I ordered this on Sunday after the old one, which had been having problems for some time, stopped working completely. Today is Tuesday and the new remote arrived in the post. I would have wasted my money if I had paid for express.
Popped some batteries in it (none were supplied) and it worked fine for about 10 seconds and then refused to do anything at all. Put some brand new batteries in and still nothing.
Naturally I went on the net for advice and found, after a bit of reading, that some batteries work better than others. It seems that the battery connectors are designed so that no damage will be done if some fool puts them in backwards, and this is achieved by recessing the contact at the positive end. Some batteries, Energiser in particular, have shorter buttons on that end, so they don't make contact. Guess what - I had Energiser batteries. I found some Duracells and bingo - the remote works perfectly.
Apparently the ten seconds of use I had at the start was from the charge in the internal capacitors.