Everything done, I parked my car and got on with my day. That fateful day, when I had to go somewhere, there was a heavy shower. Out I go and press the teeny tiny magical button on the key fob expecting a loud beep, but whats this? no sound! I press the button again and still no response! After a few more presses and a little frustration, I figure the batteries on the fob must have died. I did not have the spare remote with me so I though I’ll go buy batteries. Braving the cold lashing of the rain, I reached the nearby electronics shop and asked for a couple of 3 V button cell. The lady of the shop, without a slightest hint of enthusiasm, hands it to me. I pop it into the remote then and there and head home. As soon as I reached the apartment, I press the unlock button.. no sound I go stand next to the car and press again no response. I wondered if all the water that I splashed went inside the central locking unit and caused a short circuit.

The next thing that I could think of was to open it with the key, pop the bonnet and disable autocop and so I did. No sooner had I inserted the key and turned, the burglar alarm went off. This brought a sense of panic and a sense of relief. Relief because atleast the autocop unit was not faulty!

With the alarm wailing its heart out, I popped the bonnet and got my tool kit out to disconnect the battery terminal but what is this! No spanner in the toolkit! I waited for close to 15 minutes for the watch man to bring me a spanner as the whole world eyed me with suspicion. Yeah! I looked like I was stealing my own car!

Just as the watchman got me the spanner and I was about to disconnect the battery, a familiar keeenk was heard! yes, the car locked itself when the button on the remote was pressed! What a relief. I thought that is the end of the story but I would discover soon that Moore’s Law isn’t there for nothing!

Many days later after putting in long hours in office, I came out to the parking lot at 11 in the night and discovered that the car would again not open! Knowing what to do now, I quickly called the security guys,  kept the spanner handy, opened and disconnected the battery terminal. My logic was once the power is cut to the unit, it will forget the current state, I can reconnect and then start afresh with an unlocked car, but what I did not know is that the unit will still go off when I reconnect the battery. With nothing else to do, I started driving with the burglar alarm blasting away in the middle of the night on a highway that is constantly monitored by police. With all trust on the office ID card, I hit the road. All through the drive I kept pressing the unlock button on the fob. Suddenly one key press registered and sanity was restored.

Lesson learnt for the day: When the car’s central lock misbehaves, its always wise to manually lock your car. Key less entry can take a hike!

Few days later I got another remote that I had, put in the batteries from the current remote and tested, it worked fine. But i still did not trust it. For days together I locked and unlocked manually with the key. After a few days I called up the Autocop technician at Mangalore and told him my problem. He said there might be some problem with the switches or batteries and that he’ll come the next day and look into it. This got me thinking! I opened up both the key fobs and checked the batteries.

Now comes the revelation! Both the fobs had 3V batteries indeed, but the spare one that still had the original drained batteries had some 2025 etched on it whereas the one that I had replaced were 2016. Upon closer inspection, it was obvious that the 2016 batteries were thinner. I quickly got out to a watch repair shop and got the 2025 batteries. I knew they would be available there because my watch also uses the same batteries. I popped the new batteries in and tested it a couple of times and it worked like a charm

The thinner batteries would not make contact properly and would not complete the circuit which resulted in the remote lock/unlock not working intermittently.

Phew! Finally everything set and life is back to normal!

Tip 1: When your remote locking/unlocking is causing trouble, always use the key to lock. This way, when you unlock with the key, it won’t set off the burglar alarm.
Tip 2: I’m not teaching robbery, but on low end once you open the bonnet, you can simply disconnect the burglar alarm. It is usually a thin wire connected to the black terminal.

Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for whatever you do with your/other’s car.

X posted Here

Abandoned by mother earth,
embraced by depths of the sea.
where is all the mirth,
where is all the glee?

Now I stand inches away from you,
reach out and make me yours.
A life of joy, lets start anew.
This wide world, lets make it ours.

First and foremost let me tell you that I have enjoyed each moment spent with you and will certainly cherish the memories for the rest of my life. Some of my life’s most happy moments have been spent with you by my side. Thanks for being such a wonderful person.

The ups and downs that we went through in the years we spent together have been anything but boring. I’ve seen you transform from a simple and not so certain person that you were when we first met to the confident person you are now. What amazes me is you still are what you were initially, sweet.

Our journey together may end, but you’ll always have the special place in my heart that you had. Thank you again for making my life so happy when we were in each other’s company. May god bless you with all the happiness in the world.

PS: In case you were wondering what the note that flew away in the wind had, it said
“How do you make a great relationship? One moment at a time”

Yours,
V

The site said it was deliverable throughout India at a flat shipping rate. I made the payment through credit card and the order was confirmed, one day later the status is changed to payment recieved, the transaction reflects in my credit card statement, so far, so good.

On the third day, I get a mail saying my order has been cancelled for refund because the shipping address is non-serviceable. This is very funny because the product page clearly said that it ships throughout India. But don’t fret yet! the funny part is yet to come! The mail then went on to explain to me this little *policy* of theirs.

For all orders below 2000 Rs INR, the refund would be given in the form of Gift Coupons! WTF! First, you don’t deliver my order, second you go ahead and bill my credit card and then you expect me to still shop with you?

I immedietly called up the customer care, went through the normal routine of yelling and getting the ‘this is a company policy’ crap. At this point of time I was really annoyed. By chance I poked around a bit on their site and found the email ID of the Operations Head. The comes the interesting part.

I sent a mail to the Operation Head from my work email. The place I work happens to be a big and well known IT company. I sent the same mail as a reply to the earlier cancellation mail I got on my personal email. Next day I get a reply from indiatimes.com and a phone call before i have even opened the mail. The caller informed me that he is sorry for the inconvenience and that he’ll personally ship my order in 3 days. The interesting this is that for the same mail, on my personal email, I again get a regret mail! talk about Brand value!

The order was then promptly delivered within 3 days. Overall, I’m very happy with the escalation and customer satisfaction part of their site but unimpressed by the policies. Will post a separate entry for the Unboxing and review.

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Got a new GB&A electric guitar as gift from

chaitrasuresh

X-Posted at LJ

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Set up a hosting and domain at Expertrio, installed WordPress and Pixelpost. Then installed themes and stuff.
Still figuring out things, need to export my LJ blog and import it here. Have to design the index page.

Meanwhile, checkout my ‘Len’sational

So yeah!  More coming soon!