I have bought many items, mostly jewelry, from HSN over the past five years. I noticed that most of the eopinions reviews on HSN are a few years old, and based on the some of the reviews and comments I get from people when I tell them something I'm wearing came from HSN, apparently the channel used to have some problems. My own experience with them has been 99.9% good. The jewelry is top quality for the price - you can't expect a $150.00 HSN ring to look like a $5,000.00 Tiffany ring, but you can count on getting a very good value for your money. I have comparison priced my HSN jewelry with identical items from the same manufacturers in local department and jewelry stores, and the price I paid at HSN is always at least 40% lower.

Just during the five years I've been an HSN shopper, HSN has done a good job of upgrading their jewelry selection. They dropped a lot of their 10K gold items, and now we have a good selection of 14K, a growing selection of 18K, and even a few 24K items (though I would advise you to go to ShopNBC for 18K and 24K, since they have the best prices). HSN sells a lot of unusual and beautiful gemstones I had never heard of before I watched their shows. The jewelry shows are also very educational, since some of the hosts have built up their expertise in gemstones - I recommend the shows with hosts Colleen Lopez, Bill Green and Connie Craig. Dan Dennis was head and shoulders above them all, a true expert, but he left HSN to start his own jewelry line. HSN has a wide selection of ring sizes, bracelet sizes and necklace lengths, things you just can't find in your local stores. The only thing they need to add is some size 4 rings for those of us who like pinky rings or have very slender fingers.

Concerning other products, I have ordered one piece of fitness equipment, the "Hang-Ups" inversion table (you lie on it at an incline, or you can hang upside down) and found that it is a sturdy, well-made piece of equipment. It is helpful for releasing tension in the shoulders and for backaches. I have ordered a few cosmetics from the Signature A line of Adrienne Arpel, and found them to be good quality. Although I have returned a few products because they didn't look as nice as they did on TV, every product has been average to above average quality compared to products in local stores.

Customer service is generally good. I have had no problems with returns or refunds. I have used HSN's "flex pay" option, where they spread your payments over a few months, and have had no problems with the credit card billing. I do think it is somewhat cumbersome to place a telephone order with a live representative - it just takes too long - so I always use the automated telephone ordering system, which works fine. If I have one gripe, it's that HSN does accept payment by personal check, but the hosts seldom mention that. In fact I watched HSN for six months (off and on) before I placed my first order because it took that long for a host to mention that they accepted check payments. I have a credit card but prefer to pay as I go. I have shopped at their web site, hsn.com (a very good online store), but I guess that review would belong in the eopinions section about online stores.

If you haven't shopped at HSN in a long time, try them again. I think you'll see that they have made a great effort to improve their presentations and their merchandise. Don't worry about the aggravating little time counter in the corner of the screen, when the host says "only two minutes left to shop on this item" - you can buy that product anytime they have it in stock. Just call up and give them the item number, or locate the product on hsn.com. Even if they say on the air that the item is sold out, you can often get it a couple of weeks later because some of the people who ordered it didn't send their checks or had their credit cards declined. Besides, if a small quantity of the product stays in inventory a long time, they mark it down to a really good sale price - look on hsn.com.

Recommended: Yes

Average Program Rating: TV G -- general audiences