Creating New iTunes Account

I have been helping my son try to set up a new iTunes account in order to get apps for his new iPhone. We successfully created an account with his email address, were logged in and everything.. I logged out and called to tell him it was up and running but he was unable to log in. I tried to log in again and it failed as well. Attempts to retreive the password through the "forgot password" links (both email and questions) have failed. Email never arrives (have tried several times) and questions (date of birth is first question) says answer is incorrect. It's so frustrating that I decided to try creating a completely different account with different email address and credit cards (3 different of each) all of which fail with either a time-out error or declined credit/debit cards (3) all of which are good. Apple support wants and Apple ID to get help... Anyone have any idea of how to proceed?