It's quite serious. The monopoly telephone companies have been fairly used to and fairly comfortable with dealing with consumers with their terms of service. Now that deregulation is looming, I think there's a free-for-all out there, and I say that because of the consumer calls I get.
That instance I mentioned is a woman I'm representing. She ordered her Internet over the telephone, did not, subsequently, receive terms of service in the mail, and had no idea that there would be a penalty. And now she's fighting with them. Of course, they're threatening to shut off her local phone service because she doesn't want to pay the $120 penalty for cancelling the Internet. That's not the only instance I've heard of. It is happening.