Just adding a post here saying that I'm experiencing the EXACT same problems as OP. Starting the tech support dance as I type this. I feel like they're just going to tell me to do all the stuff I've already done to troubleshoot this.

But it's going to boil down to the fact that I haven't played since February 2011, I have no idea where I logged off last, and where my previous server got merged too. So my character is likely stuck out in the wild blue yonder somewhere and the game can't figure that out.