughout North America with about 5,000 team members. Balfour also owns and operates GradImages, University Photo, Gaspard, ArtCarved, KeepSake and Taylor Publishing Company.

Sleek, modern options

Balfour has a selection of high school and college rings. The categories include the Kendra Scott Collection, University Collection, Journey Collection, Flourish, Prevail, Essence, Identity, Legend, Honor, and Standard. Right away we noticed that they have options for slim, modern designs that might appeal to some people who don't want a classic chunky looking class ring. The Kendra Scott, University, and Journey Collections have styles that wouldn't initially appear to be class rings, but rather slim, dainty, pretty accent rings with center stones.

Unnecessary extra steps

There are hundreds of rings to choose from at Balfour, so you're sure to find a style you like. Once you select a ring design, you have to type in your school and then Balfour shows a list of rings available to you. We wish you could just view all of the rings at once. If you want to narrow down your options, we suggest doing so by price since some of the rings start at over $600.

Upgrade options

On top of base prices, you'll have the option of upgrading your stones to real diamonds, which is a few extra hundred dollars. You can also upgrade the metal type, and finish. Lastly, you'll select the design of the sides, center stone color, and fill out whether or not you want an engraving. If you need to spread your ring payments out, Balfour allows you to do so over the span of 3 months.

Shipping varies based on location and school

The estimated delivery for most rings is 4-8 weeks. All high school rings are shipped directly to your local school representative and often subject to ring ceremony events if your school has one. For specific delivery dates, high school students will have to work through their representative. Rings for college students are shipped straight to their home and require a signature upon delivery. Shipping costs are based on if orders are individually or bulk shipped to a school or straight to the customer, but you should expect to pay about $20 for shipping.

Easy gift option

If you're wanting to give a class ring as a gift, Balfour makes it easy. You simply pick the jewelry style and send a personal gift message via email or text to the recipient. They'll receive a link to the jewelry and can customize the jewelry however they like. Once the design is finalized, you'll receive a link to go online and complete the purchase.

Limited warranty

If you're unsatisfied with your Balfour ring, you can't return it for a refund, but you can work with customer service to have it repaired to meet your needs. All class rings come with a limited lifetime warranty that ensures Balfour will replace your ring one time within a 4-year period for a fraction of the cost, not including diamonds, champion rings, or genuine stones.

Room for improvement

Although Balfour has an "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau, their customer reviews aren't great. A few complaints say customer service is rude, the quality of their rings is bad (receiving a ring with an upside down and backwards engraving, wrong stone colors, wrong sizing), incorrect order updates, and more. The number of frustrating reports from buyers is concerning and enough for us to suggest going elsewhere for class rings. It may not be worth dealing with poor customer service or risking issues with your ring that has to be sent back and fixed.