Inactive webmail account which is also listed as "under maintenance"

I am calling Telstra for a third time now in 2 days. online trouble shooting tells me my account is either inactive or suspended due to suspicious activity. I suspect i did this as I was loading a new laptop with my email account details and forgot the password. (too many log on attempts) All of my devices have kicked me off. Webmail also not working.

Every time I call the help desk they declare that the account is undergoing maintenance and I need to wait 24-48 hours.

I have receive no notice of a scheduled outage, there are none listed, and have had this problem resolved very quickly in the past. (done this before) Any ideas on how I can get past the overseas newbs who are reading scripts ? One has acknowledged they don't know much about email......I think I am not getting through to the right tech support.