Well, I doubt if it's much consolation, but the US Embassy in London isn't very much different. Another phone line that costs a fortune per minute. You can't even get to the Embassy to speak to anyone without an appointement, the police stop you before you get that far. I can't remember how much the fee is, £35 sounds vaguely familiar. A wait of several hours for the "interview", which lasted considerably less than 60 seconds in my case. The one thing I can say, though, is that my passport was returned to me, with the Visa, very promptly - and that if you follow all of the instructions absolutely to the letter, everything is pretty smooth albeit not efficient.
However, here's the way I see it: if you want to come into my house, you have to follow my rules. I might decide not to allow smoking in my house, or I might ask you to remove your shoes at the front door, or not to eat meat in the house. If you don't like my rules, that's fine - you just don't get to come into my house. I view it a bit like that. America has created a set of rules, and if I want to enter the country I have to follow them. I'm not forced to the follow the rules, it's entirely my choice, but if I choose not to follow them then I can't argue when they decide not to let me in. There is nothing anywhere that says that it has to be easy or fair.
Glad you seem to have got it all sorted, anyway.
FFF
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