I appreciate the additional information. Please be aware that “latest firmware” isn’t always the most descriptive. For future reference, it’s helpful to mention the specific version that a problematic device is using.
What did Support say when you contacted them? If this is happening repeatedly, then I’d be inclined to submit a log (especially after reproducing the issue) and then open a ticket that includes the Log ID you generate (please be aware that tickets and logs are two separate animals) so that hopefully the engineers could look into this.
I know that Palm Lock’s Product Manager has reported that they’re working on a new firmware version to address battery drain in certain settings, and I haven’t seen anything specific about palm scanning or keypad improvements, but I’d definitely want to let the engineers know if this is an ongoing issue for you and your wife.
I’m also curious: Which Battery Management setting are you using? Have you tried others? When even the keypad access code didn’t work, what was happening then? Did the keypad light up when it was tapped? What was the battery level when your wife had to resort to using the physical key? The answers to those kinds of questions (and especially the log) are things I would expect to be helpful to the engineers.