iCloud mail falling apart, multiple problems

I used the same nick@mac.com account for everything Apple since I don't know when. Only recently, when I bought the new iPad, Apple prompted me to switch to a me.com address to be able sync notes to the cloud. I created a namesurname@me.com in my nick@mac.com account, and started using that. Since I don't use it for much except logging in and out, and since Apple pushed me to do it, I didn't mind.

Today, I wanted to create aliases in the iCloud account. I logged in to iCloud through my one and only nick@mac.com account. The mail panel showed that I was only sending and receiving from namesurname@me.com. I found the complete lack of nick@mac.com odd--I expected it to be one of my aliases--but moved on. I tried adding nick@icloud.com, name.surname@icloud.com, namesurname@icloud.com, and newnick@icloud.com. All of them returned the warning: This alias cannot be saved at this time. I retried, countless times now. The system does not budge.

Trying to troubleshoot, I went into my Apple ID settings to figure out what was up. I got prompted to do something else by Apple: Assign my nick@mac.com address as the login AND primary e-mail address. I inadvertently agreed. I proceeded after that to resend the verification e-mail to the address I haven't used in a while, and realized that I am not getting any verification mail in my namesurname@me.com located in my nick@mac.com iCloud account. I then proceeded to try to e-mail myself from another account. I realized my nick@mac.com address returns the warning: 550 550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal alias: nick@mac.com (state 13).

I immediately picked up my iPhone where everything, including my e-mail that Apple promtped me to switch to namesurname@me.com, was still set to nick@mac.com. I tried sending a mail from the iCloud, and it failed with the warning: The sender address "nick@mac.com" was rejected by the server.

Now sufficiently frustrating and semi-panicking, I returned to my Apple ID page to demote the nick@mac.com from its position as my primary e-mail, and couldn't find any option to achieve that. I tried reassigning my old primary e-mail back as primary, but there was no option. I tried adding a new mail, which falls under Alternate Email Addresses, and cannot be promoted as primary. I cannot delete my primary, which is now both my Apple ID and my e-mail address Apple refuses to acknowledge. Apple now has an e-mail address I can use as Apple ID but cannot use for any e-mail purposes whatsoever as my primary e-mail. I am flabbergasted, to say the least.

Can anyone help me through Apple's utter incompetence in managing e-mails and IDs?