I've always done it myself. I guess my time isn't worth much :-) I've done it in Boston and once I thought I was going to have to drive to Dallas to do it since we don't have an office nearby but I found DS"s passport
I can't see the original post but many (maybe all? I don't know) of those require that you are traveling in the next 2 weeks and have proof of travel to get an appointment.
Looks like the OP deleted. Apparently her H let his passport expire back in January and they are scheduled to travel out of the country this weekend.
Thanks all for the replies! We did get an appointment and got the passport, thankfully! You just have to go around the automated system and get a real person to take pity on you