The biggest *****s and *****s in the industry

Is there any chance of a minus star? We've app**** for Shengan Visas and were told it take 15 days. Needless to say, we still have not received our Visas or any feedback from VFS Global. Why do you have to book your airplane, accommodation and health insurance and then you're still not sure you might be able to go!!! We had to postpone our flights and it cost us R 10k. Now we need to cancel everything and how much money will we lose now? Is there any other company that can provide Visas or do these VFS *****s get to keep the monopoly, keep our passports and ***** our money?