The other thing is, if you try a credit card and it does not work, you will have your ability to register a credit card locked for 24 hours. If you try again, it is automatically rejected for that 24 hours...and the lock is extended. Which means when you try again, it is rejected again, even if the method you are using should now fix the error. Not to mention there is no way to see if the lock is in place and for how long.

If you submit a ticket they will send you an automated reply telling you exactly what you already knew from when your credit card was first rejected. Reply to that and they will send you a message saying your bank is at fault for rejecting the payment and there is nothing at all wrong on their end (insert eye roll here). Check with your bank and confirm that in fact they are not receiving any charge attempt at all, reply to SE's email to tell the that, and THEN you will get a response with an actual phone number. If you are outside the US, use skype to call. You can use skypeout, or set your country temporarily to the US in skype and then you should be able to call for free. Hopefully they can then straighten it out...maybe.

In my case (country mismatch), the VPN solution did not work the first time because of the automatic lockout. Before calling the number I eventually got (which took several days), I tried the VPN again and it worked because the auto-lockout was no longer in place. I hope it works for you!