When they call you, after going through the login procedure and finding the error still there, you must tell the user what he or she can do to correct the problem. This can be done by giving explicit instructions such as: "Type 'rename WP.$A$ to WP.EXE...... But if it is a knowledgeable user who calls you, he or she will notice
something fishy going on.
So how to get around this obstacle? You have to give instructions which will soothe the wary user. If the sabotage is software-related, put a software solution on disk. For example, "Go into the word processor directory and type 'SETUP' and press Return. Now try running the program again." In this case, SETUP was a file that you put on the disk, which contained the renaming instruction, and also a command to delete itself at the end of its run.
Hardware problems may be difficult to fix or explain over the phone, but then, most RSE won't involve hardware anyway; if you had enough on-site time to physically mess up their computer, you should have had enough time to glean the information that you are trying to get.
