Strange comment indeed. I fly the 738 often as a t-con. IME, sometimes the power works, sometimes not. If it doesn't work, some FA's will do a 'reset' after reaching 10,000 ft and sometimes that seems to jiggle something. BTW, it is not uncommon that it works in only one of the two seats. As often as not, I use the power from the other seat (after asking the pax, of course, and they do not want to use it) because theirs works, mine doesn't.