Hotmail account is closed down and support do not seem to know how to open it again

After coming back from holiday I tried to login to Hotmail and it said that "This account does not exist....."

When trying to reset the password it repeated "This account does not exist..."

Then I tried to set up a new account with my old email address and password and it said "This account already exists..."

I contacted Microsoft online chat support and was advised to set up a new temporary account and then go to support with the problem.

So I did this and they have only responded once about a week ago and the questions were answered but nothing back from them.

This has gone on for 3 weeks and I want desperately to get back my old Hotmail account.  Is there any advice or help anyone can give.  Support seem unable to fix the problem, even though it's a straightforward issue - all we need is to reset the password, I've had friends trying to help but they get the same responses when trying to login.

Can anyone help? 

does the fact that it is hotmail.co.uk make any difference?   I read somewhere that they were making them all .coms?   But I set up this temporary Hotmail account as a hotmail.co.uk so I assume .co.uk's are still operating.