Please help - bought album, tried to download, got error 50, then music gon

Question

Hello. I just purchased an album from the music store and of course, my account was immediately charged before the songs downloaded. As iTunes 7 began the download, I got an "error 50 - something about the network connection but it is well documented and I've followed all recommendations from the Apple support website - stopped my antivirus AND firewall software and I'm not running McAfee). This is the first time I've bought anything with the new version of iTunes and I noticed that under my Purchases category, there was a downloads category and it showed each song on the album, along with the error in a column, and an icon I could click to try downloading again.
Each time I clicked the icons I got the same error on every song - error 50 and the song just sat in the suddenly new "Downloads" folder. I tried logging in and out of iTunes and BIG MISTAKE! The downloads folder is gone, my Purchases folder shows no sign of the album I was charged for other than the cover - the 19 songs are missing, and they aren't in my library!
Here's the kicker, when I look in my purchase history under "My account", it shows I bought the songs but my nothing was downloaded but the album cover. Does anyone have any suggestions or know how to contact a human at Apple for help with this? I hate throwing away money with no one to talk to about it.
Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

This worked a week ago, before I installed the new version of iTunes. So apple obviously changed something because I have changed nothing on my computer. And you can trust me, I've been in computer customer support for 19 years so I wouldn't be here if I hadn't already checked out every article out there, tried them with no luck, can't find anyone to help me at apple, and don't know what else to do.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm expecting several iTunes gift certificates. I think I'll return them and just buy the albums I want. Hopefully I can still add my own music to my Library without it disappearing with the new version, and at least I only have to pay for the album one time. Sorry apple, I hate getting ripped off with no one to call about it.
Thanks again for the nice person out there trying to help me but I've tried all their support articles and nothing works. They just ripped me off for $10, 19 songs, and all I got was the stinkin digital booklet. Guess I'll go stare at it until the brick store opens tomorrow and I'll go buy it again there. Sure not spending more $ here that's for sure.