>>I brought the data to my system and failed the same way the user failed.
>>I reindexed and packed and all was OK on my system.
>>Hmmm
>>After several futile retries at the client, I sent my corrected .dbf and .cdx to the client and all is OK.
SMB or other SNAFU at the client?
You might consider changing the reindex to something that creates a matching shadow dbf, appends from the target then indexes the new, deletes the old and renames to end up with a brand new table. Or, if in a dbc then create the shadow copy, ZAP the source and append from the shadow. If there's a sleeper snafu in the table, this will pick it up...
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1