Well, it's still going to take some time since the mempool is congestioned and fees are a bit high.

What your other friend suggested with the $1 transactions was a good idea, but the sender just didn't execute it well. You can accelerate the transaction by asking the sender to make 2 new transactions with a higher fee, but just not any transaction.

The coins should be coming from the addresses that received the change from the transaction.

For example, the second transaction: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/2c8082ae3a9e9e498c8d2b8e13173b82cb35f738fd81611e56bb14056285579e


The 1GvZT... address (your sender's address) is sending 0.04048187 to your address (19G7D....) but there is also 1BJdY1... that is receiving 0.00040253 BTC (the change of the transaction). This address is also owned by the sender, so he must spend those 0.00040253 BTC so the miners must confirm your transaction before confirming the new one (the new one depends on the old one).

Unfortunately, I don't think Blockchain.com supports coin control (spending only the 0.00040253 BTC originated from that transaction), so his only shot is probably to send all his balance to himself with a higher fee (that is, if Blockchain.com allows him to spend unconfirmed coins, which I'm not sure if it does). I hope that's not too confusing.