3 Answers

Hoping to squeeze a little bit more life out of the battery,so you dont have to get up and change the channel.

Extreme duress.

I think a lot of people mistakenly attribute the remote not working to there being a problem with the remote rather than the batteries being low or dead. I've noticed a lot of times, that if the sun comes through the windows just right, you need to block the sunlight in order for the remote to function at all. Then there are always those people who think if they press harder they'll make it work, and then you end up with a remote you actually do have to push harder to work.

Then, there are always people who can't seem to grasp that they have to select what they are trying to control before actually controlling it. (Not to mention any names, but my wife is well known for this...and then gets mad at the remote!)