Marked as 'fired' for a job he was never offered

A job seeker completed three interview rounds with a company, received positive signals, then heard nothing. Weeks later, checking the company's application portal, he found his status updated to "Not Retained" — human-resources terminology for terminated. For a position he was never offered. The role was subsequently reposted with a lower salary. The post on r/recruitinghell drew hundreds of comments, many from candidates who had discovered similar phantom statuses in applicant tracking systems: hired-without-hired, rejected-without-rejection, and in this case, fired without ever being employed.