Zoara Review

First things first: I recently got engaged. It was obviously a huge moment in my life and something that I thought about for a long time. The first question girls get asked when news breaks of their engagement is: "Can I see the ring?". Most men will deny it, but the fact is nobody wants to have their girl wearing a ring that isn't impressive. With that in mind, the following is the story of how I discovered Zoara.

Online Reviews  

Like everyone else who has embraced the age of the Internet, I spend a fair amount of time online reading reviews before making any big purchases. Obviously, an engagement ring is one of the biggest purchases (both personally and financially) in someone's life, and I wanted to make sure I made the right choice. If you're reading this story, chances are you are in the same boat I was in. And that means that, chances are, early on in your online research you came across the "big boys" of online diamonds. I read about Blue Nile and James Allen for hours. Both sites have hundreds of reviews online, mostly positive, and for a while I felt like the decision would come down to picking between the two.After spending hours reading review after review, I decided it was time to take a break. My head was spinning with information--not to mention playing around with the "build your own ring" function on both sites for hours. It was starting to become overwhelming, so I stepped back from it for a few days. Then a funny thing happened: I thought about how big these two companies are, and how I would be just another faceless customer to them. It didn't feel personal. This is the biggest, most intimate purchase of my life, and I realized that I wanted to work with a company that understood this. Back to the drawing board.

Discovering Zoara

Zoara Loose Diamond Search

I expanded my search, intentionally picking out companies that were beyond page 1 of Google's search results. I was actually very surprised at how many companies were out there to pick from. Review after review, company after company. I sent inquiry emails to a bunch of them, just to see what type of reply I would get and fast it would arrive. This little test ultimately led me to Zoara, and the rest is history.

Prior to that day I had not heard of Zoara, but after digging a little deeper I discovered that they've been around for a few years and have many happy customers vouching for their quality and service. Their website is on-par with their competition for the most part, though I do not expect a smaller company to be able to dedicate the resources required to build a website to compete with a company as large as Blue Nile. I spend a while using their "build your own ring" feature, and I felt it was just as user-friendly as any other site. Easy to mix and match diamonds with ring settings, and after a little while I had settled on the combination I was looking for.

Prices
 One thing I've found to be true in my life: everyone, no matter how much money they have, wants a good deal. Unfortunately, I am not a rich man. I work hard and make an honest living, and at the end of the day I had a budget. At this point, I'm at a crossroads. I'm really liking the customer service and personal vibe from Zoara. Their site is user-friendly and I'm able to find exactly what I'm looking for. It was time to compare prices. I was almost afraid to do it, actually. I figured surely Zoara can't compete price-wise with the big boys. I'm happy to report that I was wrong. I compared Zoara's final price with several other online companies and found that Zoara's pricing was on-par or better than the rest. At this point, I'm sold.

Purchase Experience

I had no issues with my online purchase. As mentioned above, I opted for a build-your-own ring instead of a pre-set ring. If I had opted for a pre-set ring, it would have shipped virtually immediately upon my order being placed. All custom orders like the ones I place here take time to be assembled, and the ring I ordered from Zoara shipped within five business days of my order. This is OK with me, but definitely something to be aware of if you are shopping for a build your own ring.

Zoara shipped via FedEx Overnight shipping (free) and sent me my shipping notification immediately after, including the FedEx tracking number. I was not at home when the first delivery attempt was made, and that evening I received a call from a Zoara representative who just wanted to give me an update and let me know that delivery would be attempted again the next day. I thought that was a nice, personal touch and it was appreciated. I also received a follow-up call after the ring was delivered, asking if everything was OK and also if I had any feedback to offer.

Zoara's packaging is very professional and secure for shipping. The box was very nicely presented, complete with a ribbon around it--another one of the "little things" that make a company stand out (in my opinion, at least). It included the AGS certification, which was also very professionally presented, as you can see from the pictures I've sprinkled throughout this post.

Conclusion
 
I was inspired to write this review after reading similar reviews others have written for the bigger online diamond companies. I received such incredible service and such a high quality ring, I felt compelled to write this thorough review as a way to say thank you to Zoara. At the end of the day, this is one of--if not THE--most important decision of your life and I would never tell someone what to do. You've gotta make the decision that you're comfortable with. I will say that I had an exceptional experience with Zoara, and I would recommend them to anyone. I hope this story helps you out, and if you happen to have any questions feel free to email me and ask away. Good luck!