This is one where I would love to name names because I still get Pished when I think about it. A few years out of college, I was ready to leave the little 20K paper at which I had worked for a year (with low pay, long hours, no overtime, etc.). Simultaneously, a similar position at my hometown, slightly larger paper came open. I had done good work and had always really wanted to work for the hometown paper for a number of reasons, including that it also would have been a step up for my career.
I breezed through the process, and my phone interview with the SE went really well, to the point that he unofficially told me I had the job. We even decided on pay. We set a date for an in-person interview in the office the next week (as a formality, I was told), but on the day of the interview, literally as I was about to walk out the door, the SE calls me and says don't bother. They just decided to go with someone else, so "yeah, don't worry about coming in." I had the sense they found someone who would take $18K/year.
It worked out though, because I ended up landing a much better position at a much larger paper in the same chain as his. So I was like, 'Yeah, suck it.'