Shocked at level of service trying to book appointment for visa for Italy.

Words cannot describe how awful the service has been from VFS. We have been trying for days to make an appointment at Johannesburg branch for visa for Italy, but there are no slots available, yet their site says not to apply until a month before travel. The first slot available is for my date of travel (15June) We have emailed various addresses provided, spoken to a very unhelpful call centre, (when we can get through). I have emailed Marisa Bonanno at VFS that the Italian embassy gave me the address for ( no response). Please help us resolve this.