I haven't seen any one reported issues like this but have you checked that your device isn't part of the issue because I have ran into a issue with my message saying it wasn't sent but it did but never the number of times you have experienced..

Now as for the billing situation this may be a little bit hard to give you a solution, I know this may not be the solution you want but you may have to simply keep trying to see if you can get a workable solution for your situation.