Refundable Fee of FTMO

Hello Traders, Please give me some advice:
I obtained an FTMO account, but unfortunately, I lost my account before achieving the first Profit Split. So I lost my account & the refundable fee.
Are you experiencing the same situation as me? if yes, How can you request a refund for the fee, or at least retake the FTMO challenge for free?

Isn’t that the point of the fee, to put “skin” in the game? It’s your entrance fee.

My understanding is that you only get the fee back if you make it through the Challenge and Eval.

Why not just message/email them and ask just that? Worst thing they say is “Pay again”.