Tonguedrum.com

Review: Failure to return 12-Key Pentatonic E Major Drum that had been sent for repair.

I purchased a 12-Key Pentatonic E Major Drum from tongeudrum.com in early December 2012 for $350 plus shipping. The drum was received around 27Dec2012. In February of 2013 I contacted [redacted] via email and told him that the drum seemed to have a lot of cracks in it, and could he repair or replace it. He responded right away, said it was unusual for that to happen, and to send in the drum so he could take a look. I shipped him the drum and insured it should any damage occur in shipping. Per the shipping records he received it 22Feb2013. I contacted him via email repeatedly, asking for a status on the drum, and never heard back from him. I sent him 6 emails between when I shipped the drum and 25April2013, when he finally contacted me about the drum I had returned to him. He said it was out of warranty, and he couldn't fix it, and that the cracks were so big he didn't see how that could have happened so fast. Basically he said he couldnt' give my money back or send a new drum. But he DID say he would do his best to fill the cracks and send back to me. I told him that was fine, I understood if he couldn't do anything, and at this point just wanted the drum back. That was April 25, 2013. It is now July 24, 2013, and I still do not have my drum returned from him. I have again contacted him multiple times both via email and phone and have not gotten any response. I have even told him just to ship the drum back the way it was when I sent to him. It worked, it just didn't sound as good as when we got it. I have gotten no response. So now I have no drum, no refund, and spent additional money to ship it out to him. We had the drum in our possession for about one month. He has had it for 5 months. Desired Settlement: I would like our original drum returned to us, either with the cracks attempted to be filled as he said he would do, or in the condition it was when we sent it out to him. The drum was beautiful, it sounded great. I don't doubt he is a master craftsman at making tongue drums, however he said he would return our drum to us and he has not done so. I didn't want to file a complaint, but feel this is my last option to get our drum back.