By Anita Campbell
Professional musician Dave Carroll spent nine months trying to get compensation from United Airlines to fix his $3,500 Taylor guitar after it was damaged by baggage handlers at O’Hare Airport. After getting the final “no” from United, he composed a 4-minute video called “United Breaks Guitars.”
He posted the video on YouTube. As of this writing it has had over 2.2 million views — and climbing. That’s in just 4 days’ time.
On his website Carroll describes what happened with his guitar in detail. Here’s the short summary in his own words:
“In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.”
Even consumers who don’t fly much or have a guitar identify with his plight. The lyrics of the country song capture the level of frustration that many customers feel when their complaint lands on deaf ears: (more)
Sunday, July 12, 2009
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