“Is the box plugged in? Did you cycle the power?”

I’ll trust that you understand each of those words individually but later verify that the box is actually plugged in.

That's why tech support has moved on to "unplug the thing, wait a minute, then plug it back in".

It gives the capacitors to discharge; but more importantly, it gives an excuse to actually force the person to plug the thing in.

I ask people to unplug their Ethernet cable and tell me the colors they see on the wires all the time.

I don't care, of course. But they'll happily do that, where if I ask them to verify if the cable is properly plugged in, 99% of them will just say yes without so much as glancing in the cables' direction.

Earlier in my career the clients system was not powered at all, I did:

"Is it plugged in and switched on?" A: Yes, to a powerboard.

"Is the powerboard plugged in and switched on?" A: Yes.

I did the onsite visit and found the powerboard plugged into itself.

Normally I would facepalm and curse the idiocy but... it was a care respite facility and they had more pressing issues to deal with that I wouldn't want to deal with - their role is heroic I feel.

And an easy win already makes my day so I sorted it, told them it was fixed with a smile, and continued on.