Crafter's Choice Book Club Crafter's Choice No response from customer service and got sent to collection Internet

I don't want this to be too long so I will spare you the bloody details, but I wanted people to know what a rip-off this is.  I don't want anyone else to get sucked in!

I joined Crafter's Choice Book Club (Doubleday is the parent company) about 5 years ago.  Things were fine as long as I kept my membership.  However, the minute that I canceled my membership, they started sending me a bill for books that I had didn't have (I had sent them back my last month on my membership).  I had sent books back before that I didn't wish to keep and had never had an issue.

In what I believe to be retaliation for quitting, they began hounding me relentlessly with invoices. When I tried to contact them, I got no response either via email or snail mail.  I found a phone number that ended up in an endless series of menus that never got me to a real person and finally cut me off.  So, without any luck, I decided that they could just eat it.

Then, came the letters from the collection agencies.  Again, I had no response from the collection agency even after disputing the charges in question.  The next communication I got was from a different collection agency.  Again, I tried and tried to contact them with no luck.

Then, this morning, I received a phone call from yet another collection agency who wanted me to just pay the charges.  When I disputed that I owed the money, they wouldn't give me any way to contact Crafter's Choice stating that because it was now in collections that I could not have any contact with them. She told me that they would ruin my credit and the only way to make this go away was to pay it.  So, very reluctantly, I did pay it.  I didn't figure that $40 was worth ruined credit in this day and age.

I am sad that it had to come to this, but I didn't think it was worth it to hire a lawyer and fight them over $40.  What else can a person do?  I decided that the best thing I could do was to warn others of these parasites.  Imagine if they collect $40 here and $40 there without having to deliver product?  They don't even have to provide customer service either.  Great scam, right?  I wish making money was that easy for me, but I choose to work for what I get and make an honest living.