Passport renewal disaster at VFS NY

I’m hoping someone here has dealt with something similar because I’m honestly at a loss.

I submitted my Indian passport renewal through VFS NY and did not realize the ridiculous picture + signature requirement on the application form itself. On the portal, both my photo and signature were showing as “accepted”, but they were not actually appearing on the application PDF. I only discovered this after receiving a request for correction.

I eventually managed to get the photo to show up, but the signature kept failing. Even though every upload met the guidelines and the portal kept showing “accepted”, it never appeared on the form. I didn't know that there is a 12-attempt limit. I only found out after I hit the max.

At that point I tried walking into VFS NY, but they don’t take walk-ins, so I booked an appointment and went in person. The VFS agents told me they can override the signature requirement on their end and that my application would be processed normally. After I left, the tracking changed to “processing”, so I thought it was fine.

Nothing happened for 15 days. I called the VFS helpline and they told me the file had already been processed and sent to the Indian Embassy. So today I physically went to the Embassy, sat there for two hours, and someone finally got through to VFS only to be told that the signature issue is preventing processing and that they can’t move forward.

So I'm stuck. I paid for Tatkal because I have a booked flight, but it looks like that’s gone. I don’t know if I should. Go back to VFS and try again or Submit an entirely new passport application from scratch because they still have my passport and all my documents.

I booked another in-person VFS appointment next week, but I have no idea what the correct path is anymore.

Has anyone been through this? What actually works at this point? I’m trying not to lose my mind dealing with the VFS-Embassy back-and-forth.

Any advice is appreciated.