1.0 CE on wrong service account

Incoming rant...

I have been playing on (what I thought was) a collector's edition (CE) account since 1.0. Just the other day I read that 1.0 CE should have gotten a free upgrade to ARR CE, but I didn't, so I looked into it. Turns out my account wasn't registered as CE this entire time, even though somehow I have all the preorder and CE bonuses. I'm guessing SE dropped the ball and accidentally downgraded me during ARR launch?

So I contact support and they basically just told me to get fucked and pay SE more money. They said they can't give me a 'free' upgrade, even though I provided an unused CE code. They also refused to credit my account for any amount, and they told me registering my code would resolve my issue, and when it did not they said to get a refund from the retailer I got it from (which is impossible because it's been opened and registered already + that was like 7 years ago).

I also had to go through two reps to get to this conclusion, which took me about 4hrs of waiting. The first rep is the one who told me I could register the code and everything would be fine; I waited 2hrs already and didn't want to wait again so I said to him "okay please stay in chat while I check" and he just said "thank you blah blah blah" and left. He didn't make sure the issue was resolved and basically 'hung up' on me when I asked him to wait for 1min. The second guy, who I also waited 2hrs for, told me the rest of the stuff I ranted about earlier, and when I asked for a supervisor all he had to say was "I spoke with a supervisor already and they cannot help you" (paraphrasing). So I told him I understood that but still wanted to speak with a supervisor, and then he did the same "thank you blah blah blah" as the last guy and dropped the chat session.

I am absolutely furious with SE right now, this is the worst customer service I've ever had, and it's from an amazing game that I love and have been playing since beta. I really don't know what to do right now, I'm not asking for anything I didn't already pay for but everyone on SE's side refuses to help me. If you know any way to get issues like this resolved in a proper way (rather than me having to buy the CE twice) I'm open to suggestions.

TLDR: SE refuses to compromise and wants me to buy the CE a second time; I need help resolving this.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, the 1.0 CE item (Onion Helm) came on its own code sheet (same as Garlond Goggles did for Standard edition). I know this as I personally bought/redeemed both. Both editions come with a code for the game, but it was activating the extra item code that made it CE/Standard (as well as all the other physical stuff in the box).

With 2.0 they changed this and Collector's Edition actually has a different main game code/included the items, unless you upgraded on the Mogstation later. When they gave free upgrades to 2.0 CE they were basing this on if you had the Onion Helm code on your account as that's the only way they can tell which version you had.

From what you've written in the subject, it suggests you tried to add the (somehow unused?) main game code and it created a new service account (which it would as each game code is a separate copy of the game/subscription). As mentioned above with 1.0 the game code doesn't determine whether it's standard/regular, the extra item code sheet does. You need to add the code for the Onion Helm specifically which is what SE was trying to explain to you.

If you have added the Onion Helm code, then what happened? Did you have the Onion Helm before? Do you have it now? Did the extra 2.0 CE items not arrive?

But realistically you should have been asking these questions 4 years ago when 2.0 came out. Heck even 2 years ago when 3.0 came out...