Underdogs are often in the best position to do things right.

That’s what I’ve been seeing at Spring Nextel, the beleaguered wireless player in a space dominated by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Despite having retail stores that resemble 1970s-era bus depots, iffy network coverage in rural areas and a lack of sexy gadgets like the iPhone, Sprint Nextel is getting a few things right:

• Pre-paid businesses that operate on the Sprint network, like Boost and Virgin, are going strong

• Adoption of Google Android-ready devices offer a welcome alternative to those who have not pledged their lives to RIM or Apple

• Customers actually have a voice thanks to Sprint’s commitment to social platforms

Led by Dan Hesse — a CEO known for accessibility to employees and partners, and for starring in the brand’s TV spots — Sprint has attracted a large Facebook following of 165,000+ fans, with whom the company engages using tools like a vanity video upload tool. Fan posts and comments are plentiful, and Sprint quickly enters the dialog to when queries are lobbed in its direction.

The latest social media extension for Sprint is the creation of a Twitter feed — @sprintcare — that acts as a giant fire extinguisher for smoldering service issues.  Richard Pesce, who manages social media and digital communications, for Sprint Nextel, chatted with me at a recent BDI event about how the company is successfully using Twitter.

Along with brands like @jetBlue, @southwestair, @comcastcares and @americanexpress, Sprint has made it convenient for customers who would prefer to be a VIP in social media rather than calller number 652,985 in a queue at a generic call center.  Social customer relationship management is in its infancy, but efforts like these are important first steps.

A billing mistake resulted in Josh Muszynski’s debit card being charged more than 23 quadrillion dollars for the pack of cigarettes he bought at a Manchester, NH, gas station.  The error was compounded by a $15 penalty for overdrawing his account.

Even though the episode played out in the media — including local broadcast and print outlets and an AP story — it did not snowball into a reputational disaster for Muszynski’s debit card issuer, Bank of America, or Visa.

Why?  Because the mistakes were quickly fixed and apologies appeased the aggrieved customer.

With so many instances of consumer wrongs not being righted quickly enough — inspiring wonderful music like “United Breaks Guitars” — I am happy that things do get handled correctly and compassionately on occasion.

AT&T gets kudos from me for issuing a credit of almost $900 for data roaming charges on the new iPhone I was using on trips to the UK and Canada last month.  I fully expected phone calls to cost a pretty penny outside the United States but wrongly assumed I’d only get dinged when I hogged lots of bandwidth, like watching videos, which I didn’t do.

Sadly, I hadn’t told my iPhone not to retrieve mail every three minutes.  Nor had I realized early enough that Twitter and Facebook updates and Web usage would fall outside my all-you-can-eat domestic plan.  It wasn’t until the SMS alert popped up that I realized an international data plan would be needed to keep me from racking up massive fees. AT&T kindly offered me a free call to a U.S. phone number to speak with a customer service agent, but the projected hold time of 20 minutes meant my battery would run out before I could see how much I had spent.

Back in New York, my call to AT&T yielded good results.  The rep understood that my 48,000 kilobites of data usage would have cost me nothing if it had occurred in the United States, and that a plan costing less than $60 could have saved me from the $900+ gouge — if I had been counseled prior to my trip.  He recommended a credit be issued.  His supervisor agreed.  Two days late, I received an SMS and phone call saying my credit had been issued.

AT&T has taken plenty of flack for network performance and customer service.  In this case,  they did everything I asked, without argument.

Now, the company needs to start using Twitter as a conversational  tool rather than simply as a way to announce information. AT&T clearly has employees, policies and a culture designed around customer satisfaction.  Using Twitter to build community around the AT&T brand would make the organization’s  hard work visible to all.