@drq @ZySoua I guess they didn't have remote management. However my experience shows that asking clients to confirm simple things verbally is not reliable because people either dismiss it (surely it is powered on! Even if not me then someone definitely did it!) or get offended (do they take me for idiot?)

And asking to help you by providing diagnostic information also makes people more involved - "this situation is unusual, can you please send me photo of the device/screenshot of exact error to help me better understand the problem?"

As a bonus some problems get fixed at this step. Some clients are grateful, some rare assholes claim they had to do everything themselves but hey, no two hour drive :)

IT has psychology in it too, not just computers.