Amid the Philly Pops kerfuffle, what about the ticket holders?

The Philly Pops crisis — an eviction, lawsuits — is more than six months old, and it’s not yet clear how and when patrons who purchased tickets for shows that didn’t happen might be made whole.

After initial concerts in the fall and a run of Christmas shows, the Pops was evicted from the Kimmel Center and never completed its full 2022-23 season. Five Verizon Hall shows were not performed.

The group has been referring to its unperformed concerts as “postponed,” but if they are rescheduled it won’t be this season. This past weekend was to have been the last of the Pops’ originally announced concerts in Verizon Hall — a Star Wars show with conductor David Charles Abell for which the audience was invited to show up in costume as Star Wars characters.

It’s not clear how many Pops tickets were bought for concerts never performed or how much money is due ticket buyers.

“The Pops currently does not have full operational access to our ticket database and we have not received any reply [from POKC’s IT department] when asking for clarity on the situation,” a Pops spokesperson said. “Because the ticketing database has not been updated with ticket adjustments since Jan. 20, 2023, and we have limited access to the database to review ticket purchasing information, we do not have accurate information about ticket holders.”

Not so, says a Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. spokesperson. “We communicated directly with the Pops on March 23, 2023, when they claimed they were having issues with access,” said Ashley Berke. “At that time, we confirmed that they did indeed have full access to [the ticketing software]. They continue to have full access to the database.”

The Pops has “accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from patrons for performances that the Pops has subsequently postponed indefinitely while refusing to return their money,” POKC states in its June 20 response to the Pops’ lawsuit.

Pops leaders say the group is still trying to reschedule the missed 2022-23 concerts. It has asked the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania to order the Kimmel to allow it back in Verizon Hall starting this fall.

“Throughout this difficult time for the Pops, we’ve done everything we can to present the concerts that have outstanding tickets,” reads a statement released Monday by Pops spokespeople attributed to president and CEO Karen Corbin. “We continue to explore the best alternatives to do what would best satisfy our musicians, our guest artists and conductors, and our patrons. Despite the interruptions that we’ve had to data access over the past six months, we’ve kept careful manual records of patron data and inquiries throughout that timeline. We continue to plan to present rescheduling on each of the outstanding programs and will be in immediate contact with our patrons when we firm up those plans.”

What are ticket buyers’ options?

Berke said it is not possible for Pops ticket holders to have money owed to them converted into a credit for tickets to the orchestra or other events at the Kimmel.

“Pops ticket holders should contact the Philly Pops with questions regarding refunds,” she said.

One expert, consumer law attorney Andrew M. Milz says Pops ticket holders can try sending a request for a refund to the Pops in writing (via traceable mail such as certified mail with return receipt requested).

“Hopefully they’ll be a good corporate citizen and write the refund check,” says Milz, of Narberth law firm Flitter Milz.

If that doesn’t work, he suggests filing a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“If all else fails, you can look into a small-claims lawsuit,” he says.

In fact, the Bureau of Consumer Protection has received a total of 53 complaints against the Pops since the organizational crisis, said spokesperson Brett Hambright, and they are going through the agency’s mediation process. But mediation is “completely voluntary,” according to a fact sheet about the program.

“We cannot force a business to respond to a consumer complaint, but we will make every effort to try to engage with the business to provide a response,” it says.

Hambright declined to say whether the Pops had been responsive to overtures for mediation.

But ticket holder Paul Rosenberg filed a complaint with the bureau, and after the Attorney General’s Office made an inquiry of the Pops, the response that came was from a law firm representing the Pops.

The April letter cited difficulties gaining access to data after a February cyber attack on Ticket Philadelphia, which handles ticket sales. “Second, to gain full access to the data and address the other important issues it has encountered with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc., the Pops was forced to file … an antitrust lawsuit,” said the letter from Archer & Greiner.

“While the Philly Pops understands that it is a lot to ask of patrons to wait for this lawsuit to play out,” the law firm’s letter states, “there were no other viable options that remained because the major factors that are delaying these shows by the Pops are all controlled by POKC.”

The issue is now moot for Rosenberg. He received a refund for the tickets — issued through his credit card company.