iMessage User "is not registered with iMessage" Recently bought an iPhone 5 &amp; iPad Mini.  Today tried to message a non-iphone user and got a red name icon in the addressee box that came up as "...is not registered with iMessage" that came up" with an option to "Remove".  Did a little web search and discovered that the Mini iMessage" option page in Settings does not show a toggle for "Send as SMS". My new and older iPhones do have that option and don't show the error message..even when I turn that toggle off.  I called Apple Help and was told that there is a fix for it, but that I would have to purchase a three month version of Apple Care for them to address it.  I really love my new Mini, but at $600+ if they won't fix a basic function, it's headed right back to the store.
Any help would be appreciated
Thank you
Messages on an iPad can't send an SMS so you can't send a message to a non-Apple phone. You'll need an SMS apple like Google Voice for that.

There Shouldn't be any problem sending an SMS from Messages on the iPhone though.

I've never heard of a three month version of AppleCare but both the iPad Mini and iPhone 5 come with 90 days of free phone support and a year warranty so I don't know why Apple would want you to buy anything.