Phillies fans are out of hope. Some are also out thousands of dollars as they await postseason ticket refunds.

It’s a sad week for the Phillies faithful who on Wednesday watched their team get eliminated by the New York Mets. It’s an even sadder week for fans who put out thousands of dollars on postseason tickets and are now waiting on refunds for games that won’t be played, the first of which would have been a National League Division Series Game 5 on Friday.

“I’m not happy about it at all,” said Vince Sculli, a longtime season-ticket holder from Springfield, Delaware County. He spent $2,600 on postseason tickets through his season-ticket plan and more than $2,000 on tickets to additional NLDS and National League Championship Series games — some through the Phillies organization directly and others on the secondary market. “I’m sitting on $4,600 in refunds that I have to wait two more weeks for.”

“What makes it really bitter is they got beat by a lesser team,” added Sculli, a 63-year-old sales manager. “You’re less likely to complain if they put up a fight.”

The waiting-for-refunds predicament isn’t rare among tortured sports fans nationwide. Phillies diehards, however, haven’t been in this situation in a while. The team made deeper playoff runs in 2022 and 2023, leaving fewer un-played home games on the table, and before that hadn’t made the postseason in a decade.

This year, some ticket holders not only put money down for games in the later playoff rounds, from which the Phillies are now eliminated, but they also paid up front for games in the wild card round, which ended up being a bye week for the Phillies.

The Inquirer talked to seven Phillies season-ticket holders, who have partial- and full-season plans, and are waiting on refunds of between $1,000 and $20,000 for postseason games that aren’t happening.

Season-ticket holders have until Oct. 16 to request ticket refunds through an online form, Phillies spokesperson Deb Rinaldi said. They can also call the ticket office at 215-463-1000 or email [email protected]. The refund process is set to start at the end of next week, she said, meaning the money should be back in fans’ bank accounts within two weeks.

“A benefit of being a Phillies season-ticket holder is postseason ticket access,” Rinaldi said in a statement. “The vast majority of our season-ticket holders do not ask for a refund and rather apply the value for the postseason games not played towards their season tickets for the following season. Any ticket sales outside of the season ticket offers are automatically refunded,” with that refund process beginning in the middle of next week.

Some season-ticket holders said they were directed by Phillies employees to fill out that online form to request refunds, a step that they didn’t recall having to take in past years and with which some struggled due to technical issues. Rinaldi said the postseason refund process has been the same since 2022 (In 2022 and 2023, the Phillies advanced to Game 6 of the World Series and Game 7 of the NLCS, respectively).

Other season-ticket holders said they called the Phillies ticket office on Thursday, and were told by staff that they could process a request for a refund, minus processing fees.

“As it stands right now, it looks like they’re going to try to get $20 from me, and I’m going to bellyache about that just because of principle,” season-ticket holder Andy Goldberg said after getting off the phone with the ticket office Thursday afternoon. The 63-year-old retired tax consultant from Marlton is waiting for a $1,400 refund.

The Phillies page for postseason refunds said processing fees are “nonrefundable if the Phillies qualify for postseason play,” which they did this year, but Rinaldi said Thursday in a statement that the fees would in fact be refunded to customers.

Some Phillies fans acknowledged that their grief after a heartbreaking loss might be contributing to their frustration with the refund process.

When Michael Campeggio was told by someone in the ticket office to fill out an online form for a refund request, he said he was taken aback.

He thought at the time: “I don’t know if I’m being petty, or you’re being petty, but I feel l like you’re making it harder,” said Campeggio, a 46-year-old business owner from Vineland. He is waiting on more than $15,000 in refunds, he said, between postseason tickets purchased through his full-season plan and parts of partial-season plans he splits with friends.

Campeggio has a credit card reserved for Phillies tickets, but he said it’s a shame the refund process will take two more weeks, meaning he’ll be hit with interest this billing cycle.

Still, “I can’t offer a better way to do it,” he said. “The Phillies are a business. At the end of the day, we have an emotional attachment to them because we love the team and we love the sport. … It’s my choice to buy the season tickets.”

In Gibbsboro, partial-season-ticket holder Lauren Parsinitz said she was impressed that the refund-request link went up on the Phillies website quickly after Wednesday’s loss. But the 38-year-old teacher said she understands others’ frustration.

“It is kind of crazy that you have to put out all of that money ahead of time,” said Parsinitz, who’s waiting on a $2,000 refund. The postseason ticket opportunities are usually released to season-ticket holders in September, around the same time they can renew and put deposits on season packages for the next season.

Sculli, the Springfield man who is a Phillies and Eagles season-ticket holder, said he wished the Phillies would do what some other teams do and only charge for a round of the playoffs once it is confirmed that the team will be playing in it.

Jessica Tursi, 57, of South Philadelphia, said that would be better for her financially.

The contract associate pays about $1,500 a year for a partial-season plan. This year, she paid another $1,000 for postseason games. She’ll be elated when the refund hits her bank account and can be transferred to her credit card. Since September, she said, her credit score has decreased.

“I live paycheck to paycheck. Every September I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to pay for my season ticket package and how I’m going to put out money for playoff games that may not get played,” Tursi said. “When you’re a Phillies fan, that’s what you do.”