I'm giving a five-star review even though there are a couple things that I think could be improved, mainly about the process.
First, the great:
The ring I ordered is stunningly beautiful, and my fianceé and I both love it! It's truly a special item that is very different from traditional *and* modern ring styles. We have nothing but great things to say about the product. The ring I ordered is a bit different than anything else on the website. I liked the ring styles on the website but was interested in ordering something with different stones than those listed in the dropdown boxes on the website, so I emailed their support team asking if they could make a slightly different variation of what was on their website, and they promptly emailed me back with a link to a webpage showing the product variation that I requested (which I think they created and published publicly, based on my very-specific request). We emailed back and forth for a few days, and they were patient and helpful as I worked through making this big decision. I paid the extra ~$150 for expedited processing/shipping, and the ring arrived more promptly as promised. Finally, I feel that Starland's prices are quite competitive, as we would have likely spent 2-3x as much money with a conventional jeweler to get something as unique/novel as the ring we got from Starland.
Finally, the not-so-great:
As indicated above, I'm giving a five-star review despite a few not-so-great issues because the things that ultimately mattered -- the product, the price, and promptness of getting it -- were all outstanding.
First, I was initially concerned that I could not find a phone number for customer support, but they were very responsive by email, typically responding within 12-24 hours. Second, although it's awesome that they slightly "customized" their offerings for me, the shopping process would have been more efficient if they had offered the additional variations already (since it was evidently quick and easy for them to create upon request), or for them to have something on their website encouraging shoppers to email asking about other variations which might be available.
Second, I don't think they told me anywhere on their website, nor in the email confirming my purchase, that they were going to email me a CAD mock-up of the ring, which I needed to approve before they began making the ring. This was nearly a major problem because I don't usually check that email account unless I'm expecting something, and it was a coincidence that I checked my email a few days later and stumbled upon an email from Starland inviting me to reply approving of the mock-up of the ring before they would begin producing it. If I had not checked my email by coincidence, I don't know if they would have called me to follow up, or if the ring would have arrived later than I needed it (and remember -- I paid extra money for expedited processing). It would be great if they would have a required check-box in the checkout process saying something like "I acknowledge that Starland will email me a mock-up of the ring within ___ days after I submit this order, and Starland will not begin producing my ring until I reply to that email confirming my approval of the ring as designed." But again, everything turned out fine.
Third, after proposing and giving my fianceé the ring, I noticed that the ring (which was to have a black center stone with many smaller black stones and white stones around it) was not actually made as I initially expected -- rather, some of the stones that I expected to be black were instead white. Looking back at my emails and the images that Starland emailed to me during my shopping process, I realized that the stones in question were black in the image in an earlier email, but they were black in the final CAD mock-up email that I approved. I can take some of the blame because I did approve the final mock-up which showed the ring as it was ultimately produced, and this also turned out to be another "all's well that ends well" situation, as I think I like it with the expected white stones just as much as I would have liked it with the unexpected black stones.
Fourth, the little decorative felt ring-box in which the ring arrived had a very tacky "STARLAND US" screen-printed on top of the ring box. I wouldn't have minded if it was on the bottom of the ring's felt box, but it really would have looked "cheap" to propose and present the ring in the box which was beautiful and tasteful other than the company's name printed on the top. Fortunately, this was yet another "all's well that ends well" situation because I was easily able to use a pointy metal object to scrape the letters off the top of the box without damaging it in any way.
That concludes my review! The process was not without hiccups and a few near-misses, but ultimately everything turned out perfectly.
