Logicboard replacement came with new serial that stops me from connecting w iMessage and FaceTime. Applecare ran out and now I am sure it is this issue... How can I get apple to honor the serial mess up?

Question

The story is that I have an imac i7 that was still under Applecare when the logicboard coraked.
I brought it in for repair and got it back. Somehow imessage and facetime would never connect anymore and come up with connection errors yet everything else worked. I tried all tens or hundreds of suggestions over hte last few months and nothing worked.
So I resorted to a clean hard drive repartitioning and install of Mountain Lion.
To my surprise: it sill did not work.
That;s when I found an obscure post that I am quite certain is the problem: the poster had the exact some symptoms I had and NOTHING worked. Hrs of phone support etc. Until it dawned on him that he had a logic board replacement after which the issue occurred. He found that his serial was no longer the same as the original item and came up as invalid on the apple website and was not listed in the "About" of his iMac.
I immediately recognized the recent support symptom and motherboard replacement and checked the rest. And behold it is all exactly as he said. He had to bring it back to the service center and they put the original serial back in and everything worked again.
Here is my problem: months of troubleshooting have passed and my iMac went out of Applecare warranty. Support does not warrant an exception for the serial online and the service center wants to get paid    I am not wealthy. This computer is my life and I need them to change the serial back to what it was when I purchased the machine. Can someone suggest how I get help. Apple is acting like M-soft in this respect.

Answer 1

The only people who can possibly assist you with this is Apple Customer Relations, call your local Apple contact number and ask for Customer Relations then explain your situation clearly and politely (be firm but don't rant).
You might want to investiage what the local laws are regarding defective goods and 'fit for use' definitions on warranties etc. Consumer Protection can be a useful tool to use or bargain with if needed ...