Rotted corpse, petition. How does it work?

[Naxy]

So I fucked up and ran through a zone at too low level. SoW got dispelled, I got rooted. I died. No way I could recover that corpse alone. It was late and to boot I had hell week at work afterwards. So when I come back my corpse was gone. Confirmed with a necro that there was no corpse to be found. I had some decent stuff donated by strangers (you guys rock), so it would be a shame if it was permanent, albeit not a complete disaster.

So I sent a petition. Other than it taking a long time to get answered, according to anecdotes, how does it work? You log in and the corpse is at your feet, or what?