ZAPS Marketing interview questions

Has this happened to anyone else? HR calls, you clearly state your salary expectations (e.g., 40k take-home), they agree. You ace the interviews, only to get lowballed during negotiation (e.g., 35k) or ghosted completely. Just went through this. After all that, I got a message saying my profile is 'on hold.' Why wait until now? Feels like a waste and a bait-and-switch. How do you deal with companies that pull these stunts? Any red flags to look out for during the initial HR call?