Some are under the illusion that Apple should be _obligated_ to do something for the customer in this situation, even though they have a policy as such in place before this incident actually occurred. Apple doesn’t owe anyone anything if their policy states specifically what they need in order to complete the process and to assess the issue, but if they can assist the customer with AppleCare, that would also suffice somewhat. I understand not everybody will agree with me, and sometimes exceptions are made with Apple more often than not, but even OP escalatted this to three different supervisors and they are adhering to their policy.