I thought I'd give an update to this situation. Thanks to Hollyw00d's "advice" I went via the BBB. Anyone else who's had a problem with travelingmailbox should also go that route, because the same day I posted the complaint, they refunded my money. Here's the link:

http://www.bbb.org/raleigh-durham/bu...105/complaints

(Link to complain is the upper-right)

So, it's unfortunate that I had to go through such an ordeal, but travelingmailbox did make things right. Eventually. So thanks to them for that.

Now the real bizarre thing is, I got two responses to my complaint via the BBB at the same time. One was totally insane, full of lies, and on the attack. The other was completely normal, conciliatory, and quite helpful. The second response offered a full refund and wished me well in the future with a competing service. It seems like there are two personalities there, and by the luck of the draw, I had the bad one (looks like we do here, as well)

Anyway, issue solved. Looks like FT really can solve everything