Consulting client is so confusing I think I’m going to drop them

Client keeps changing dates and terms

SÚPER CONFUSED

So I’m not sure if I’m being hyper sensitive because I am new to freelance consulting But I have been in talks with a client for the last few weeks. During our initial conversation they wanted to contract a few hours in August with increasing hours in September pending on a project. I agreed and sent my rates the next day after discussing more things.

One thing that threw me off was that they requested a customer service rate after our initial conversation, which was not something that we discussed. I asked for more detail and they were very vague. I was going to send my contract when their tune suddenly changed and they didn’t want me to send the contract. I was confused so I asked for clarity they basically said they would let me know when they needed my services for the September project. I was so confused so I asked for more detail. The gist was I’ll contact you when I need your services I’m busy bye. I was like okay ??? What??? But I decided to gloss over that and confirm our phone call for the next week which they said no it’s not happening I’m busy bye. I was like huhhh.

Suddenly I am out to dinner and I receive a call asking for rates for a specific kind of project, we clarified a little and said that we would talk more during the week. I messaged to confirm when they wanted to talk, and basically got a no we’re not gonna talk this week I’m busy bye. Like what?? They then message me the next day asking for some help on something( for free btw) this seemed likes relatively small favor so I agreed. I messaged with an update 2 days later and got a message telling me not to worry about it. I asked for again more clarify and they said they “were no longer interested”.

I am so confused at this behavior I understand not being interested in contracting with me and that’s fine, but this pattern is so strange I truly don’t know what they hope to accomplish with this.