Musician Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages to his custom guitar caused by baggage handlers. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for YouTube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded, “Good luck with that one, pal.”
So Dave posted his video on YouTube. The video has since received over 12 million hits. United Airlines contacted Dave and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Dave's response, naturally, was, “Good luck with that one, pal.”
Taylor Guitars sent Dave 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has led to a sharp increase in orders.
Now enjoy Dave Carroll's creation.
It's not just United. I watched a USAir crew do the same thing with one at Philadelphia International. They threw it up, it bounced off the top of the luggage cart and hit the ground.
ReplyDeleteFortunately it wasn't mine or I'd be writing this from somewhat less pleasant surroundings. ;-)
I remember when his video we viral. I thought that was such a cool way for a little guy to get back at a big company.
ReplyDeleteI have been around the world with my baby (my Guild) and thank God nothing has ever happened to her.
I used to play guitar -- not very well, however. I was already good enough on the piano that going so far backward was too much. Plus, there was the issue of fingertip sensitivity. The guitar caused callouses, and those callouses interfered with my piano playing.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you this....If somebody broke my my treasured piano, I'd have a total meltdown. Scorched earth!
Good for him! I love it when the internet forces accountability!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE it!
ReplyDeleteIt's always a great treat to see a good guy win against the Bully Boys, especially when he's used his wits to do it without any help whatsoever from the biggest Bully Boy of them all -- our Big Brother in Washington, DC.
~ FreeThinke
I wonder if anyone has been keeping track of the changes that YouTube has brought about since their inception. Stories like this are frequent, people getting caught doing all sorts of things because of videos posted on YouTube. YouTube has become the watchdog of the world.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how long before our government tries to shut it down?
Isn't this internet stuff just great!! Good one.
ReplyDeleteThat's great that this guy had the platform to get his point across. He speaks for millions who do not have that ability.
ReplyDeleteUnited is a private company, but even they are too big to care about the impact of their incompetence or the indifference of their policies.
Imagine when your HEALTHCARE is in the hands of unfeeling bureaucratic bas#&$s who won't even care if you do a You Tube video about your mistreatment?
This is a fantastic way of getting the word out about United Airlines. The difference between government vs. corporate bureaucracy is that it is possible to get the attention of corporations through their bottom line. In government, there is no bottom line.
ReplyDeleteJustice via the internet! Isn't that great!
ReplyDeleteGreat. There is no replacing a guitar like that one, such a shame. Yet musicians have no choice, they must trust the airline and as we see, this hasn't worked out very well.
ReplyDeleteYouTube is a great place to get the word out when other options are not available. However, they have become very bad about leaving jihadi videos up while taking down others that are completely harmless.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepadcom
Debbie,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct about those jihadi videos, which YouTube ignores. I do wonder how many lives have been lost because of those videos.
Nice to hear the little guy getting a bit of justice every now and then.
ReplyDelete