I had the complete opposite thing happen. There is a dude I went to school with, I know him personally. We are connections on linkedin. He started a company a few years back. I get an email from a recruiter telling me the founders at Company X (his company) felt that I would be a good fit for their team. I am convinced that she just searched for some skill sets and made this form letter up just to make it sound fancy.
I've frequently had headhunters try to introduce me to people that I already know. It goes with the territory - at least it tells me they're on the right track. :-)
Ha. I've had recruiters try to set me up with companies that I've already interviewed with, and once I had a recruiter try and set me up with a company I'd already received an offer from (but declined for various reasons). It's not really their fault, though. They can't know the details of my personal network and history. Still, it makes for funny stories...
It's totally company's fault in that case, although not the recruiter's. If you get contacted by a company who previously gave you an offer, that means the company isn't investing their recruiting function by taking the simple step of buying a decent applicant tracking system. There's poor communication between the executives and the people they hire or contract, and they have zero HR.
Not the OP, but I got contacted on LinkedIn by a recruiter who appeared to completely miss my LinkedIn connection to the CEO of the company he was recruiting me for. That seemed like completely his fault.
I had the complete opposite thing happen. There is a dude I went to school with, I know him personally. We are connections on linkedin. He started a company a few years back. I get an email from a recruiter telling me the founders at Company X (his company) felt that I would be a good fit for their team. I am convinced that she just searched for some skill sets and made this form letter up just to make it sound fancy.