Company destroys instead of repairs Durham woman's computer

Campbell’s family gave her the computer for Christmas in 2010 so that she could Skype with her grandchildren. Two of them,  7-month-old Will and 3-year-old Mackenzie, live in Illinois. Campbell says Mackenzie really puts on a show when they chat online. "She reads books. She sings songs to us. She dances."

But all that stopped five months after Campbell got the computer. She says it stopped working. "We couldn't see the screen," said Campbell. "The screen was blank." Campbell could hear things, but couldn't see anything!

It was still under warranty, so she called HP, and the company agreed to fix it. Campbell just had to mail it in. She waited to do that because she was in the process of moving and didn't want to create confusion. She mailed it last October. When she hadn't heard anything by December, she followed up with a phone call. Campbell was shocked to learn what happened. "He was like, 'No, actually your computer has been destroyed,'" said Campbell.

HP says it fixed the computer, but since her current address didn't match the one in HP's records and they didn't have her new phone number, the computer company wasn't sure where to send it, so they destroyed the computer.

"This is ridiculous," said Campbell. "We had an address. We expected you to mail it back. You didn't. You didn't contact us."

Campbell said she made several calls about getting it replaced. She estimates she spent 30 hours on the phone with HP. She said the customer service representative told her, "Well, the higher-ups haven't decided" if it qualifies for a replacement. Campbell said she waited two weeks for word from the managers. When nothing happened, she called 5 On Your Side.

We contacted HP. "Then you guys called, and all of a sudden the higher-ups agreed to give us a computer," said Kay. The new computer arrived, and Kay is thrilled to be back online with her sweet little grandchildren.