Most domestic fridge freezers the thermosat only controlls the fridge temp as freezer is secondary cooling. sounds to me that the stat may be turned up to high. i would normally set it to 2 or 3 on the dial.
My sound a bit daft but if you have no over night storage for yor frozen food i would steal the wifes hair dryer and set about it should only take about 30 mins as this i what i use when defrosting fridges or freezers.Please aviod the temptation to chip it whith a knife as you will only end up bursting the evaperator and costing yourself a new freezer.