Unacceptable experience with Cape Town City Lodge

We are totally disgusted with what happened to our booking yesterday. So made an online booking but did not select a date and were booked for the same day. We immediately phoned the Cape Town Lodge to tell them about the mistake and that we would like to change the date. We were referred to Agoda through whom we made the booking and immediately contacted them. We were told they need to send an email to which Cape Town Cuty Lodge must first reply that they are allowed to change the date. Please note we were not trying to cancel even though I have a screenshot stating that we have free cancellation up to 28 January 2024. We then phone Cape Town City Lodge again to ask if they received the email. We were told that we do not qualify for cancellation, and there is nothing we can do. If we do not book-in the same day we lose all the money we paid. This is just not acceptable and outright dishonest.