thanks for responding yellow1912. yes he gave me the email address and i tried it...

now even if he purchased in the past with a different email address, same name and address, he should be able to create a new account with a new email address and same name and address.... right?

the weird thing is that it won't let him proceed because it says that email address already has an account. but when he clicks forgot password, it says there is no record of that email address.

i don't get it. this has happened twice. two different people.