It's odd, I have no doubt that you have had these issues, I was talking to a guy who worked for the same company as me, with the same client, just the other day. His entire team where just told they were being made redundant and the company who would be doing the work would be interviewing them all. The new company told everyone to send them either their current pay slip (with all benefits etc) OR their current pay rate (its just a different document with less detail) + the salary they would accept in the new company. So I know that this sort of thing happens and no one was that shocked.

But I've never encountered the issue, I would be interested to see an analysis of what sort of jobs people who deal with dodgy HR reps are applying for (or what route to entry they are taken) vs the jobs people with positive experiences of the hiring process are going for.

I feel like it can't only be luck, presumably there would be some trends (ie. people who respond to advertisements are offered X% against people who are recommended through word of mouth for the same job)