jquery validator question

jquery validator question

Hello all,
 
Very new to jquery here, so please be nice! :)  I'm attempting to use the validator plugin and having a bit of an issue.
 
I'm attempting to use an ajax call from within an addMethod on the validator.  Yes - I know I can add the "remote" call to the rules area, and I considered that, however in this instance I need to have it in the addMethod.  I've searched the site and found this solution:
 
http://forum.jquery.com/topic/jquery-jquery-validator-addmethod-how-to  - that's kind of what I followed here.  Further research showed that I needed to add an false for the async command, which I've done.
 
Here is my addMethod:
 
$.validator.addMethod("ckUserID", function(value) {
      $.ajax({
            async: false,
            type: "POST", 
            url: "/splash.php", 
            data: "action=checkUserID&txt_userid=" + value,
            dataType:"html", 
            complete:handleACheck
      });
      function handleACheck(r) {
            alert(r.responseText);
            return true;
      }
}, "The submitted UserID is not available.");
What seems to be happening is that no matter what, the method returns false. I've removed all the guts from handleACheck(r) so that it just returns true, and still somehow the validator is reading it as false.
 
The rules block I'm using for this field is this:
 
  txt_userid: {
         required: true,
         minlength: 6,
         maxlength: 50, 
         regExpUserID: true,
         ckUserID: true
 }

What's funny is that the other custom method I have in place, regExpUserID works like a charm.
 
Would anyone happen to know what I'm doing wrong here?  I've set up a few alerts along the way to show me if the field errors or has success, and it's definitely failing validation even though I hard set it to be true no matter what the outcome of the ajax call is.  If I comment out the ajax call in that addMethod and just return true, it works.  But with the ajax call in the addMethod, no dice.
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks a bunch all!