Guild Wars 2

Well the bad part is it also takes 4 Days to be able to use the trader so my purchase can be verified? I purchased on Friday and my characters are at a stand still because I can’t expand the bank slots, buy bags, weapons or anything on the trader for 4 days! The GEMS I knew about but I did not know about this 4 day wait to use a core component of the game. With my limited time to play I bought the Ultimate HoT edition and thought I could play over the weekend and now I am sitting on my hands. Great. Oh but my extra character slot is there, I can join Beta but not make a Revenant, GEMS not there but knew about that one. The HoT purchase description says you get the access to the full core GW2 game and there is nothing there stating I will not be able to use the Trader even with coin I receive while playing in game for 4 days. Here is what support said:

So I look into your account and say that HoT was activated yesterday (10/09/2015 at 4:12 PM) The reason why you are unable to go into the TP is because our system takes apporx. 4 days to verify your purchase!
So on 10/13 around 4 your account will be good to go so hang tight.

Really?

I have just started the game and made some new characters under the GW2. If I make characters in the Beta program are they retained?