When it comes to Christmas shopping for her four children, Christine Fucile goes in with a game plan.
"Well, we always try every Christmas to get one big thing for each of the kids," she said.
The big gift for her teenage daughter this past Christmas was an iPhone.
"Not being able to afford the newest iPhone," she explained, "I went and tried to get a refurbished iPhone which we’ve done in the past and never had a problem with."
She bought the iPhone through Boost Mobile’s website in November, placed it under the tree and waited for her daughter to open it Christmas morning.
"She was very excited, obviously," Christine recalls.
But that excitement quickly faded.
"She plugged it in and there was nothing. Nothing came up.”
Christine says she and her daughter were disappointed.
“Battery? Nothing… just blank. We tried a different charger. We tried a different outlet. Still nothing…"
Boost Mobile informed her of their 14-day return policy and said there was nothing they could do.
"My daughter kept saying, ‘am I going to get my phone?’ and it just… it was heartbreaking," said Christine.
When she took the phone to a store that services iPhones to be checked out, she got even more bad news.
The technician told her that a strip had been placed over the positive water damage indicator to make it look like everything was okay.
"They said it’s unfixable," said Christine. "I guess a water damaged phone is just unfixable."
She then went back to Boost Mobile, but got the same response.
"It was like hitting a brick wall every time I talked to somebody," Christine said.
Then she remembered Solve It 7.
"I’ve seen a couple episodes that you guys help people out, so I said, ‘let me give this a try and see if this is really for real.’"
And it was.
We reached out to Sprint, which owns Boost Mobile, and explained the situation.
A day later, Christine received a phone call from Sprint.
The representative told her that she could get a new cell phone for her daughter.
"First thing I said was, ‘Thank God I called Solve It 7.’"
Boost Mobile provided us with this statement:
"Our customers are our number one priority and we always do whatever we can do to help them resolve any issues they may have.
We are so happy we were able to resolve the customer’s concerns to her satisfaction.
We appreciate WHDH-TV bringing this matter to our attention."
"You guys are wonderful," Christine said, smiling. "I can’t believe you did it."
Fortunately, we were able to dial up a solution in this case, and maybe we can do the same for you.
If you have a problem, we want to hear about it.
Call us at 617-367-7777 or send us an email to SolveIt7@WHDH.com
(Copyright (c) 2016 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)