The Saga of the Battery - Updated June 16

I was in Washington D.C. on Thursday, June 4, when I received an email in the morning from MuzToo that my battery had died in storage, and I needed a new one.  I immediately wrote back and asked if I could buy one there, and Patrik at MuzToo replied that the batteries available in Osh were of inferior quality and I should bring one with me.  My experience in Azerbaijan supported Patrik's statement, in that the battery I was able to buy in Ganje was a wet battery the, that immediately started giving me problems.  That is why I replaced it with a gel type battery made/sold by Harley-Davidson.

A wet battery is going to have a hard time in these hot climates, as the heat and use tends to boil the battery, and you must top it off with distilled water frequently.  As Romainiac pointed out, in his comment,  accessing the battery on a BMW G650GS is a somewhat time consuming chore, as one must detach the right front turn signal, remove the right cowling cover, remove the top cowling cover, and loosen the left cowling cover.  The battery is then visible, and you can remove the retaining strap and the battery ground to service it.  I'm not sure where I could source distilled water in the deserts or mountains, as I didn't pack my still (I think a still is like a drone in that you don't want to be crossing borders with one in your luggage.  But I hope someone proves me wrong and writes about it).  In my view, I definitely needed a gel battery.

So, having decided on a gel battery, where should I get it?  MuzToo advised just bringing one along.  I decided against it for two reasons.  First, I would have to find one in Washington or Baltimore or Virginia, after which I would have to take a cab to get it and bring it back to the hotel.  Second, I would have to convince two foreign national airlines that a wet cell battery was permissible in the cabin, as I was no way going to check it.  I projected the odds of Turkish Airlines letting me on board their aircraft with a battery as no chance at all, and British Airways as nope.  So I contacted Don Rosene at The Motorcycle Shop in Anchorage, and asked for him to ship me one.

Don is a great guy, and he immediately stepped up.  The battery was delivered to DHL on Friday afternoon in Anchorage.  They hassled Don about accepting it, but when they read the regulations they did accept it, and told Don it should be in Osh by Thursday, June 11.  That was great news, since I was arriving Tuesday early in the morning, and wouldn't even be ready to think about a battery until Wednesday afternoon.  I proceeded on my way.

The battery did not arrive on Thursday, so I checked the airbill number through DHL's online tracking system.  Wow.  The battery did not leave anchorage until Monday afternoon.  It's routing after that is inexplicable.  Here is what it looked like:

Tracking, Track Parcels, Packages, Shipments | DHL Express Tracking 6/15/15, 6:22 AM

Track DHL Express Shipments Here’s the fastest way to check the status of your shipment. No need to call Customer Service – our online results give you real-time, detailed progress as your shipment speeds through the DHL network. Result Summary Waybill: 2193827565 Departed Facility in LONDON- HEATHROW - UK Sign up for shipment notifications Sunday, June 14, 2015 at 08:20 Origin Service Area: ANCHORAGE, AK - ANCHORAGE - USA Destination Service Area: BISHKEK - OSH - KYRGYZSTAN Estimated Delivery: Friday, June 19, 2015 By End of Day 1 Piece English Contact Center Country Profile
Sunday, June 14, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
37	Departed Facility in LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	08:20	1 Piece
36	Processed at LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	05:24	1 Piece
Saturday, June 13, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
35	Arrived at Sort Facility LONDON- HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	06:27	1 Piece
34	Departed Facility in LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	05:21	1 Piece
33	Transferred through LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	04:34	1 Piece
32	Departed Facility in LEIPZIG - GERMANY	LEIPZIG - GERMANY	04:22	1 Piece
31	Processed at LEIPZIG - GERMANY	LEIPZIG - GERMANY	02:08	1 Piece
30	Arrived at Sort Facility LEIPZIG - GERMANY	LEIPZIG - GERMANY	01:18	1 Piece
29	Departed Facility in MILAN - MALPENSA - ITALY	MILAN - MALPENSA - ITALY	00:16	1 Piece
28	Transferred through MILAN - MALPENSA - ITALY	MILAN - MALPENSA - ITALY	00:15	1 Piece
Friday, June 12, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
27	Departed Facility in BUCHAREST - ROMANIA	BUCHAREST - ROMANIA	20:12	1 Piece
26	Processed at BUCHAREST - ROMANIA	BUCHAREST - ROMANIA	20:11	1 Piece
25	Arrived at Sort Facility BERGAMO - ITALY	BERGAMO - ITALY	03:47	1 Piece
24	Departed Facility in LEIPZIG - GERMANY	LEIPZIG - GERMANY	02:06	1 Piece
Thursday, June 11, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
23	Processed at LEIPZIG - GERMANY	LEIPZIG - GERMANY	23:32	1 Piece
22	Arrived at Sort Facility LEIPZIG - GERMANY	LEIPZIG - GERMANY	23:13	1 Piece
21	Departed Facility in FRANKFURT - GERMANY	FRANKFURT - GERMANY	15:05	1 Piece

http://www.dhl.com/en/express/tracking.html?AWB=2193827565&brand=DHL Page 1 of 2

Tracking, Track Parcels, Packages, Shipments | DHL Express Tracking 6/15/15, 6:22 AM

20	Transferred through FRANKFURT - GERMANY	FRANKFURT - GERMANY	15:03	1 Piece
19	Arrived at Sort Facility FRANKFURT - GERMANY	FRANKFURT - GERMANY	14:01	1 Piece
18	Departed Facility in LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	10:59	1 Piece
17	Transferred through LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	08:26	1 Piece
16	Departed Facility in EAST MIDLANDS - UK	EAST MIDLANDS - UK	05:22	1 Piece
15	Shipment on hold	EAST MIDLANDS - UK	05:05	1 Piece
14	Processed at EAST MIDLANDS - UK	EAST MIDLANDS - UK	02:45	1 Piece
Wednesday, June 10, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
13	Arrived at Sort Facility EAST MIDLANDS - UK	EAST MIDLANDS - UK	23:07	1 Piece
12	Departed Facility in LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	20:13	1 Piece
Tuesday, June 09, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
11	Processed at LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	23:04	1 Piece
10	Arrived at Sort Facility LONDON- HEATHROW - UK	LONDON-HEATHROW - UK	22:41	1 Piece
9	Departed Facility in EAST MIDLANDS - UK	EAST MIDLANDS - UK	19:47	1 Piece
8	Transferred through EAST MIDLANDS - UK	EAST MIDLANDS - UK	19:46	1 Piece
7	Departed Facility in CINCINNATI HUB - USA	CINCINNATI HUB, OH - USA	06:19	1 Piece
6	Processed at CINCINNATI HUB - USA	CINCINNATI HUB, OH - USA	05:43	1 Piece
5	Arrived at Sort Facility CINCINNATI HUB - USA	CINCINNATI HUB, OH - USA	05:24	1 Piece
Monday, June 08, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
4	Departed Facility in ANCHORAGE - USA	ANCHORAGE, AK - USA	15:45	1 Piece
3	Processed at ANCHORAGE - USA	ANCHORAGE, AK - USA	15:44	1 Piece
2	Shipment Accepted	ANCHORAGE, AK - USA	10:20	1 Piece
Friday, June 05, 2015		Location	Time	Piece
1 Shipment information received ANCHORAGE, AK - USA 07:58

http://www.dhl.com/en/express/tracking.html?AWB=2193827565&brand=DHL Page 2 of 2 

I was amazed.  I couldn't understand it.  And when I first read it, I misunderstood and thought the package was going to be delivered Friday, June 12.  It wasn't until much later I realized that it was saying Friday June 19th.

On the DHL Contact us page, there is a picture of a nice smiling man, and the caption says he is Mike Parra, CEO of DHL USA, and that he wanted to hear about compliments and complaints.  I decided to take him up on that, and emailed him.

A few hours later I received a nice email from a person with the title Executive Response and Social Customer Care.  The person apologized and let me know they were on it.  Someone, they said, would be reaching out to me as soon as possible.  That email came in at 7:48 p.m. local time on June 13.  It is now 11:43 p.m (as I write this) on June 15, local time.  Granted, this is Central Asia, where clocks and calendars have a certain charming flexibility about them, and granting further that there is nothing anyone can ostensibly do here until their colleagues and co-workers get to the office on Monday morning in Western Europe, which is still several hours away.  However, my faith in DHL has ebbed again, after having been raised when I first received the emails from the Executive Response and Social Customer Care person.

That faith has ebbed because the battery sat in London again for 26 hours from 4:34 a.m. on June 13 through 8:40 a.m. June 14.  Surely there is a reason for this, but it certainly escapes me.

I will update this when I can learn more from DHL, but that is the story so far.

JUNE 16 UPDATE

As of 1:35 p.m. local time, the battery has landed in Bishkek.  It may be in Osh as early as tomorrow, but probably later this week.  I would bet on later this week.