Credit where it’s due - when I asked for a Teal debit card so I could do Post Office deposits, I had mine in about 36 hours after requesting as well. Can’t fault that at all. Still prefer the old colour (and embossed) card, but that’s purely a personal preference, not a service issue at all.
The most frustrating thing with Starling over the last six months has been the continued lack of updates to merchant images and information - I used to send them a tonne of updates (name and location as well as images), all of which were/are ignored. Monzo in comparison remains pretty good on this. It might take a week or so, but they get done. I’ve had Starling still fail to update stuff I submitted to them six months ago, so it’s not even a backlog issue.
The first time I used my Starling card abroad (Turkey, 2017) it let me down constantly, as only one of the two major card processing platforms in Turkey recognised it (the other declined/failed every transaction). Monzo worked fine on both. However, since then I’ve found both cards to be equally reliable abroad, and Starling’s more generous limits make it my preferred option for travelling if I’m away for more than a day or so.