I was contacted by a recruiter and attended conference. I answered questions in chat form. I was later contacted again and applied for jobs but did not hear back from them.

Brief call with recruiter to clarify location, job title, expected salary. Two days later a 1-hour interview with polite grilling. Standard process, nothing unusual. Offer received next business day. The result was an embarrassingly low salary offer (lower than my current salary) because the recruiter and/or manager failed to consider that they were interviewing me for a different job than the one applied for, and the cost of living is 80% higher for the offered job. This in spite of me explicitly stating that my expectation would depend a lot on the location, which should go without saying anyway. At the very least they could have looked up my current title and company to offer more than I currently make. I suspect incompetence on the part of the recruiter, but management should have caught the mistake. Note that cost of living is not a strong consideration for your offer. They indicated the same amount would be offered in a much cheaper location.