"My God They're Throwing Guitars Out There!!!"

This is everywhere today, but it's still great. Canadian, musician Dave Carroll, was sitting in an airplane at O'Hare when he heard those words from another passenger. But I don't need to tell the story, as the music video does it very effectively.


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

Apparently United now says they get it, and wants to use the video for in house training on how to handle a customer complaint. I'd say the price for that would be at least $1200, plus production costs. See Shiny Objects for more information and links to stories about the saga.

The actual guitar smashing happened in March 2008. Carroll admits he didn't file an official claim for the smashed guitar within United's 24-hour window, but he says he told three employees at O'Hare, who refused to help. There were no agents around when the flight landed in Nebraska at midnight, and he and his band, Sons of Maxwell, were tired and about to leave for a week-long tour.

After "United Breaks Guitars" hit the big time on YouTube this week, the Chicago-based carrier quickly responded, the Tribune reported. A managing director of customer service called Carroll and apologized, going so far as to ask if United could use the video internally to train its people.
All this is well and good, and maybe Carroll's video will actually help United deal more fairly with its customers when they have a legitimate complaint. But if it doesn't, where does that leave the rest of us? Posting YouTube videos every time a big company screws up? Hmmm.

I started writing this with Dave Carroll's website (http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/) open, but when I went to click a link it 403ed, and then after a few minutes started redirecting to his myspace page so I assume the singer's personal site has been overwhelmed. The band is Sons of Maxwell (http://www.sonsofmaxwell.com/), and that site is still up and you can buy their music there.

Thanks to Cockpit Conversation

http://airplanepilot.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-god-theyre-throwing-guitars-out.html