g'day g_day!!!
Glad you got it all sorted.
Yes, Steve at ExtraVision is very helpful.
Also, I can fully understand and support your claim regarding Celestron not "believing" you.
When I went through my recent nightmare experience with my 9.25 most of the heartache was the result of Celestron's complete and utter denial that there could possibly be anything wrong with one of their scopes and they pretty much said I didn't know what I was talking about.
Every time I blew one of their theories out of the water, I'd get a new e-mail taking an entirely new angle. Each new e-mail, however, laid the problem squarely at my feet and absolved themselves of any responsibility.
This went on for months
As is now well-known, it was in fact the scope which had optical problems and not me
Very poor form, Celestron. Very poor.
Take a look around a lot of websites (particularly in the US) and you'll read of a lot of people unhappy with the optical performance of the SCTs since the Synta buy-out. QC has gone to seed.
I was reading the other day of a guy who received a 9.25 with the corrector completely out of alignment.
There was also a recent French review of the 9.25 which I believe was anything but flattering.
This is the venerable 9.25 we're talking about.
Very sad.