Talking to a real live person possible?

So I'm having trouble starting up my Time Machine, and nothing on here addresses my issue. Is there an actual way to talk to someone live at Apple without having to fork over more money? I cant seem to get the online thing to get me to talk to someone, and every other venue I've tried leads me to believe i have to pay to get actual help.... which seems absolutely ridiculous considering this thing is 500 bucks.

Message was edited by: Table 5