Having a horrible experience, wish I wasn't

I've been super excited about this game for the last six months, and pre-ordered it in time for the head start 2. Unfortunately, when I attempted to play, the game froze and pinwheeled indefinitely, showing up as not responding in the application manager, having to be forced to quit.

I'm playing on a mac (please don't give me the "well, there's your problem right there" response) and I've encountered a few posts on the Steam and LSC forums who've encountered the same issue with no response from the developers. I attempted to get a refund from Steam, but it looks like it didn't force quite correctly and ran overnight, so their response is that since I've "played" the game more than 2 hours, I'm not eligible for a refund. I even opened a ticket in Steam customer service and pointed out that the language in their refund policy states that since it's a prerelease title, the 2 hour, 2 week no-refund clause isn't taken into account. That was 5 days ago, and I haven't recieved anything but the automated "we'll get back to you" email.

I even attempted to use bootcamp and install windows in a partition, but after numerous setbacks, workarounds and hair pulling, it won't recognize my install flashdrive.
I wonder if anyone out there has any ideas. With two little kids, I don't get to spend much time or money on myself, so this was a kick in the face. Does anyone have any experiences with this that might help me out?

Edit: formatting