My thought too.  Opened ticket last Friday but zero response so far

RIght, I thought the same, I really was careful on how the battery was inserted, so I do not think that is the issue.

On the batteries/charger, the charger acts properly, ie, the lights go on and blink and whatnot consistent with what the charger manual said should happen.  I suppose that could still be possible, though.

What is strange to me is that I used the guitar on Dec 15th at a gig, and it worked fine then.  I put the guitar in the gigbag and went home, and did not pick it up over the holidays until the 28th or so.  At that time, it was not working.  I chalked it up to a drained battery over the past two weeks, so I put the other previously charged one in and began charging the original.  Still nothing.  I looked at the charger, and it indicated that it was charging the first battery, and after a few hours I tried that one.  Nothing.  Hard to attribute that to the batteries or charger.  Unless 1) the first battery coincidentally discharged over the two weeks (unlikely as it was almost full up when I went to the gig, and I only used the modeling for one song in a 50 minute set), and 2) the charger had previously failed and charged neither the 2nd battery nor the first, even though the light indicates normal operation. 

Seem more likely that something in the guitar has messed up?  Maybe I should try to take it to a store where there is a known working battery and try that one, or maybe try to power it via an HD500.