Dear, op please write a few emails to apple tell them what happened attach this thread to it. A 400 mile round trip drive due to Apples customer error should be fixed by Apple at the price of a gift card. At 20 miles per Gallon you spent 20 Gallons of Gas. That is close to 80 dollars. You spent 12 Hours even at 8 dollars a hour that is 96 dollars.
So the mistake is apple's not yours They should give you a 200 dollar gift card. More like 250 or 300 but at least 200.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/imac.html
Please send them a long feed back polite and to the point. Please get back to us about how they answer. To every naysayer on this thread I am sorry you feel that way and bother to post negatively. The op was sent on a 400 mile wild goose chase for what.
BTW I write this because I returned a refurbished mac mini to my local store 25 mile round trip. The mini was purchased from Apple online and I have returned refurbs to this store 3 times in the last year. The first clerk told me I was not allowed to return it. I told her I have made the same return more then once. She referred me to a higher up and they did the return.
So I am in NJ you are in AL it seems that there is a pattern of making mistakes about the return policy. I was lucky but maybe apple will fix it for your. Good luck with this. Phil