Discussion on:

Is the user responsible for saving their files?

In a tech support session, a user was working when I arrived. I had an appointment to install and configure a video card for her pc. She said ok, go ahead and left the room. I shut down the pc, installed the card, started the pc and setup the card.
The user had left the room. She returns to scold me about not saving 'her' documents. I did not know I was responsible for her documents, or anythng beyond my actual work.

The user should save her documents. If she is too lazy, or does not know how, she should ask. Just walking away does not impart responsiblilty on the tech. It really kind of looks like some kind of booby trap.

Make them shutdown all their programs and save as needed while in front of you.

I'll always close their apps and if it prompts me to save, save them back to the default location as same filename-v1 - that way they have the file if they need it and they can delete the extra copy if they don't. I suppose that yes you could say it's their responsibility since it's their work, but equally it's a tech's responsibility to make sure the work they do on a machine doesn't cause data loss for someone.