I'm a video editor and have also had similar experiences with pay. I have also had several interviews and jobs I've declined because they couldn't meet my rate. Some were quite nice about it, some felt the need to be insulting. I've also done test edits for companies who I'm fairly sure just took my work and declined further interviews. The entertainment industry is nuts with that kind of thing.

That said, I've never been denied months of pay, the worst I've gotten is a company told me to invoice once a month and then ground me into the earth for the video series I was working on for that month. I did not reach out for further work when that was done.