Just a side note reference CF card slots by Akasa. I bought a 2.5 drive bay card reader from Scan a while back and the CF slot pins got bent the very first time I used it.

As you quite rightly say, it's laughable to claim it's user damaged, the design of the slot is such that this is impossible. I think some of the Akasa stuff is poor quality. I like CF because the media itself is tough, but it does seem the readers are a little fragile.

I didn't return it because I had another CF slot on a another device and commonly use the other slots and connectors on the reader and didn't want to get bogged down with the Scan RMA process for such a small item.