Well, from this example, management side was unwilling to even invest time in exploring or acknowledging the idea that they might be wrong. I don't know about you but I don't want to work with people who you can't have a reasonable conversation with to get to the bottom of a problem and figure out the issues together. Everyone makes mistakes, sorting them out together and achieving mutual goals is what makes this sort of work bearable.
If management doesn't understand collaborative working environments, humility, and basic problem solving, I don't (and will not) work with them.
If you have ever been in a situation where things were done to a standard of excellence, this type of excuse is simply unacceptable. People who have first-hand experience with environments that pursue excellence in earnest have little patience for such nonsense.
Kind of like the movie line "Failure is not an option." The line involves a bit of creative license, but was based on the movie people interviewing someone from NASA.
Sounds like poor internal communication structure to me then.
If the recruiter is from a third party it's a bit more forgivable (though I have gripes about this approach in general). I'd contact the company directly if I was working through a third party that stonewalled me. It's usually pretty easy to find recruiters public facing profiles to figure out how closely (if at all) they're connected to a given business.
If management doesn't understand collaborative working environments, humility, and basic problem solving, I don't (and will not) work with them.