My Message on Mac is offline and doesn't recognize my Apple ID, why?

[iMore Question]

Message on Mac is offline and doesn't recognize my apple id.

I did the recent update and am running 10.9.5 on my Mac. My Messages are offline. I try to bring active and it asks for my apple id and password, then tells me I do not need to create a new apple id, to contact Apple care support... which I am not paying $19.99 for a one time service call. My apple care ran out 4 months ago.. Mac is 40 months old.

This is the exact message:

If this is a new Apple ID, you do not need to create another one. To use this Apple ID with iMessage, contact iMessage support with the code below.

Customer Code: 9286-9393-3296

 

[ame]

Re: Message on Mac is offline and doesn't recognize my apple id.

You shouldn't need to pay for that service call, since it's about a product, not about the Mac itself. Is it trying to charge you?

I did the recent update and am running 10.9.5 on my Mac. My Messages are offline. I try to bring active and it asks for my apple id and password, then tells me I do not need to create a new apple id, to contact Apple care support... which I am not paying $19.99 for a one time service call. My apple care ran out 4 months ago.. Mac is 40 months old.

This is the exact message:

If this is a new Apple ID, you do not need to create another one. To use this Apple ID with iMessage, contact iMessage support with the code below.

Customer Code: 9286-9393-3296