Unsatisfied customer

Due to covid restrictions I had to cancel our flights booked for the first weekend of July. After holding for over an hour, I finally got assistance from an unfriendly person. She gave me a reference number for the tickets that where put on hold and said she would send an email to confirm. I never received such an email and was thankful that I wrote down the reference number. When I tried to book my new flights this morning, I was basically told this reference number means nothing and that they cannot find any of my details on the system!!! How is this even possible?? Does this mean I just have to throw that money in the water?