when drum companies don't deliver

After sharing my initial testing of the Drumslinger pad, friends on various FB groups warned me that the company had been plagued by delivery issues to the point where people had been waiting over a year for pads they'd ordered and paid for. They warned me that if I were considering buying a pad from the company, my money would be better spent elsewhere.

Similar compaints have been voiced for several years about Xymox, another company whose pads I generally like and which are represented in my collection.
So far, I've found that kindness and good manners go a long way with Xymox. I'm still waiting on a pad I ordered last winter, but I knew that production issues would delay the pad before I placed my order and I was willing to wait. The COVID-19 shutdown has obviously thrown further wrenches into the works, further delaying my pad. I'll post about that pad later.

With Drumslinger, I decided to do a little investigating.

I went to their web site, noted that it hadn't been updated since before Christmas 2019, and emailed them to inquire. I got an email response within an hour, explaining why the web site hadn't been updated ("most pads are now ordered through apps, and the web site is the last to be updated," said a respondent name Bill). I was given a one-time discount code and encouraged to place an order.

The next evening, I decided to go further. I sent another email asking for specifics about differences between a couple of pad models. So far, there has been no response.

At the same time, I sent an email to Rudimental Drumming, a company based in the Netherlands that makes pads of a similar design and price range to Drumslinger. I asked questions about specific differences between pad models and also asked about production time. The very next morning, I received an informative and helpful reply.

Based on ths limited experience, I would be more inclined to order a pad from Rudimental Drumming and wait for the several weeks' turnaround.
Add to this the fact that one of Drumslinger's biggest endorsers publicly ended his relationship with the company and soon became an endorser of RD, and my hunch was confirmed.

So I'll keep the used Drumslinger pad for awhile, and plan to purchase an RD pad for my collection sometime later this summer. I'll compare the two pads and report back.