Herff Jones Review

Thursday, December 5th

2024 Class Ring Company Reviews

Herff Jones

• Priced from $549 to $2,570
• Up to 74 ring styles in stock
• Men's and women's rings
• College, high school, and fashion rings
• Lifetime warranty
• "A+” rating and accreditation from the BBB

Initially crafting class rings, medals, pins, and emblematic jewelry, the company known as Herff Jones (established in 1920) has evolved over the years to encompass a wide range of graduation-related items. From yearbooks and graduation announcements to diplomas, caps and gowns, and diploma frames, Herff Jones provides a one-stop shop for graduation necessities. With manufacturing facilities spread across the United States, the company takes pride in contributing to commencement ceremonies for colleges and high schools in the U.S. and Canada. Beyond graduations, Herff Jones extends its product offerings to include grade schools, middle schools, churches, sports teams, movie studios, and even courtrooms.

Choose your school to start

To get started, Herff Jones requires that you put in your university. You can't continue shopping unless this step is completed. This is a little disappointing as many universities aren't included in the lineup, like several major universities in Florida (both private and public). If your school isn't included, Herff Jones says that you can contact a sales rep. However, it's much more hassle than at some of its competitors. Unfortunately, Herff Jones also lacks detailed product information on class rings, such as shipping costs and estimated delivery dates, without providing billing information, and clear timelines for manufacturing are also missing.

Between 10-41 ring styles

Since we couldn't look at any rings unless a school was inputted, we used one of the largest schools in the Midwest to see how many rings were available at Herff Jones. The rings available for the University of Michigan included traditional styles, men's and women's styles, and some unique fashion rings too. There were a total of 41 rings at Herff Jones with 25 of those being for women and 16 of them for men. We also checked out rings for the University of Florida and found only 10 ring styles available, so the number of rings can vary greatly depending on your school. There are a lot more rings if you check the high-school section with 74 different rings in that section.

All designs require more money

Customization options include selecting the metal and finish, stone color, cut, personalizations, and engraving font. One of the most frustrating parts of Herff Jones is that the prices feel a little like false advertising. When you go into the designer, the base price basically goes out the window as every metal choice requires an upcharge. You can get aurista and silver for the lowest cost (but not included in the price), while the rest of the metals are white gold, yellow gold, and crimson gold.

Prices starting from $549 to $2,570

At each retailer, we looked at men's and women's college rings. This way you can see the starting prices for rings that fit your finger or style (although the prices will go up if you add customizations). We also searched for the most and least expensive rings to give you a ballpark for your price expectations. Here's what we found at Herff Jones:

• Women's rings: $549 to $864
• Men's rings: $638 to $685
• Least expensive ring: Miniature ring (Extreme Silver) for $735
• Most expensive ring: Women's Asteria ring (18K White Gold) for $2,570.00

This was one of the only stores that didn't include the metal cost in the base price (reflected in the men's and women's price ranges), so the least expensive ring was more than the listed base price once silver was selected during design.

No estimated delivery

During our research, we couldn't find a single mention of shipping times. We even completed the entire checkout sequence to see if a shipping estimate would be provided there, and we found nothing. Once a class ring is received from Herff Jones, returns are not accepted for changes of mind. However, the company does offer you a lifetime warranty. This means you can get repairs for workmanship issues, typically getting your ring back within a 2-3 week period.

Disappointing one-stop shop

Despite holding an "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau, customer reviews show a different story for Herff Jones. On third-party review sites like Sitejabber, the site has an average rating of 1 star out of 5. Yikes! Complaints include slow delivery, lack of communication regarding order arrival, challenging customer service experiences, and orders with mix-ups or manufacturing errors. The complaints cover every aspect of Herff Jones, not just class rings, so this one-stop shop might be a place to put near the bottom of your list.

Low customer ratings raise too many red flags

While the selection of high-school rings at Herff Jones is impressive, the online ratings are consistently low. This concerning detail leaves us with a lot of questions about whether or not you want to trust a timeless keepsake like your class ring to a company that may or may not deliver on time. At the end of the day, timing and trustworthiness are a big deal, and that along with the limited options for college rings puts Herff Jones significantly behind the competition.