Customer Service Hangs Up

If you want to get out of your cellphone contract, try calling the company a few hundred times.

Sprint Nextel is disconnecting service to about 1,000 subscribers who call customer service excessively, company spokeswoman Roni Singleton said. The terminated contracts represent a tiny fraction of Sprint's 53 million subscribers, and it's the first time the Reston company has used the measure.

The terminated subscribers called customer service an average of 25 times a month over the past six to 12 months, mostly complaining about billing or technical problems that Sprint was unable to resolve. Some called as many as 300 times a month, Singleton said. Customers did not have to pay a termination fee, and they were given until the end of July to find a new carrier.

"The bottom line is that we were not able to resolve their issues," Singleton said. "We wanted to allow them to find another option that would make them happier."

-- Kim Hart