SMASHED GUITAR, YOUTUBE SONG - UNITED IS LISTENING NOW
By Christopher Reynolds
Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2009
Original LinkHere, without rhythm, harmony or rhyme, is Dave Carroll’s problem: Last year, while he was flying from Nova Scotia to Nebraska on United Airlines, somebody broke his $3,500 guitar.
Big deal, you’re thinking. Who has time to keep track of all the things United breaks? (See bottom of story for some statistics, which suggest that several other airlines are worse.)
But Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, have told their tale with rhythm, harmony, rhyme, not to mention some wicked humor, and their four-minute, 37-second complaint, “United Breaks Guitars,” above, is racking up views on YouTube:
Before we tell you what United has to say about all this, here’s a quick version of Carroll’s saga, as distilled from
his website. (Messages to Carroll’s home phone and e-mail address went unanswered Tuesday night.):
In spring 2008, Carroll and company headed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Omaha, by way of (shudder now, frequent fliers) Chicago. Just after landing at O’Hare airport, says Carroll, one of his bandmates and another passenger looked out their windows and saw baggage handlers heaving around guitars with wanton disregard.
Carroll says he complained immediately to three flight attendants, but was met with indifference. Some time after arrival in Nebraska, Carroll says, he discovered that, sure enough, the base of his 710 Taylor acoustic guitar had been smashed.
But he had gigs to play, so he found a way to do that. As Carroll acknowledges, he didn’t attempt to complain again until beginning his return flight a week later.
Over the following days, weeks and months, Carroll made many phone calls to United representatives in Chicago and (who didn’t see this coming?) India, but basically he says United did nothing for him.
Meanwhile, Carroll spent $1,200 getting the guitar repaired “to a state that it plays well but has lost much of what made it special.”
The capping blow, Carroll says, was an e-mail from a Ms. Irlweg, who denied his claim for compensation because he didn’t complain in the right place, or at the right time. The airline wouldn’t even give him $1,200 in travel vouchers, Carroll contends.
So he vowed a sort of musical revenge -- not one protest song, not two, but three, with a video for each, all to be posted on the Web. Carroll says he told Ms. Irlweg all about it, but got the usual response.
The video was posted on July 6. In its first 23 hours, “United Breaks Guitars” had drawn 461 comments on YouTube, most of them maligning the airline, and one of them hearkening back to Tom Paxton and his tune of aerial guitar trouble, “Thank you, Republic Airlines.” (The viewer counter appeared to be stuck at 3,441, but the video quickly went viral, with the Consumerist showing more than 24,000 views by Tuesday night.)
Among the comments: “Revenge is a dish best served with country accompaniment.”
So what does United have to say about the song?
“This has struck a chord with us, and we’ve contacted him directly to make it right,” said Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United. (Urbanski also said she “loved” the video.)
Urbanski said a phone meeting had been scheduled for Wednesday, and that before the airline decides exactly what to do for Carroll, “we need to have that conversation with him directly.”
Meanwhile, Carroll’s website says he’s written and recorded the second song, with video to follow soon. And he has all sorts of other plans for a third song, and various tactics to achieve a million Web hits, which he believes will give some sense of revenge.
In fact, he writes, “I should thank United…. If my guitar had to be smashed due to extreme negligence I’m glad it was you that did it.”
By the way: In the U.S. Department of Transportation’s tally of lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered baggage in April 2009, United ranked 10th among 19 carriers, with 13,517 “baggage reports” among 4.03 million passengers.
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GUITARIST AND UNITED DICKERING, VIDEO VIEWERS SNICKERING
By Christopher Reynolds
Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2009
Original LinkThis just in on the case of United Airlines, a busted guitar and a wicked YouTube song: While Dave Carroll, aggrieved customer and wicked songwriter, was playing a gig Tuesday night in Picou, Nova Scotia, his July 6 video, “United Breaks Guitars,” was passing 100,000 views and United airlines was laying plans to make nice. But there’s no happy ending just yet.
“They have made contact with him,” said Carroll’s wife, Jill, on Wednesday morning. “We’re expecting to receive further details by the end of business today.” By 11 a.m. Pacific time, the video had racked up more than 137,000 YouTube views and prompted 1,265 comments, few of which are likely to end up in the airline’s next report to stockholders.
Dave Carroll, buried in interview requests, was unavailable, but Jill Carroll described the conversation with United as “amicable” yet inconclusive. As for the public response to her husband’s video, “we’re speechless.”
Carroll posted his video -- which features a country-western arrangement, layered harmonies and, for unclear reasons, three sombreros -- after he couldn’t get United to take responsibility for damage to his guitar allegedly inflicted during a flight last year. After months of getting nowhere in efforts to get compensated, Carroll crafted a retribution campaign featuring a sequential release of three songs.
Beyond the first song, which went up on the Web on July 6, Carroll has written and recorded a second song, but hasn’t made a video yet. As for the third song, Jill Carroll quoted her husband:
“They have a golden opportunity to influence the outcome.”
On Tuesday night, United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski declared that “this has struck a chord with us, and we’ve contacted him directly to make it right.”
[Updated, at 1 p.m. July 8: On Wednesday, Urbanski added that "his video is excellent, and we plan to use it internally as a unique learning and training opportunity to ensure that all our customers receive better service....This should have been fixed much sooner."]