Did you resolve your issue ??
I did the exact same thing, and even after I deleted the placeholder it still doesn't allow me to use the name.
I'm waiting for monday to call support, but I'm scared that they might not want to help me with this mess D:
Edit: Lesson to learn:
If you have a placeholder character in your destination server, make sure to delete it first, BEFORE applying for a transfer. It takes approx. 20 mins for the system to update that the character has been deleted, and so the character that you going to transfer won't be locked behind a "Must change name" flag.
