I have never had that problem either, but this should really not happen. Call their customer service team and make sure your ad gets approved. Lets hope this was just the typical summer holiday time.
I mean I have only had my ad there since mid August, but my impression is that they do it quite quickly and its been great. Get a lot of contacts. Havn't experienced any issues, but lucky you... getting freebies and stuff

And Rai:
I think the price comes up when you create an ad and type in your postcode... I guess it depends on your location. And Once you have done that there are different options to choose... depends on how visible you want to be on the site. And then you create the ad and the option comes up how you would like to pay... I used Visa. Was quite easy but feel free to pop any questions

woop woop
Hope this helps.