I had a $200 dispute with Verizon. They turned it over to a credit agency. The credit agency called, and said"pay the $200 or we'll ruin your credit"

At least in the state of maryland, there are essentially no regulations governing telephone companies, and no enforcement.

When we got our ATT(now cingular) we were apparently load up with promo freebees, none of which we knew we had, or used. They expired after 90 days, and ran for 6 months before I noticed them(looking at another problem). The total of these extras was about $40 a month for the two phones.