you guys were right, i was giving them the wrong key info. I was able to successfully SSH into the system the other guy is trying to get to, from another systems i have. and like zxmaus said, it copied the key into the known_hosts file (which i did not know about).
So i copied that key and sent it to the other guy, unfortunately he had already left work for the day, so hopefully today we'll have success.
I still don't know about the password authentication, i thought it was supposed to work just like you think, if RSA fails, password prompt kicks in. and i did double check, it is enabled and i meade sure he had the correct credentials, (although he hasn't got to the password part yet
)
well, hopefully this key works.
will post my success or failure today.