I'm being massively messed around by with the PhD post I wanted. It's at a specialized institute (no prizes for guessing which one) and the funding for me to go there is actually being given by a rather unremarkable university that is about 100 miles away.

The unremarkable university has been absolubtely awful to work with so far. After getting my informal offer they decided i needed to do a masters with them first, in a subject that has no relationship to what I do or will do. Now they've given me the wonderful opportunity to go hassle my references, who are people I like and respect, in order to apply for the masters they are forcing me to do. Is this sort of thing common? Is it likely to continue?