Many thanks for your comments. It is an essentially new clock which should be under warranty. There was no indication in the manual that I needed to include any money.
Given the schedule issues you mention, I will try and be patient and be satisfied with my Excalibur and hope that in fact I will see the clock again some time in the future.
Richard
You could try asking the city of Mountain Viewâs dept of commerce for an address. Its a long shot, but they might have a non P.O. Box for the company.
Not to disclose this fact up front is, to put it mildly, lousy customer service.
He probably has to split his time with working on the USCF website.
True, but weâre dealing with a niche product in a niche market and that happens. Think of the digital clocks that used to be the alternative - what was the wooden one that we could get from Labate, and the Micromate 180 and the KaishaâŚand the durability and longevity of the Chronos. There were pluses too or it wouldnât have lasted so long.
LM**O.
My Visit to DCI in Mountain View
Today the weather in San Jose was warm and nice. A great day to make a roadtrip and evidence of why Jack London called this place the âsun-kissed Santa Clara Valleyâ, or something like that.
I arrived at the address about 3 PM. This is what the place looks like:
i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l50 ⌠0_6083.jpg
i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l50 ⌠0_6084.jpg
I knocked on the door. No reply. At that moment, the USPS lettercarrier came by and said she has only seen âthe guyâ once in the last year. I knew that Mr. Dedansky is still there because this sign was taped to the window:
i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l50 ⌠0_6085.jpg
I had brought a hard copy printout of this thread, so I folded it and wrote the following note on it:
i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l50 ⌠0_6086.jpg
Then I slipped it into the mail slot on the door.
I was about to turn around and go home, but I saw there was this really good-looking woman who worked a couple doors down, so I asked her if she knew of Mr. Dedanskyâs wherabouts. She said that DCI also has a satellite office across the alley. I thanked her and walked over there.
There I met Linh, who is I think one of DCIâs chief technicians or mechanics. Linh is of Vietnamese descent. A very friendly, personable guy. He took down Richardâs name. I told him there was this thread on USChess.org. I gave him the path, and my contact info. He said he would look into it when he saw Mr. Dedansky. This is where things stand.
Wow David, thanks for the great effort. Unhappily, White(gs) is my USCF handle, and not my last name. At least we know that the place is not a figment of our imaginations.
I use Whitegs because I have a white german shepherd dog and had to come up with something when I first signed up.
Anyway, letâs hope something comes of this.
Richard (Gams).
Will miracles never cease? 
My clock arrived today in the mail. The battery holder had to be replaced. And they were kind enough to extend the warranty.
Iâd like to thank everyone on this forum for their kind words and help.
Richard
Cool!
Even though we donât know if my little road trip last week helped or not, this made my day.
David
David, it couldnât have hurt 
Oh no. I just tried to turn on the clock and once again, nothing happens when I press the center button, exactly like before. 
I feel snake bit.
Did it work initially when you first got it back?
If it did maybe check the battery, plug and unplug it, try a different battery etc.
Weirdness - I pressed the button and it came on but not with the things I had saved into the first 4 positions then it blinked off. I waited a minute then pressed the button again and it came up correctly. I went ahead and changed the batteries and put in new ones, even though the old ones tested OK on my volt meter. Well, weâll see, but I am nervous that Iâll arrive at a tournament and the clock will be dead. Iâll bring my Excalibur as well since like the old Timex add, the Excalibur takes a lickinâ and keeps on tickinâ. 
Richard
Since posting the above, the clock once again did nothing when I pressed the center button. I went to the chess club tonight (won a slow game which always makes my day), got home and lo and behold, the clock starts right up.
Anyone have any idea why it sometimes wonât do anything when I press the button to turn it on, then when I let it sit for a while it starts normally.
I suspect a very careful inspection of the electronic board in the clock, you will find a brownout on one of the traces on the board.
When I was in printing, there was an odd intermittant problem on one of the Docutechs used to print âon demand booksâ. You can find them in Kinkos sometimes. Anyway, the service technician worked on the problem off and on for several days, and it was getting worse. Heâd get âupgradedâ to the next level of service support, and finally talked to one of the engineers that actually designed the actual motherboard. Anyway, the engineer knew pretty much immediately that it was a brownout on a particular trace.
The only way to fix it is to replace the board with the bad trace on it. If the company would repair the clock under the warrenty then that would be cool. Otherwise, it would be almost certainly be more economical to just get a new clock. -If thats the case, and it is âfixedâ under warrenty, they most likely just send back a new clock.