FNB (DHA?) takes your money before giving a passport appointment...which you can't get anyway

I live in Zambia. I need a new passport for my son so we planned a trip to SA and tried to do the application. I signed up online and paid R400 to make application at a FNB. Except there were no available appointments until after we left SA three weeks later! The DHA office we visited was offline. The website says I have to book an appointment or show up at DHA within 60 days. We are in Zambia, we cannot do this. We will only be back in March. There was no mention made of the 60 days BEFORE I paid the R400, and no mention of the next available appointment being weeks away. How can you take the money before you've given an appointment? Maybe this is the kind of thing DHA does, but surely FNB cannot agree to be part of this?