My Personal Review of Panda Drum

Are you looking to buy a tongue drum in the coming days or hours? Have you noticed an offer from the Panda Drum brand that seems interesting? Are there any reviews of Panda Drum?

I personally own more than 20 tongue drums from a wide variety of brands, which I play regularly. I recently considered placing an order on the Panda Drum website, so I can share my opinion and conclusions about this seller with you.

By reading this short article, you will learn more about:

• The identity of the Panda Drum company
• The quality of the instruments sold by this brand
• My advice about this store

This will give you all the information you need before purchasing a steel tongue drum from this online store.

Now, let’s get straight to the point.

Who is behind the Panda Drum store?

When you’re buying online from a business for the first time, it’s essential to build real trust. That’s why, when you’re thinking of buying a tongue drum—or anything else, for that matter—you should always check the legal notice page and the terms and conditions of sale, which must be available and freely accessible to all visitors. They’re usually found at the bottom of the website. For any e-commerce business, the law requires the seller to be clearly identifiable by providing its name, address, a government registration number, a phone number, a VAT number, and an email address. This obligation applies to all merchants, even if they are based abroad compared to their customers.

At the time of writing, clicking the “terms and conditions” link for the Panda Drum brand, accessible at the bottom of each page of the website, reveals that the company behind this brand is “YIN YANG PANDA STORE LLC,” a company registered in the State of Delaware in the United States at the address “8 The Green Ste R19901 Dover.” A quick search on this address shows that it’s the main address of the company “A Registered Agent, Inc,” accessible at: https://www.delawareregisteredagent.com/, which offers a service to set up companies in the state of Delaware for just under $200. The sales claims on their website state:

• "When you set up your company with us, this is the address that appears on your incorporation documents."
• "Want to set up a company in Delaware from abroad? No problem. We set up many companies in Delaware for non-US residents."
• "Delaware offers tax advantages and exemptions, but our state also has very favorable commercial laws, including a court system designed specifically for businesses."

As a result, you can find dozens of other companies, unrelated to Panda Drum, that list this exact Delaware address as their headquarters. The terms and conditions also clearly state that the Delaware address is not a return address, suggesting it’s used primarily as a registered-agent/business address.

Furthermore, when consulting Panda Drum's Facebook page, the mandatory transparency information tells us that the person or people managing this account live in Poland. This could indicate that the owner or owners of this Delaware-based company reside there.

Apart from the company name and a Delaware address, you won’t find any other information about Panda Drum—no registration number, no phone number, no store-owner identity, and no VAT registration number.

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What are Panda Drum's selling points?

Now, let’s analyze all of the arguments put forward by Panda Drum to promote its percussion instruments:

• 70,000 customers : the Panda Drum website states that more than 70,000 customers have already placed orders for one or more of their instruments. According to the France-Verif tool , I note that pandadrum.fr was created on September 26, 2023 , and that in two months, at the time of writing, this store claims to have already fulfilled more than 70,000 orders for tongue drums alone. That surprises me, since the tongue drum market is still fairly niche today. In fact, this instrument remains largely unknown to the general public.

• Up to 50% off : when I first discovered Panda Drum in October 2023, the displayed prices showed an average discount of around 40%. For example, the Panda Drum Pro model was listed at $229.95 instead of $329.95. As of December 2023, these promotions are still online, meaning the reduced prices have been in place for more than 30 days. That raises questions about the store’s compliance with the European “Omnibus” regulation , which prohibits permanent “sale” pricing in order to protect consumers.
• Customer reviews : regarding customer reviews, on the sales page for all Panda Drums, there is a banner featuring three portraits of women accompanied by their reviews and first names. They are Amanda, Amélie, and Josette . Panda Drum also has English and German versions at pandadrum.com and pandadrum.de. The layout of the site is broadly the same as the French version. However, the three portraits no longer feature Amanda, Amélie, and Josette, but Amanda, Anne, and Elizabeth for the English site and Saskia, Anja, and Ursula for the German site , even though the photographs are the same. I find this troubling, as it is prohibited to modify a review under consumer protection laws .
  I was also surprised to recognize an American influencer named Shere McLean in the middle portrait. She has not been active on social media for several years, and I could not find any trace of her testing the Panda Drum . However, she did present various products, such as in the video below, where she talks about a bathroom accessory. In any case, her name is not Amélie, Anne, or Anja:
  
  
  Finally, on the Panda Drum Plus sales page, the same photo appears in the online-review section—only now she’s identified as Kathrina V., with a review dated January 26, 2023. Since the site wasn’t even created until September 2023, the timing is hard to explain.
  In addition, accessible from the main page, there are other customer reviews on the Panda Drum website, including one where a blonde woman is sitting smiling in front of a fireplace with her two children. This woman is presented as Anna Dupont, a dietitian, and gives her opinion on the Panda Drum. However, on the English Panda Drum website, she is named Ashley Thompson. In reality, I also know this person, as she is actually the American influencer Amelia Keller, who promotes multiple products through her social media accounts and a blog called "Squeaks and Cheeks." You can find her Instagram account here. According to her public professional profile, she is not a dietitian, but she currently produces advertising content for her own account and for the American company Billo. I have found no trace of a Panda Drum product on her social media accounts. As in the previous reviews, her name is neither Ashley nor Anna. You can see her presenting an immune booster in the video below:
  
  
  Finally, I note that Panda Drum shows a customer rating of 4.8/5 on their website, but the underlying reviews unfortunately can’t be viewed. I’d be interested in seeing them. In addition, the Panda Drum Facebook page has been configured to not allow customer reviews.
• A handcrafted instrument : on the Panda Drum homepage, you will see the phrase words "Handmade tongue drum ." Considering the technique and time required to make a drum by hand, I am surprised that Panda Drum can offer such inexpensive drums . In this price range, drums are typically produced by large machines equipped with lasers that cut the metal, whereas handmade drums are usually finely tuned with metal saws. With manual work, the cuts take much longer, which drastically increases the final price of the tongue drum.
  In addition, on the Panda Drum Pro page, you can see a video advertisement. From the 32nd to the 35th second, it says "Handcrafted from high-quality alloy steel," showing a craftsman tuning a tongue drum with a hand-held metal saw and a tuner . These few seconds also appear in the video advertisements for the Panda Drum Plus and Panda Drum Mini.
  At first glance, the tongue drum the craftsman is working on does not appear to be a Panda Drum, as the shape of the tongues is different. And this is indeed the case, as I am familiar with this brand of tongue drum and it is an instrument made by MOISAI, a Lithuanian company that handcrafts tongue drums. On March 17, 2022, MOISAI posted a video on its YouTube channel showing how its instruments are made. It turns out that the video clip from the Panda Drum ad comes directly from the MOISAI video , as you can see in the video below:
  
  
  Using footage from another brand to promote your own is surprising, and I don’t know whether MOISAI gave consent. Out of curiosity, I contacted Panda Drum’s customer service to learn more about their manufacturing methods. Two months later, I have not received a response.
• Donations to help children : according to Panda Drum, 1% of their sales are donated to help children in need. Unfortunately, you won’t find any proof of this commitment on the store, nor even the name of the organization supposedly receiving the donations . Given what has been discussed above, I would have been interested to know which associations receive these donations.
• Panda Drum, a registered trademark : another element is the ® logo placed just after the Panda Drum brand name. This logo means that the brand has been registered by its owner with the relevant authorities. After searching the WIPO global trademark database, I found that Panda Drum was registered on January 3 , 2023 , by a Norwegian company called "Hydra Enterprise AS" with the help of a lawyer based in California. According to the Norwegian government website, this company was struck off on April 17, 2023 , due to bankruptcy . It’s surprising to see a trademark registered by a dissolved company being used by another business. Furthermore, the Norwegian company was owned by Marek Mieszko Olszewski , the same individual who asked me to remove this notice about the Panda Drum trademark under threat of legal action. Since information about US companies is often hidden to promote anonymity, it is not possible to say for sure that these two companies have the same president, but I strongly believe that this is the case, especially since November 2024, when I received a complaint from Panda Drum asking me to remove the name of Marek Mieszko Olszewski in order to respect his privacy.
• Free return of the instrument : The sales pages clearly state that returns are free within 30 days. However, according to the refund policy on the Panda Drum website, return shipping costs are non-refundable and must be paid by the customer. Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier, I was also unable to find an address to which the return should be sent . Given that the customer may be responsible for the return shipping costs, I would have liked to know which country to send the Panda Drum back to if I didn’t like it. International shipping can quickly cost $20 to $30 depending on the weight, so I reached out to Panda Drum to clarify the return address and who would cover the fees. To date, I have not received a response from their customer-service department.

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What has my personal experience with this tongue drum store been like?

Panda Drum currently offers three distinct tongue drum models: the 8-note Panda Drum Original, the 11-note Panda Drum Plus, and the 15-note Panda Drum Pro. It’s worth noting that all three Panda Drums are tuned to 432 hertz, whereas most other musical instruments are tuned to 440 hertz, and harmonious playing requires instruments to share the same tuning.

According to Panda Drum, tuning the drums to 432 hertz is explained by the fact that it is "a frequency recognized for its sound healing properties." Personally, I do not believe in this theory. While no instrument can replace medically proven treatment, tongue drums—like any musical instrument—can offer comfort and support during challenging times, such as serious illness.

I have not ordered a tongue drum from this store, so I am not familiar with the quality of the products offered for sale by Panda Drum and have not been able to assess their customer service.

So, what’s my overall take on this “zen drum” seller?

I couldn’t find all the information I needed to place an order on this site. In particular, I couldn’t find a return address in case I wanted to exercise my right of withdrawal, and when I visited their store, the consumer mediator was not listed on the Panda Drum website either. As a result, I wasn’t able to place an order, so my opinion is based solely on the factual elements above. I don’t have enough information to form a firm, definitive judgment about this seller.

For your next musical instrument, Instruments du Monde is here to help

A tongue drum can easily cost dozens or even hundreds of dollars, so it’s important not to jump on the first offer you see, even if it looks very appealing. That’s why reading brand reviews is essential.

I personally recommend the French company Instruments du Monde, which offers high-quality instruments and responsive customer service that’s attentive to customer needs. In addition, more than 100 models of this percussion instrument are available, including the fabulous tank drum by April Yang.

Discover this wonderful tongue drum right now by clicking on the image below:

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Why not read my other review of Karma Drum, another percussion-instrument brand? This company claims to specialize in tongue drums designed for children with autism. Or, if you’d like to learn more about this beautiful instrument, read our comprehensive guide.