By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Board

Boiled down, I'm a happy Sprint customer, the kind that Sprint/Nextel CEO Dan Hesse says he desperately needs to keep the company alive. But I could have jumped off the bandwagon several times.

I bought Sprint phones and service for my family of four in November of 2005. The bills were wrong for at least the first three months; each time I had to call and correct something on the bills.

My family complained sporadically about dropped calls but, to be honest, I lost fewer than a half-dozen calls in the first 2 years of owning a basic model.

We re-upped in November of 2007, got the 4 new phones for the low, advertised price and -- at that session -- got great customer service.

The salesman at the Noland Road Sprint store (since closed for budget-cutting reasons) asked whether I was getting any discount on my monthly bill. I wasn't. Turned out I was eligible for a 21 percent discount, which he turned in and which quickly showed up on my bill.

A few months later, I had to replace the battery for my son's phone. After wondering for days what kind of hassle this would be, I walked into the new Sprint store in the Power & Light District and -- in fewer than 2 minutes -- was out of the store with the battery at no charge.

Again, that's customer service.

To be fair, I don't know whether Verizon or the other cell-phone companies are light-years ahead of Sprint in customer relations.

And it did take three months for Sprint to get the correct charge for the new text messaging service on my bill in early 2008.

Still, I'm sticking with the hometown company. I just wonder whether enough Americans will make the same choice.