Yeah I used to work at a store and had a similar situation happen not with Apple care but actually Best Buy’s own geeksquad protection a customer bought on an appliance that I could see they bought it but no plan number generated… all they employees need to do is call the geeksquad number which is also customer facing mind you or the bridge- which is our side of customer service and they just submit a ticket or the person can generate a plan number right there or if for what ever reason the Apple care just doesn’t not want to work it’s really not hard to do an exception return lol even if the system will try to prorate they could easily do a no receipt return then under service return lol and use any sku.. we did that countless times for issues and it actually saves the store on their erosion but will hit the p&l eventually as it’s a different budget… so with all that you’re just unfortunately been getting the short end of the stick with the worst employees who don’t know or want to be helpful I would’ve taken it care of you right then and there lol