Gift Certificate Redeem Code never emailed

I went to the Itunes store today online and purchased a $50 gift certificate for my partner. It has been 10 hours now and she still has not received it in her email. We checked all the spam filters and I resent this to three other email accounts to see if it would be delivered. It never showed up in any of the emails. We tried to call the Itunes Gift certificate support desk and it was impossible to get through the automated operator. Finally after 7 attempts we talked to someone and they said it could take up to 24 hours for the email to come through. We also put an email into the Itunes support helpdesk asking them to help. We haven't heard back yet. I really wanted her to be able to use the $50 gift certificate right away. How do I get the code to redeem my $50 and if I never get my code is the best course of action going to my bank/credit card company and disputing the charge. Please help, I just want my $50 code.

Thanks for any help you can give!