Making visa appointment via premium rate visa call centre - Dublin

[loughrey101 13]

Hi, I'm wondering what the story is with making an appointment for the interview at the Dublin embassy? On their website it gives a number to book an interview appointment that charges 2.44 euros a minute or 16 euros lump sum to get through to a real person and schedule your appointment. It says that this is the fastest route to getting an appointment date. The call operators seem to be based in Germany. 16 euros seems like a very expensive way to make an appointment or request information about the visa application. My question is, is this the only route to making an appointment or does the embassy automatically send you an appointment after you send them the Application of Readiness? Is this really a faster route to getting an interview and avoiding the often 3+ week wait? Also, when might they be able to book me an appointment after my Application of Readiness with the relevant forms is sent to them? I don't want to call them and spend 16 bucks only to be told they can't help me because my forms etc. haven't yet been filed. I don't think the embassy will allow you to call them directly in relation to your visa and they certainly never reply to my emails.Thanks guys!

For reference the relevant webpage is:

http://dublin.usembassy.gov/vis.html