I've had similar experiences myself this past weekend. Ridiculous
hold times to get a clearance... finally took off in marginal VFR
and got the clearance at pattern altitude. On return I tried forever
to get through just to cancel IFR... finally gave up.

There should at least be a separate number to call for clearances
and for cancellations. Up until a few weeks ago we had an RCO to
flight service but that seems to be dead now. I use DUATS to
weather brief and file and that's always been great but at an
uncontrolled field you still need a way to get a clearance and
cancel when the weather is bad.

I guess they are going to tell us that if we want better service
we need to pay user fees. How aboutif all the other people that
receive government services (food stamps, welfare, SSI, housing,
fee medical care, etc. etc. start paying user fees?