Autozone

Who knows, who cares.........the whole event paints quite a picture of just who/what Autozone is, behind their facade!
It just blows my mind to be terminated before my first scheduled day of work because some district manager allegedly could not reach me by phone, yet she left no message on my answering machine; I check it often by the way if I've been out working in the yard, in the garage......my opinion is they never called, just made up horse ****!
IMHO, it seems that "I tried to call you" is the favorite excuse of people in HR. I've seen it myself quite a few times, and had it happen to me. It is the excuse to either get out of work or not deal with something.

In your case, whoever is now running the store decided that they either had someone else they wanted OR just decided you were too old for the job. They may also be pushing back on corporate that they want to interview and approve new hires. In any case, HR doesn't want to pass on the news AND suddenly be in the crosshairs for an age discrimination law suit. They want to say "we tried, but".