iCloud can't make up its mind if an account exists or not

Hi

I'm trying to make an iCloud account for my mothers iPad and when I try to create it I get a dialogue saying that an account already exists with this email. Okay that's fine. Maybe she made one without realizing. So I make my way to iforgot.apple.com and type in her email and then it says that there is no apple id found... I'm kinda at a roadblock now and don't know what to do and would like to see if I can do this without dealing with the zoo that is the apple store.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks