United Breaks Guitars

If you were a musician and you heard a women sitting behind you say, "They are throwing guitars down there!" I'd imagine those would be words from a musician’s nightmare. For Dave Carroll he just couldn't wake-up and realize it was just a dream, for Dave it was a reality. On his way to a performance in Nebraska the musician and his band witness baggage works for United Airlines throwing his $3,500 Taylor guitar.

After getting off the plane Carroll reported what he had witnessed to three customer service workers for United within the airport. However, none of them seemed too concerned with his concerns, simply dismissing his complaints and concerns. Upon landing at his destination Dave inspected his guitar and sure enough it was broken. The damages would cost Carroll $1,200 dollars to repair. United refused to cover the cost of the guitar and even refused to pay any of the cost to have the guitar repaired.

It took almost a year of Carroll calling and arguing with United customer service workers to pay for the damages done to his guitar, when he finally got a final verdict from United that they would not take responsibility for the damaged guitar and would not cover any of the cost of repairs made to the guitar. Upon receiving this information Carroll took matters into his own hands and told the United representative that he was going to write a song about his experience with United and that he would post it for the world to see. Undeterred by the threat of Carroll, United stood firm and unwilling to cover any of the cost of damage done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

This music video was what Carroll had created, and posted on YouTube. The video was posted and within days the video had been viewed over a million times. In just a few short days United contacted Carroll and offered to compensate him for the damages done. However, Carroll refused to take the offer from the corporation; he informed that that if they would like to donate the money to a charity that we would support them in their decision.

In just a few days millions of people were aware of what had happened between Carroll and United. It is believed that Carroll’s video caused the loss of $180 million for United. Something as simple as covering repair costs for a passenger whose belongings were damaged while flying with the corporation.

It is obvious that without a social media network, such as You Tube, very few people would have known about Dave Carroll and his damaged guitar. The event would more than likely have gone virtually unnoticed, in today’s world and society however news travels faster than it has ever before. Not only can information spread quickly, but it now can spread globally. United learned the hard way of the power that social media and networking has in this day and age. People are connected better now than ever before, opinions, experiences, ideas, and outrage can now be shared to people around the world in a matter of minutes.

United claimed to have liked the video, hard to believe but at the same time they did learn a lot about their baggage handlers as well as their customer services. I would hope that they will take the information and experience of Carroll and make changes and really focus on reforming customer services. Changes need to be made for United to recover from the bad press that they received from this experience of one of their customers.

It is unfortunate that the woman who was handling Carroll’s case has been perceived in the light that she has. Customer service is one of the hardest jobs to have within a company. I worked for Qwest in the billing department for 6 months; it was a rough six months. It is very difficult to help those who have been wronged by a company and even more difficult to correct problems that the customer has experienced. It still amazes me at how little customer service workers can do for those who call in to complain or seeking to resolve problems.

Bob Taylor’s thoughts and tips to traveling safely with guitars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n12WFZq2__0&feature=response_watch
Interview with Dave Carroll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ophSWaRSQ&NR=1