VFS vis agency - devils or angels?

[HermesHermes]

Or mix of both? I am referring to the visa application agency that has contracts (in some cases, monopolies) with Embassies.

 

I find the bureaucracies of most governments to be daunting. I am even more suspicious of their helpers, because it might make it worse (slower, more expensive), not better.  It also bugs ne that I have to do civil servants' work for them - filling out forms, making photocopies, etc. I am paying them and I do all the time-consuming inconvenient tasks. There very existence strikes me as over-priced gatekeepers.

 

Anyway, what is your opinion of VFS?