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Fans Unsatisfied with Drop’s Explanation for Panda Headphones’ Indiegogo Campaign

Marvin Velasco
Marvin Velasco
Marvin Velasco
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A print publication person at heart, Marvin's career has officially transitioned from offline magazines to online outlets. He’s into traveling, music, and film photography, which blend well together.
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The Panda headphones retail for $399, but you could get them cheaper at Indiegogo (From: Drop)
The Panda headphones retail for $399, but you could get them cheaper at Indiegogo (From: Drop)

Refunds will eventually be given out.

The Panda headphones retail for $399, but you could get them cheaper at Indiegogo (From: Drop)
The Panda headphones retail for $399, but you could get them cheaper at Indiegogo (From: Drop)

After confusing fans of the upcoming Panda headphones with a sudden launch through Indiegogo, Drop has issued a statement to clear the air. The thread on its official website answers many of the questions, but potential customers are still doubting the company’s intentions behind the crowdfunding move.

A brief refresher: Drop had planned mass production for its new Panda headphones, which are made in collaboration with THX. But the company then decided to place its product on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform, subsequently confusing those who expected to purchase through Drop’s own website.

A Reddit thread pointed this out and dished out some speculation as to what could have prompted Drop’s move. Fortunately, the guessing can stop there, because the audiophile brand issued a formal statement regarding the shift in strategy.

Setting the Record Straight

Drop took to the discussion thread on the Panda headphones’ product page to answer the most urgent questions. It began with the most obvious one: why Drop is launching through Indiegogo.

”We chose Indiegogo as an experiment to reach a significantly larger and different community in addition to our members here at Drop. Our primary goal with the Panda headphone is to make the world’s best-sounding wireless headphone, but we also want to make it accessible to a wider and more diverse audience.”

They go on to explain that regardless of where you purchase the headphones online, Drop itself will handle the manufacturing, shipping, and product support. However, fans didn’t understand why the crowdfunding site has a cheaper shipping fee as compared to Drop’s official channel. The company had to admit some fault.

”This was an oversight and not our intention. We will be refunding the difference for anyone whose shipping charges on Drop.com were higher than the prices on IGG.”

Finally, concerning the Panda headphones’ appearance on Drop’s official website, the company representative could only say that it’s best to purchase through Indiegogo before it’s too late.

”Panda will be available on Indiegogo from January 27th 6am PT through February 11th 11:59pm PT. To ensure you get a pair at the existing prices, make sure and purchase within this time frame. Any other production runs are to be determined in the future.”
A closer look at what makes the Panda headphones tick (From: Drop)
A closer look at what makes the Panda headphones tick (From: Drop)

Some Still Aren’t Satisfied

The thread was unfortunately flooded with negative comments about the manufacturer’s approach to the planned launch. Some were concerned about the shipping fee, while others wanted to know more about Drop’s reasoning.

”The reasoning for the perk choices is also extremely disingenuous. As I’ve said elsewhere, you should simply have had one price, one date; none of this nonsense with special pre-orders or paying more for earlier delivery of a non in-stock product. Yes, I’m salty, but my salt is fully justified,” said user Joe405.
”The choice to use IndieGoGo is very suspicious considering that Drop already has their own entire payment infrastructure in place. The main difference, to me as a consumer, is that buying on Drop guarantees I’ll get my thing or there’s a refund while IndieGoGo does not,” wrote user DRaGZ.
”Could not have botched this launch any more. No notification of pre-orders on drop to users who specifically followed this product; ‘selling’ on IndieGoGo where product delivery and refunds are not guaranteed; eventually sending out an email with the wrong link. Someone needs to take the reins away from the marketing department so we can get this drop back on track,” wrote user take-my-money.

The next step would be to wait for the product to actually arrive at doorsteps. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see how Drop is going to produce enough headphones in time for the renewed deadlines and expectations.

The next step would be to wait for the product to actually arrive at doorsteps.

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