Ahhh, someone with class. Thanks for not further vilifying this person who clearly is having a tough go with the programming/execution of a product. Your tact is refreshing.I am curious as to why it didn't go into the fallback state, if you have that properly programmed it would do that if it lost connection to the brain. From a troubleshooting standpoint, might have a problem at your outlet with home electrical, or simply the energy bar is defective.
Unfortunately these things happen. At work we have millions of dollars invested in equipment for situations that can absolutely not fail, yet sometimes things happen and we have to rely on our backups.
Here are my list of steps for troubleshooting.
1) Check the physical outlet with either a multimeter (best option), plug checker (cheaper but ok option from any store), or worst case just plug a lamp in or anything that isn't expensive and see if it turns on.
Assuming your outlet is fine, lets move on to the next step
2) Plug in a power strip and get your essentials going. This will be your heater, powerheads/returns, and lights.
3) APEX has great customer support. I scheduled an appointment with them and spent 2 hours on the phone with them. They even went through my file to be sure my programming was right. They followed up via email to be sure my issues were fixed.
This forum has alot of experts on the APEX and we will certainly help you out. I understand that it can be frustrating especially when you spend alot of money, but I am certain we can get you going.