John, sorry to hear of the issues you are having. Some of them sound familiar from teething problems I had with my Aeromax.
Plipper - is yours the skinny 'tube' shaped one? If so, the stack of very small hearing aid type batteries it takes can become loose inside and result in a poor connection. I had to pack the inside with some sponge-backed tape and even now when I have had the plipper in my pocket for a while I have to give it a tap on my hand before it will work.
Door locks - you have a separate key to your ignition key for the door locks? If so, I find that manually locking the doors seems to work independently of the plipper. That is to say, if I have used the key to set the lock to the 'other' position than I used the plipper, it may not open. Don't know why this should be. There is a small button low down on the inner door panel that will show if you have the door locked shut. I release this and my keys/plipper will open the door. Sod's law, always happens when I am in a hurry, carrying something and it's raining.
Don't give up on the car this early in your relationship - if it does have to go back to the factory, my experience is that they will move a mountain to help as long as you approach this constructively. Looking forward to seeing you and your car in Wales.
