Price of a visa, I understand, is usually set by reciprocity, with quite a few exceptions that are beneficial to US citizens by the way.
That said, the behavior of the officials providing consular "service" is usually consistently rude and unsympathetic (far beyond enforcing requirements).

Case in point is my recent experience with the Consulate of Ghana in NYC. I applied for a tourist visa in early November. I did not provide hotel information, explaining that I would enter overland from a neighboring country, within a set period (providing copies of my confirmed and purchased air ticket for round trip flights to the neighboring country and 5 yr multiple entry visa for that country). My passport was returned without the visa and I ended up wasting the significant return courier charges.

I then setup reservations (that I could cancel anytime) for all dates within the travel time frame. The consulate required confirmation on letterhead of hotel, with the physical signature of the director of the hotel, and his/her passport or driving license copy sent as scanned attachments. Before I wasted another set of courier charges I emailed the information to the consulate and asked if it was sufficient. No reply.... I called and kept detailed messages asking for someone to return my call... no reply for a week.

Eventually on the eigth business day after my initial call, someone returned my call and said they have no record of my email... so I had to fax again. Then after two days, and calling the number registered on my cell phone, I managed to catch the person and she said it "appears to be OK."

So on that day, Oct 25th I immediately resent the documents and my passport. As luck would have it, Andy happened. My package was not delivered until Nov 1. I needed my passport for overseas travel (to Europe) for Nov. 8. With 3 business days required, I was still OK. It could be mailed back on the 6th and I would get it on the 7th, I figured.

In any case, I was trying to get reassurance that it would be mailed on the 6th. So I asked a friend to go to the consulate and check. The consulate informed that they had decided to do it only on the 8th at 2pm (not even morning) which made it impossible for me to make the flight leaving from JFK. My friend showed the staff my confirmed itinerary for the 8th, but was told "2pm, 8th!"

I then rebooked my travel for the 9th, paying a cancellation penalty and also for a higher class on the 9th, and asked my friend to go pick-up my passport in person on the 8th, and also get the unused pre-paid (stamped) express-mail envelop that would not be used.

The person at the counter refused to return the envelop, and when my friend asked a second time, the response was: do you want the passport or not? My friend returned with the passport and without the stamped envelop!!

I wish I could say that this was a one-off situation, but the rudeness is really common at all consular offices (the US included). But this is the first time there was this blatant confiscation of unused prepaid postage (to be re-used by simply pasting another form on the packet) that I have come across in dealing with a consular office.

Good job, Ghana Consulate at the UN, New York City!