Your local shop would be out of business here. The insane amount Apple asked for, ~$500, is indeed for a full top-case replacement, and they didn't mention any discount to me.
My MBPs usually have battery issues after 3 years of use, by then well beyond warranty period. They always charge for insane amount of money for replacing a battery, when I always turn to a third party repair shop for about 10% of the amount given by Apple geniuses.
This also happened to me. A very important email was put under the promotions. Usually I just kept the gmail tab open and didn't check my phone. Fortunately for me, I noticed this mail on my phone when I was clearing the unread status.
At the same time, all sorts of ads fall into my inbox repeatedly, even I deliberately mark them as spam or junk.
( Being cautious, I just checked the promotions again. And there is another important email lying. WTF!)