I/O Magic External Media Writer 52x24x52 does not read SD cards! Irvine California

In December of 2003 I purchased an I/O Magic External Media Writer 52x24x52. After attempting to use the reader as per instructions multiple times, it ultimately corrupted my files requiring me to reformat the card. In doing so I lost the pictures that were on the card.

I then attempted to contact I/O Magic (no 800 number). I stayed on hold for 10 minutes waiting for a live person in tech support until it indicated that I exceeded the time limit and dropped me into VM. I called again to customer support and remained on hold for another 10 minutes until I lost the signal on my cell, and still never talked to a live person. I then went to the I/O Magic site and tried Live Chat and waited for 45 minutes, again, without any response. As I happened to be in Los Angeles (fortunately) where I/O Magic is located I drove an hour, during my vacation, from north LA to Irvine just to talk to somebody in person.

When I met with a I/O Magic employee, he validated that the 6 in 1 reader would not read the SD Card. He swapped the unit for another, however it could not read the card either. He then attempted to read a new SD card and encountered the same issue. Using another unit, this one an internal CD RW with a 6 in 1 reader, it was able to read both SD cards without issue. Ultimately, I was told by the rep that there was nothing he could do further and to contact his manager Fabi Oshaneh.

When I contacted the manager I also confirmed that this unit advertises support for SD cards, and the card used was an SD card. I received a single email response, but without an attempt at resolution (other than to simply return the unit, not to fix it or replace / upgrade it). In the end, I was forced to keep the unit for the CD burning functionality.

I believe I/O Magic's advertising of the unit to be false and misleading as the unit does not support reading SD cards as it advertises. I believe this to be an inherent fault of the unit as the internal 6in1 version has no issue reading the same cards. I purchased the unit for the CDRW, but chose this unit over others given the 6 in 1 reader functionality. If I had the knowledge that the 6 in 1 reader did not function as advertised I would have purchased another cheaper unit with similar CD RW speeds.

I requested I/O Magic send me the additional I/O Magic floppy drive with external 7 in 1 reader (product id: IEFD7N1) shipped to my home free of charge to make up for the missing functionality. Alternatively there is the more expensive replacement of the 7in1 DVD RW unit. Both were ignored by the company and no attempt has been made (other than to simply return it) to compensate me for my issues.

Darin
Sherrills Ford, North Carolina
U.S.A.