I wonder if it is possible, that when you originally set it up, you went to the seed entry screen and then clicked "back" to go back to the seed display screen... when you do this, it will generate a new seed!
So if you had taken a screenshot, then clicked next... then clicked back to look at the seed again... it would have generated a new seed different from your screenshot.
If that's what happened then when he re-enters the seed to verify it Electrum would reject that.