Thanks....not at all what I thought might be the problem. I learned something about guitars today.
On this particular guitar (A nylon string acoustic/electric made in china), the nut was too short, causing the strings to buzz against the frets, the neck was bowed, causing the intonation to be wrong, and there was no truss rod to straighten the neck. I could have made the nut higher, but that would have involved unstringing the guitar, chiseling off the old nut, finding one the right size, and then shimming it to height. And of course, concealing the repairs.
A little too labor intensive for a chinese guitar.
He is better off with a new one with steel strings.