I did this a few years ago. I knew as soon as I walked out of the interview I didn’t want the job, it was literally just stripping cables building harnesses all day in a room in the back by myself. They also started at like 4 AM “to beat the traffic” and it was in a part of town that would be miserable to drive in the snow to. Lots of turns and bendy roads through the woods.

But for whatever reason they still offered me a higher pay rate than my job at the time which included control panel assembly, wiring, fabrication, testing, design work. I still acted interested and had them put the offer in writing and egged the dude on for like 3+ weeks as if I was interested.

Reason I did this was I knew I was quitting my job, and there was a different one I had interviewed at that paid better than both, has way more responsibilities and career opportunities, is way more interesting custom work where every day is something completely different. Also my old job knew I was quitting so it felt better to have something in my back pocket if they just told me to get fucked. But after my first interview the manager wanted me to come back for a second round to meet his boss and carve out my role in more depth.

Well they were both in the field so scheduling another interview took another few weeks. I felt a little bad for the wiring harness guy especially when I finally called him and told him I accepted my current job, he was like yeah I was holding off on making offers because I thought we were gonna hire you. He was a super nice guy

Oh well, life goes on, I’m sure they found someone. Companies do this kind of crap to people every day.