And looking back at my records one of my old emails that I have Sade from the SketchUp folks is that my maintenance and support had expired on May 20, 2016. But again when I reached out to them I think I was wearing out my welcome.
This was what they said
You cannot solely purchase the upgrade. You have to purchase maintenance and support to get the current version. Once you have maintenance and support, support can downgrade you to version 2017, or 2018 if you can’t use 2019 with your OS/hardware.
Your license expired before 2017 was released, so you do not just get that version at no cost. Whomever you spoke with on the forum, probably had maintenance and support when 2017 was released, so they automatically got that version. Your license expired back on 05/20/2016.
Your option is to purchase maintenance and support for $240 or you can keep using the 2016 version on your old computer.