Last week when it was so cold, our friends told us about their experience. It’s now going to serve as a public service announcement from me to you and here’s why.
They went from Columbus to a warm climate and left their car for about a week. Now, it was single digit temperatures when they parked it outside in the lot at the airport and the weather got even worse while they were gone. Who would know how bad it was going to be? They had left their car outside many times, but this time there was a problem when they returned. Of course, all the time they were enjoying their great vacation, they had no idea things weren’t going to be good when they returned home.
Their plane was on time and when they got to Columbus the couple hopped on the shuttle bus, which takes you to your car. Quickly, they unloaded all of their travel gear and went to the car. On arrival they discovered the fob, which usually opens the car, wouldn’t work. The first thought of the husband was … I must have mixed up my fob with the one of my host, where they had been staying. They both drive the same make car. Oh no!
His next move was to call a friend, who lives near his home and ask him to get the other fob and bring it to the airport. Since it was only 12 degrees outside, the couple loaded their golf clubs and other bags back onto a shuttle bus and returned to the terminal to wait for the rescuing fob to arrive.
Calling their host family seemed like the right thing to do. The husband said, “ We have one of your fobs and you must have one of ours. They must have been mixed up and here’s a ‘heads up’, one of those won’t work on your car.” OK, that must have been disturbing. The hosts decided to check it out. But both the fobs they had worked in their own car. They had the correct ones. So, now what was the problem?
The friends called the stranded couple and told them…. our fobs work. So then the discussion continued. What could be wrong? And it was still so cold outside. Plus it wasn’t simple to just go right back to the car and test the fob again.
Then their friends suddenly remembered, “You know, we have a key in our fobs. All you have to do is get it out. But how do you do that?”
I can remember that my fob also has a key in it and when I purchased the car I remember a demonstration about how to get it out. That’s the kind of thing that you just don’t pay any attention to. When would you ever need to get a key out of the fob to get into your car? I can’t imagine that, except now in this situation it would’ve been helpful.
So on the phone together they began to figure out how to get the darn key out. Apparently you push a button and wiggle something and suddenly there’s the key. Oh, that was an exciting event and now the couple could put all their travel gear in the car and figure out what was wrong. Now back at the car, they looked at the door and for the first time realized there’s no hole for a key to go in.. at least, one that is obvious.
As I remember, that fact may be something my salesman did not discuss with me. I remember he only told me about getting the key out, but not where do use it on the car.
The really frustrated and cold couple went to YouTube to find the demonstration and the host couple contacted their car dealership for help and here’s what they were told. Pull on the door handle with your left hand and with your right hand reach in and slide the little rectangle on the right of the handle and the place for the key will appear. After this was done the key was placed in the door handle and immediately they’re in the car.
Several things now accomplished, but all was still not good! The car battery was apparently dead! That’s probably why the fob didn’t work in the beginning. Now it’s still 12 degrees, but someone is miraculously available in that parking lot to charge their car. In a few minutes the car is charged and they are headed home.
It was a rough ending to a nice trip, but at least it was in the middle of the day when they could get help more easily. So, several things to learn here, don’t count on your car starting if it’s 0 degrees repeatedly during the time you’re gone and you’ve left your car outside. Second, many fobs have a key and you can use it to get in your car. That would’ve been helpful to this couple because they could have put their travel gear in the car, at least, and returned to the terminal. And thirdly, slide that little rectangle on the handle by pulling on the handle with your left hand and using your right hand to move that little rectangle over. Consider this story my good deed for the week. Oh, I hope you never need all this information!
(Melanie Behrens- melb@marysvillejt.com)