For Those Who Found Us Somewhere Along the Way

We recently came across a Reddit post from about two months ago asking about a sold-out ring on our website and whether our website could be trusted. It's probably a little late to respond now, but it made us think about something we've probably taken for granted over the past few years: how much trust is actually involved in placing an order with a small international store you've never heard of before.

Summer Fling has been around since 2023, and over the past few years we've processed a few thousand orders and shipped to more than 30 countries. I've personally only been to three, a little jealous here tbh.

For quite a long time, most people found us through TikTok first, then Instagram, and eventually our website. We never really thought about it before, but that meant there was usually quite a long process of getting to know us before someone decided to place an order.

You might have seen our videos for weeks or months, read the comments, followed our Instagram, and browsed the website a few times before finally ordering. By then, you already had some idea of who we were.

And ordering from us does require some trust, especially because international orders aren't exactly fast. There is preparation time before shipping, and then the package itself usually has to travel halfway across the world before reaching your front door. International shipping can be unpredictable, and unfortunately we've had packages get lost along the way too.

In those cases, we've always tried to resolve the issue with a replacement or a full refund. To everyone who has had to wait while we checked tracking, contacted the shipping carrier, arranged another shipment or processed a refund, thank you for giving us the time to sort it out.

Over the years, we've also received some interesting feedback.

Someone once told us to die because they couldn't understand why a ring could cost more than $10. We honestly didn't know how to respond to that one. To each their own, I guess.

There was a review about our Lace & Ribbon Rings where the customer felt that the quality wasn't what they expected and that the rings looked or felt like plastic. We were sorry to hear that. Since the review was the first time we heard about the issue, we didn't have a chance to look into the order or see if there was anything we could do.

We don't mind 1- to 3-star feedback. If every review was five stars, it would probably feel a little too good to be true anyway. We just hope that if something isn't right with your order, you'll contact us too and give us a chance to help.

We can't guarantee that a quality issue will never happen. What we can control is how we respond when something goes wrong and customer service is something we genuinely try very hard to do well.

That doesn't mean we always get it right. Sometimes our replies are slower than they should be, sometimes information isn't clear enough, and sometimes what we think is our best solution may still not be good enough for the customer. We're still learning from these situations and trying to improve.

Recently, something else has changed.

More and more customers are finding us directly through Google, and this made us realize that people finding us this way have a very different experience.

If you find us through Google, you might just search for a ring, click on a photo, and suddenly you're on some website called Summer Fling Accessories that you've never heard of before. And now this random website wants your card information and is telling you that your tiny ring might take weeks to arrive from the other side of the world.

Yeah, we understand the hesitation. We've received emails that were quite literally just “r u a scam?” before, so we know some people do have concerns when they first find our website.

We don't expect anyone to blindly trust a website they've never heard of just because we tell them we're trustworthy. If you're new here and still unsure, ask us. Look through our social media, read the reviews, take your time. You can always contact us before ordering if there's anything about a product, material, sizing, shipping or payment that you're unsure about.

And if you've already ordered from us and something isn't right, please talk to us. We may not always have the perfect answer, but we'd like the chance to try.

Thank you to everyone who has been here since the TikTok days, everyone who followed us over to Instagram, everyone who trusted us enough to place an international order, and everyone who waited patiently for a package to travel halfway around the world.

And thank you to everyone who gave us the chance to fix things when something went wrong.

Thank you for being here ♡